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MMD > Archives > February 2011 > 2011.02.05 > 01Prev  Next


Musical Box Tune Identification
By Bill Wineburgh

[ Clay Witt wrote in 110204 MMDigest --

> Does anybody know of anyone who offers a service whereby one could
> send them a recording of the tunes and they would provide titles
> and composers?

Clay,  I know of no such service.  However, there are several books
available with which it may be possible to identify tunes on musical
boxes.  Here are two that I have in stock at the moment:

  Barlow, Harold and Morgenstern, Sam.: A Dictionary of Musical Themes,
Crown Publishers, New York, 1966, Eleventh Printing.  42 pp., with dust
jacket.  $55.00

  Barlow, Harold and Morgenstern, Sam.: A Dictionary of Vocal Themes,
Crown Publishers, New York, 1950, First Printing.  547 pp., w/o dust
jacket.  $55.00

Each of these book requires you to be able to "sing" the first six
to eight notes of the  melody line of the piece, then compare it to
a melody line "index" in the book.

Another book is "The Directory of Tunes and Musical Themes," by Dennis
Parsons, commonly called the "Up-Down" book.  Using this book you need
only determine whether the successive notes in the melody move up or
down in pitch.  This is available from book dealers using various book
search engines.

Bill Wineburgh
Succasunna, New Jersey, USA
http://antiquemusicbox.us/ 


(Message sent Sat 5 Feb 2011, 17:45:15 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Box, Identification, Musical, Tune

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