Greetings, all.  Regarding a computer program to search MIDI files for
'matching' themes, Jack Perron wrote:

> My experience as a programmer (as well as musician),  suggests to me
> that such a program would not be terribly difficult to write.  Probably
> a labor of love, though, given the limited demand?

Limited demand?  Oh my goodness!  There are loads of entertainment
industry lawyers who represent composers or the composer's publisher, and
whose highly visible livelihoods depend on determining the *originality*
of contemporary copyrighted music.  It would be a hoot to have a 
searchable database.  

As there is "nothing new under the sun," I suspect that all contemporary
tunes could eventually be traced back to the ancient and public domain.
Then we can tell the copyright police "...But officer, the tune that
Disney used was originally a Dutch folk song from 1805." Or was found to
be note-for-note from an ancient musical box.

Just my fantasy.   =)

Pete Woodworth -- San Luis Obispo, California
http://www.calpoly.edu/~cwoodwor/nick.html