is it mine or not??

[stevel]

Originally Posted by ttw

You might check a thematic catalog.

This disseratation indicates that minor changes in form, harmony, or melody are not enough to free one from plagiarism.

http://www.musicanalyst.com/dissertation.htm

It took me just about 2 weeks to figure out that one of my themes came from Mahler's Second symphony. After modifying the theme, I killed the project anyway, just to watch it die.

For all of you guys I'll put this out here, because maybe you've had similar problems:

I've found that, the more music I know (and maybe the older I get) the more often I think that what I've written sounds like something else (repeating myself, or something famous).

It usually happens like this - I write a melody. It sounds original at that time. Then I work on the piece. After a couple times through, or sometimes a day or two, I find myself saying to myself "gee this sounds familiar". The hilarious thing is, I don't know if it sounds familiar because I've known it for 30 years, or because I've known it for 30 minutes!

Like those tests in college though, I've decided to go with my gut instinct (that is, my first answer because whenever I changed an answer after second guessing it, I always missed it). I think it's my mind playing tricks on me, and, I also know I'm not intentionally plagiarizing anything, so I don't feel too bad about it - unless I do realize it's "from something else".

I think maybe that's one of the reasons many composers have so intentionally avoided the "classic" repretoire - I mean, think about it - Schoenberg surely wasn't copying anyone else! Though I think the danger there is, in an attempt to be SO different, some people become TOO different.

So I guess my word of advice here is, "go with your gut instinct" - and if it is "similar" to something else, you're in damn good company.

Steve

[PeterG]

Originally Posted by stevel

I believe both Finale and Sibelius have a "transpose" feature :-)

Put it in Cb Major / ab minor, or C# Major / a# minor just to mess with people :-)

Steve

But Steve !

That would alter the feel of the piece, sometimes completely. I hear these tunes in my mind, I nurture the sound of it until I can sit down and find the notes of it. Then I write it down as my mind played it. I have transposed stuff just to see what the effect would be, but I always came back to the original setting. I guess my piano sounds best in C (in fact the most resonance I hear is when I play a C so that could be it).

Peter

[stevel]

Originally Posted by PeterG

But Steve !

That would alter the feel of the piece, sometimes completely. I hear these tunes in my mind, I nurture the sound of it until I can sit down and find the notes of it. Then I write it down as my mind played it. I have transposed stuff just to see what the effect would be, but I always came back to the original setting. I guess my piano sounds best in C (in fact the most resonance I hear is when I play a C so that could be it).

Peter

It's in your mind Peter :-). Besides, suppose someone else's piano resonates better in Cb!

Are you sure you're not picking C/am because of the simplicity?

A little background here:

Many people do believe that different keys have different "feels". Many would attribute this to the keys themselves, but in a 12 TET tuning system, that's not logical. However, I do believe we find some keys "different" than others simply because of the fact we hear some (C Major) more than others.

Keys with more than 4 flats or sharps were not very common (despite the occaisional works like WTC where all 12 keys are used) until the Romantic Period. Chopin and many pianist composers liked B Major and Db Major.

Here's a little trick:

Play the notes:
C - Db - Eb - F - Gb - Ab - Bb - C

With the fingering:
T - 2 - 3 - T- 1 - 2 - 3 - T...

You'll find that your thumbs, being shorter, fall easily on the white keys, and your fingers, being longer, fall naturally on the black keys.

That's Db major. If you move the C and F (the white keys) down to B and E (still white keys), and spell the black keys enharmonically, you have:

B - C# - D# - E - F# - G# - A# - B

and the same fingering!

B Major.

So you can modulate from B Major to Db Major (which is really only a whole step apart!) by simply moving your Bs and Es to Cs and Fs, and playing the rest as black keys.

Try it, I think you'll like it.

Steve