This really isn't an April Fool. I wrote a set of three short pieces recently and one of the cello themes seems very familiar on second hearing. I was a cellist in a former life so it is quite possible that I have dragged it kicking and screaming from the depths of my brain. Is there a way of posting it here so that you can look at it and tell me if it is original Petrat or a crib of something else? I could write it out in note names and values but is there a better way?

Upload a photo of it.

Good thinking! I have it on my Finale programme. I'll see what I can do.

If it's on the computer, you don't need a photo - if you can get it all on screen, you can press the button over to the top right of your keyboard which say PrtScn, or Print Screen or similar. That copies your screen to the clipboard. You can then paste that in to Paint, and save it as a picture you can upload (like you would a photo - it's the same process from there, you're just skipping the camera part)

Right, I have saved the theme as an image and cannot find out what to do next! (Still not an April Fool, folks!) It asks for a URL and I don't have one for it! Remember that I am a totally idiot when it comes to anything computer-related. What do I do now?

You have to upload it to a site like photobucket and you get the URL from there.
If it's too much trouble to sort out and register email it to me and I'll do it

Sorry for the delay Sb. It should have arrived a moment ago.

Ok... Server playing up a bit.
Will sort it as soon as it starts behaving again.

Just checked service status. They are doing maintenance so it will be tomorrow before it's working properly again. Will sort it then.

And here it is.....

Haven't tried it all out (computer too far from piano...) but aren't the first two bars the beginning of Suo gan? (not sure if spelling's right)

Doesn't ring any bells with me, but I know the feeling...

David

The first three notes could be the start of dozens of pieces, but it is not Suo Gan that I am hearing. It is a big cello theme with an orchestral accomp. I have included this theme in one of a set of sketch book pieces for Idris, (grandson) who is now one year old. I have used flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, cello and harp but I still have this feeling that I have heard it before and played it too. I hope that it is an original theme of my own but...............

I've just tried the rest out and it doesn't seem at all familiar.
Your story reminds me of Paul McCartney's report of writing "Yesterday" (I think) which - if I remember rightly - is that he woke up with the tune is his head and it seemed so familiar he kept singing it to people, asking who had written it - and couldn't believe that no-one already had.

It also reminds me of the time my sister and I were practising for our grade 5 theory exam. My father was checking what we'd done and my sister got very upset when he told her that the melody to which she had set the given words was all very well but unfortunately Mendelssohn had written it first. I, on the other hand, was upset that I hadn't composed anything that sounded if it had been written by someone else first.

Reminiscing back to the 1960s... oh dear showing my age!