A great composer is a synthesist.
Great composers synthesize ideas from many sources, in the hopes of finding a unique sound that reflects their own vision.
I’m reflecting on that as I work on a stack of Hans Zimmer film scores, because this is especially evident in film music. The sheer amount of music that film composers have to create means that they can’t always hide their influences quite as thoroughly. This idea is always leveled at John Williams with his Star Wars score – borrowed heavily from Holst’s Planets – but it’s just as true in Zimmer. There’s a section that is clearly borrowed from Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, another section that feels like the Verdi Requiem, and even some hints of Eric Whitacre’s approach to choral writing (they have collaborated on a couple of scores).
Great music does remind you of other music, as it seeks to create novel sounds and evoke strong feelings. It’s in the distinct way that each composer synthesizes many different ideas that we find out who they are.