Actually, it's not so much a © query as an inquiry into the antecedents of the tune. Does the copyrighted tune to "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" have clear folk antecedents, if so what/where/when. I ask because a few years ago I wrote a song in honor of the ancestrices of Jesus mentioned in Matthew's genealogy (i.e. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary). It's one of my songs I'm rather proud of. When I wrote it I thought that it went to Scarlet Ribbons, but when I got it all done and sang it, it turned out the tune I had in mind was much more like (though not identical to) Silver Threads and Golden Needles. I wrote out the tune I was thinking of and dubbed it Cheating Game, but I'm interested in finding out, when I publish it, whether I will need to negotiate with the proprietors of the threads and needles, or if I can reasonably claim either composership of my own or that I was drawing on a public domain tune.

Liland