Hi MG,

Quote: As far as the alto sax variation starting at measure 70. Nope. That doesn't sound familiar to me, except as a take off on the theme starting at measure 1.

I actually took the notes from the theme at measure 1 and placed them below the same notes in the Alto sax part ( entered them in the tenor sax staff below ). They fit perfectly.

I don't believe "plagiarism" is plagiarism unless it is intended. There may not be a single song written that does not contain "plagiarism" in some form, no matter how small, in some part of some song somewhere at some time.

I think I mentioned before, my piano teacher would select 4 notes at random ( sometimes 5 just to make it more difficult for me ) as a motif for writing a new song. The only requirement was that those 4 notes had to be used in the same succession and be the beginning 4 notes and repeated as a theme. Everything after the 4 notes was fair game. The genre and the tempo were up to me.
When I wrote " I'll Run Back Home To You ", the motif and the consistant theme came from the first 5 notes of a 300 year old Beethoven aria that was discovered last year in Germany. The manuscript was very difficult to read, but a magazine photographer took a snapshot of the manuscript over someone's shoulder. They were the only 5 notes that were made public. I took those 5 notes and used them as the motif for the song. I refuse to believe I am guilty of plagiarism, even though I intended to use those 5 notes.

Based on that, it may give you some idea why my mind thinks in terms of short motifs. The first 5 notes of your song ( three measures ) remind me of Yale University's song, "Boola, boola". That may not be, and most probably is not, the theme that sounds familiar to you. If the theme is actually from a different song written 20 years before "Boola, Boola", is Yale University guilty of plagiarism?....Nah!, and neither is MG.

Cheers,
Fred