I have been thinking ... no, that's not a question that's ... never mind!

Seriously, I have the following multi-part question:

a. Could one scan written-out (is the right word 'notated' ?) musical
themes into some sort of MIDI file and then construct (without too much
handwork) a search-able database of musical themes? (There are a number of
books available each of which contain thousands of notated musical themes
classified by title, composer and date etc.) Could the database be made
to play the music?

b. Could one record a musical instrument, i.e. a music box, into a MIDI
file such that it would be notated?  Or, to put it more specifically, such
that it could be compared to a known standard?

c. If a) and b) above are possible, could one construct a program which
would search the database to find musical themes whose structure is the
same as or very like a part of the music recorded in b) above.

If this could be done, then we could have a major improvement in our
present methodology for identifying tunes.  I have been especially struck
by this problem since I have been working indirectly with musicologists
and musical historians to identify the tunes from just one instrument.
These experts, so far at least, have only been able to hint vaguely at
where and when the music might have been written.  It is tantalizing to
think that in all probability (since the music on mechanical music
instruments usually was the popular music of the day) the key to the
riddle is right at hand in one of the many reference books available.

I await your comments with great anticipation.  I also want to tell Jody
and Robbie how much I enjoy their work and how grateful I am that they
have the talent and time to do it!

Frank Metzger

 [ Editors note:
 [
 [ Thanks, Frank !  Many years ago there was a book of classical music
 [ themes which used "alphabet notes" as the key.  One would imagine the
 [ letters of the notes (in the key of C) without regard to timing,
 [ and then find the corresponding music notation in the back of the
 [ book.  Crude, but really pretty effective.
 [
 [ But much faster, and more fun, would be a system which accepts
 [ one-finger playing at piano keyboard and returns the song name and
 [ a complete Midi file to enjoy!
 [
 [ Robbie