In an article in The Guardian newspaper by D. Glaister, it was stated that a new theory shows that Beethoven ‘borrowed’ his most famous themes. It was argued that Beethoven was very influenced by the works of French composers a decade before him. So, perhaps Beethoven did copy the tunes of the earlier composers, but this does not devalue Beethoven’s work in any way. Beethoven should be considered no less of a composer because of this theory, because this is what all authors do. This illustrates the point made by Jessica Litman that everything is a recombination or transformation. Indeed, many Classical composers have made use of traditional folk tunes, such as Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on Greensleeves”.