Tim Mahon wrote:

>>It contained a 'dictionary' of musical themes by taking the first seven
>>notes of the themes and converting them to an alphabetical notation on
>>the basis of the note's relationship to its predecessor -- did it go up
>>or down or stay the same?  I can't recall the letters used, but if U=Up,
>>D=Down and S=Same, then the opening of Beethoven's Fifth, for example,
>>would have been noted as SSSDUSS.

Philip Melnick replies:

>The title was "A Dictionary of Musical Themes" by Harold Barlow and Sam
>Morgenstern; Crown Publishers, New York, 1948. May have been revised later
>but surely out of print now.

There was ALSO Barlow and Morganstern Dictionary of Musical Themes,
which had the system you describe in two volumes.  One was for instrumental
music, and the other was for vocal music.  Once in a lucky while, these
volumes can still be found in used book stores.  However, what Tim Mahon
describes is an entirely different system of identification, one which
I have never found.  I'd be interested in more information.

The Barlow and Morganstern ought to be brought up to date.  It's fantastic
for finding the works considered standard six decades ago.

Mimi Ezust