Is Beethoven's <em>Fifth Symphony</em> a meme, or only th...

Whether by coincidence or by memetic transmission, Beethoven is the favourite example for illustrating this problem. Brodie (1996) uses Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Dawkins (1976) uses the Ninth and Dennett (1995) uses both the Fifth and the Seventh. Dennet adds that the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth are a tremendously successful meme, replicating all by themselves in contexts in which Beethoven's works are quite unknown. So are they the meme, or the whole symphony? If we cannot answe...

 A Succinct Definition of a Meme

For something to count as a replicator it must sustain the evolutionary algorithm based on variation, selection and retention (or heredity). Memes certainly come with variation - stories are rarely told exactly the same way twice, no two buildings are absolutely identical, and every conversation is unique - and when memes are passed on, the copying is not always perfect. As the psychologist, Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932) showed n the 1930s, a story get a bit embellished or the details are forg...