A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum) v.

Air on G String
(Bach)

Submitted by:
Ashriza Noor Hikmah Susyanto
G. A. A. Putri Erasonya
Gita Armarosa Putri Sembiring
Lila Putri Azalia
Maharanny Hadrianto
Royhan Akbar
Santosa Shanty

A Whiter Shade of Pale v. Air on G String

1. A Whiter Shade of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British
rock band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single
reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967,
and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it
reached No. 5 on the US charts, as well. One of the anthems
of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of fewer than 30
singles to have sold 10 million (or more) copies worldwide.
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" reached No. 1 in several countries
when released in 1967. In the years since, it has become an
enduring classic. It was the most played song in the last 75
years in public places in the UK (as of 2009), and the United
Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance
Limited in 2004 recognised it as the most-played record by
British broadcasting of the past 70 years. Also in 2004,
Rolling Stone placed "A Whiter Shade of Pale" No. 57 on its
list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
2. Air on G-String
The "Air on the G String" is an adaptation by August Wilhelmj
of the Air, the second movement from Johann Sebastian
Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068. The
original orchestral suite was written by Bach for his patron
Prince Leopold of Anhalt some time between the years 1717
and 1723.
The title comes from violinist August Wilhelmj's late 19th
century arrangement of the piece for violin and piano. By
transposing the key of the piece from its original D major to C
major and transposing the melody down an octave, Wilhelmj
was able to play the piece on only one string of his violin, the
G string.
Later, a spurious story was put about that the melody was
always intended to be played on the G string alone. The Air
on the G String was the very first work by Bach to be
recorded. This was by the Russian cellist Aleksandr
Verzhbilovich and an unknown pianist, in 1902 (as the Air
from the Overture No. 3 in D major, BWV 1068).

3. Composition of A Whiter Shade of Pale v. Air on G

String
The song is in moderate time in C major, and is characterized
by the bassline moving stepwise downwards in a repeated
pattern throughout. In classical music this is known as a
ground bass. The harmonic structure is identical for the
organ melody, the verse and the chorus, except that the
chorus finishes with a cadence. The main organ melody
appears at the beginning and after each verse/chorus. But it
is also heard throughout, playing variations of its theme and
counterpointing the vocal line. The vocal and organ
accompaniment reach a crescendo at the beginning of the
chorus "And so it was, and later..."; where the organist
rapidly runs his finger down and up the entire keyboard. The
final instrumental fades out to silence - a common device in
pop music of the time.
The Hammond organ line of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" came
from Johann Sebastian Bach's "Sleepers, Wake!" and "Air on
the G String" - both of which use a similar stepwise bass
motion. The similarity is referred to in the 1982 play The Real
Thing by Tom Stoppard and 1991 film The Commitments. A
yet closer melodic influence that is seldom cited can arguably
be found in the organ choral prelude "O Mensch bewein dein'
Snde gro" (O Man, Lament Your Sin So Great), BWV 622,
from Bach's Orgelbchlein (Little Organ Book). The music
also borrows ideas from "When a Man Loves a Woman" by
Percy Sledge.

4.
Does Procol Harum can be sued for copyrights
infringement?
Pursuant to several precedents, there are several criteria in
determining the existence of copyrights infringements. The
first one would be from the case of Robert Marcucci, Peter De
Angelis & Frankie Avalon v. Mabel Wayne & Sam Lewis
(1959), that stated:
Similarity in 8 bars shall be considered as copyrights
infringements
As previously mentioned, the organ line of A Whiter Shades
of Pale was similar to the organ line used in Air on the G

String because both songs use a similar bass motion.

Although Students cannot measure the exact number of bars
that is similar between both songs, yet it is apparent that the
organ line in the beginning of A Whiter Shades of Pale in
the duration of around 20-25 seconds is similar to the
beginning of Air on the G String. At the sight of common
people like Students, this issue may be considered as a
copyright infringement.
Furthermore, pursuant to the case of Francis, Day & Hunter
v. Bron that was settled in British Court, there are 2 criteria
in determining whether any copyright infringement has taken
place or not, those are:
a. Objective and substantial similarity on both creations
Substantial similarity, according to Robert C. Osterberg in
his writing Substantial Similarity in Copyright Law may be
found through an examination of any large array of elements
including melody, harmony, rhythm, pitch, tempo, phrasing,
timbre, tone, spatial organization, consonance, accents,
baselines, technological sounds, overall structure. However,
he also mentioned that substantiality would also refers to,
the most important part of the song known by the people.
b. Causality on both creations (access factor)
In the perspective of Students, the aspect of substantiality in
the issue of Procol Harum v. Bach has been fulfilled as the
composition of the songs intro is very close to Bachs
composition. In fact, the intro of the song instantly reminded
Students to the composition of Air in G String. Furthermore,
even Martin Strong in his book, The Great Rock
Discography mentioned that Procol Harum with its structure
reminiscent of Baroque music, a countermelody based on
Bachs touch in the organ, compiled with soulful vocal and
mysterious lyrics are the factors that made it through the No.
1 on many countries music chart.
The circumstance where modern song has actually inserted
some parts of classical music in its arrangement, such as the
very famous song of Eric Carmen titled All by Myself that is
similar to the Racmaninoffs Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor
or even Lady Gagas very popular song, Alejandro, that then
claimed to have substantial similarity to Csardas that was
written by Vittorio Monti on 1904. This situation simulates

the existence of access factor because it is common for a

musician to be inspired by other former musician, especially
to the well-known one that has everlasting works such as
Sebastian Bach. Although Air in G String was firstly published
on 1700-ish, yet the song was introduced across the
generations. It is not impossible that Broker/Reid/Fisher, the
authors of the song, were somehow inspired by Air in G
String.
This issue leads the discussion to the matter of cryptomnesia.
Cyrptomnesia is a related implicit memory phenomenon in
which people wrongly claim that current thought and ideas
are a product of their own generation when, in fact, these
ideas had been encountered by hem sometime earlier and
then forgotten. Cryptomnesia may occur when musicians
compose a melody, engineers solve a problem, poets write a
sonnet, or academics develop a research idea under the
belied that the product is original and stems from their own
creativity but in actuality, it can be documented that they had
seen or heard the idea at some earlier point in time. When
such ideas are published or used in scholarly work, the
phenomenon
constitutes
inadvertent
or
unconscious
plagiarism. This matter has been confirmed by years of
psychiatrist research. Even numbers of well-known writers
had tangled into this issue, such as Friedriech Nietszche and
Helen Keller.
As it has emphasized previously, the matter of cryptomnesia
my lead into unconscious plagiarism, if later on it can be
proved that A Whiter Shade of Pale was created under the
cryptomnesia, then the author will not be liable to such
plagiarism.