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MMD > Archives > August 2002 > 2002.08.31 > 01Prev  Next


Musical Theme Search Using Incipits
By Christofer Noering

In the field of classical music we have had, for a long time, Barlow
and Morgenstern's "A Dictionary of Musical Themes" (1st ed., 1948),
divided into three parts:

1. Musical themes in alphabetical order (beginning with Adolphe Adam's
opera, "The Nuremberg Doll, Act I, Scene I" = A1);

2. Index of titles (beginning with "Abduction from the Seraglio"
overture = M593);

and finally, the

3. Notation index, in which thousands of themes are listed in
alphabetical order, first being transposed to C major (or A minor),
beginning with

  A A A A A A A A = S 1554, which is the 2nd theme of "Le Tour de
Passe-Passe" by Stravinsky,

and

  A A A A A A A G = I 125, which means 2nd theme of "Danube Waves
Waltz" by Ivanovici.

Note that the alphabet begins with letter A, _not_ note C!

Best regards

Christofer Noering
Stockholm, Sweden

 [ The book by Barlow and Morgenstern indexes only classical melodies,
 [ without time durations; however, it is readily available and the
 [ theme index could easily be converted into a computer data base.
 [ -- Robbie


(Message sent Sat 31 Aug 2002, 11:54:59 GMT, from time zone GMT+0200.)

Key Words in Subject:  Incipits, Musical, Search, Theme, Using

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