Music Publishing

[MusingMuso]

I spent Saturday afternoon in York, and of course, that would never be complete without a visit to Bank's Music. (Sorry, I didn't have time to stay for Evensong at the Minster).

 

Whilst this is in no way a criticism of Bank's, I had no option but to make a mental comparison between "then" and "now," as I recall literally hours of music-browsing in my youth, and the fact that I now have a music collection worth many, many thousands of pounds; more or less exclusively obtained from the old York shop, in the days when Miss Banks would stalk around and glower at everyone.

 

Gone are those days, when a well respected organist took a copy of a Bank's edition back to the shop because there was a faulty page in the copy, which had misprinted quite badly. Miss Banks stared at him angrily, and in no uncertain terms, told him not to go into the shop if all he was going to do was complain!

 

Of course, one or two of the original staff are still there, and especially Nicholas, who must have the most astonishing encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical.

 

"I need a new copy of the Reubke Sonata," I said.

 

Nicholas launched into his usual routine. "You must have the old Oxford edition edited by Ellingford, which has quite a lot of mistakes. I would have recommended the Daniel Chorzempa edition, but that's only available as a facsimile now. However, we should have the Schott/Wiener Urtext Edition in stock, and the nice thing is the fact that Reubke's signature appears on the cover."

 

10 seconds later, and the copy is before me, paid for and placed in a bag.

 

"Are you playing it somewhere?" Nicholas asked.

 

"Yes," I replied.

 

"Well, it's 22 minutes long you know, but I expect it would have taken longer at Merseburger Dom when it was first performed," he replied.

 

I was re-assured to know that I wasn't shaving off any time, or indeed adding to it.

 

That wonderful knowledge and the personal touch belongs to a different age, when people took time and care, and yet, as I glanced back at the organ section, it was a tiny fragment of what was once on the shelves, and through which I would rummage for a whole afternoon in days gone by.

 

The simple fact is, music publishing (like all other forms of publishing) is changing, and perhaps we are now in the multi-media age, when we can browse on-line for sound-samples or recordings, then send off an e-mail and place an order for the hard-copy. Long gone are the days when one would regard Bank's as the unofficial organist's meeting place, where students and masters would rub shoulders of a Saturday afternoon, and discuss this or that in a kindred spirit of excited discovery; like small children at the ice-cream stall.

 

But something troubles me about the on-line age, where retailers press keyboard terminals, make the necessary electronic order, then have things sent to the customer in a quite impersonal way. It isn't the cameraderie that I miss most, but the fact that physically browsing through music is a wonderful way of discovering repertoire and stretching the boundaries. I fear, I think, a world in which only a few hundred pieces would form a fashionable hard-core of available repertoire, almost to the exclusion of all others, and which would thus maintain an unchanging musical status-quo which would then become static and self-destructive.

 

I believe there is something profoundly disturbing about "cherry-picking," like those dreadful supermarkets who want to sell the most popular paperbacks, but wouldn't dream of stocking serious or relatively obscure literary works. On the other hand, from a business perspective, I can full understand why music-shops have to go down this route, because having a massive stock-pile of obscure or less fashionable works amounts to a type of slow commercial suicide.

 

I have this nagging fear that when I next visit Bank's, I may find only Bach, Vierne, a handful of Reger works, a number of seasonal albums, Noel Rawsthorne hymn accompaniments and the remainder of the stock by Kevin Mayhew. As it happened, I stumbled across some albums of Polish, Latvian, Estonian, Russian and Czech music which interested me, and which I didn't know about, or for that matter, any of the composers within the pages. How would I know if they existed if I could not have browsed the shelves?

 

Do you understand what I'm getting at?

 

Retraction of stock leads to a self-perpetuating and irreversible decline.

 

I think Stephen Farr conceded a point I made before Christmas, when I asked of him whether it was the father or the son who wrote the Czech organ-work he learned; to which Stephen responded to the effect that he didn't know that there were two important composers with the same surname.

 

Is music-publishing, and the inherent restrictions of publishing copyright, actually its own worst enemy, when commercial considerations now play such an important part in the art of survival?

 

This all I will write for the moment, because I would like to hear other views about this. At the same time, it raises a number of interesting possibilities for the future, but is anyone capable of grasping the nettle, I wonder?

 

MM

[Guest Cynic]

Ignoring most of your posting, MM [sorry! - unable to get my brain around it late at night!] I thought it would be worth recommending two places where organ music addicts can still browse and find an awful lot of interesting stuff - viz.

Blackwells in Oxford and Foyles in the Charing Cross Road, London (a short walk from Tottenham Court Road Tube Station).

I have shopped a lot at Foyles over the years and strongly recommend them to anyone

1. they never mark up their old prices

2. you can browse for as long as you like

3. buy more than a few scores and they will knock a bit off the stated price if you present them with a tatty copy.

 

 

For a quick purchase by post, Allegro come recommended

Roger Molyneux took over Roger Firth's second-hand organ music sales. There is a new catalogue out.

 

http://www.organmusic.org.uk/

 

In case any of this appears like advertising, I hasten to state that I am only a satisfied customer (not a relation) and am getting no bonus for this advert.

[Guest Lee Blick]

You were lucky to have a music shop selling classical organ music. The music shops down here stopped selling it years ago. You can only get the Cloister Album set (no thanks), or at the most Play the Organ by David Sanger.

 

I am very thankful for the internet. Over the last year I have been able to considerably add to my library by buying music online and on ebay. I have to say it is a lot less expensive and you can almost get anything you want. The other thing I like about it is if you are buying direct from a publisher, you are going to get an unthumbed spanking new copy, rather than one in a shop that have being fingered countless times. I have bought lots of French organ music, new and used, at the fraction of the price you would have to pay in a music shop.

 

To be honest MM, I wouldn't be too happy engaging in a conversation of that kind. I would feel a bit patronised, "I know how long that piece is, go away..." I want to be left alone to make my choices, have courteous service then pay and go!

 

I get great joy selling used and new organ music on ebay. If anyone has any music they want to sell on ebay and would like some advice or help on how to do it, do message me.

[Vox Humana]

I have been thinking much the same.

 

When I was a student at the RCM in the late 60s I would often traipse round the music publishers showrooms in the west end. They were all there. Schott's OUP, Novello, Stainer & Bell - you could do them all in an afternoon and then end up in Foyle's if all else had failed. Well, Foyles is still there...

 

In the late 70s and 80s my idea of heaven was Blackwell's Music Shop in Oxford. In those days it was a scholar's paradise. Pretty well every major music book in print seemed to be in stock. No matter how specialist your interest, they would have some book on it, or so it seemed. Off the shelves you could pull all the major collected editions like Musica Britannica, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, Corpus of Early Keyboard Music, Early English Church Music and more. Down in the bowels of the shop you could rumage through back numbers of the standard journals; I picked up one or two real scarcities down there. And then there was the sheet music, of course.

 

Recently I found myself there again - the first time I had been back sonce those heady days. How times have changed! Gone were the old, capacious premises, exchanged for an altogeher more cramped abode on the other side of the street. There were three floors, but the lowest was given over entirely to CDs. (Did the old Blackwell's sell CDs? If so, they didn't impinge on my consciousness.) Gone are all the collected editions and most of the books - in fact pretty well anything even remotely récherché. They did still seem to have a reasonable selection of sheet music though, albeit not laid out in the most user-friendly way. I managed to find one or two Howells pieces I didn't know (including the very nice, but not especially serviceable Grace for 10 Downing Street that he wrote for Ted Heath and William Walton; if I had time and wit I'd be tempted to write a parody for the present incumbent) and all of the several pieces of organ music that I had been meaning to get for years and which I particularly determined to search out. With that 100% hit rate I had to forgive them a bit, but there's no getting away from it: it was only a shadow of its former self.

 

Brian Jordan's shop in Cambridge still retains some of the interest that the old Blackwell's used to have.

 

Both these shops are still good news for the organist. There is plenty of stuff to browse. How glad I was to be able to peruse that urtext volume of Boëllmann and how glad I am that I didn't succumb to the temptation to buy a copy over the net without looking at it first. I only hope the shop doesn't notice the vomit marks on page 10.

 

In my own city our only music shop closed a year or two back. I watched it go slowly downhill over the years. It was never terribly interesting, least of all for the organist. All the ABRSM books and a few stock editions of the standard repertoire (Beethoven sonatas, Schubert songs, those sorts of things). I guess low turnover and rising city centre rates took their toll.

[pwhodges]

Blackwells in Oxford

Sadly they no longer have their second-hand section. It was a whole floor when I was a student, and I have nearly two dozen hardback full scores from the Barenreiter Bach, Handel and Mozart editions that I bought during that time (and I regret not getting the score of Mozart's version of Messiah, of which there were, strangely, several copies). But they still have reasonable stock; I bought a volume of Gabrieli organ music there last week - I'd just called in to look for something else on my way home, and happened on it - as one does.

 

Paul

[Vox Humana]

For a quick purchase by post, Allegro come recommended

Grump alert!

 

Everyone seems to say this, so I suppose I must be the odd man out, but frankly it's not my experience. I have rarely found then able to supply promptly anything I (or my wife, or my kids) have ordered - and I am not referring to out-of-the-way music either. It's just happened yet again. Of two Rheinberger sonatas that my son recently ordered for my birthday, only one was supplied promptly; I am still awaiting the other. On more than one occasion in the past they have eventually had to admit that they could not obtain the item listed in their catalogue.

 

I have no doubt that they do try hard to help, but I do have to wonder how much of their catalogue they actually hold in stock and how often they check the availability of items. It just seems to me that they list everything they can think of, keep very little in stock and cross off items when it transpires that they are no longer obtainable.

 

Now I'm not trying to put anyone off using the firm. They do seem very keen to help and they are a convenient "one stop shop" if you want a variety of organ music from disparate sources. That's why I'm still prepared to use them. Just don't expect a fast service.

 

Sadly they no longer have their second-hand section. It was a whole floor when I was a student

Oh yes! I have a number of very cherished Gregg Press reprints I picked up there in the mid 70s after the firm went bust. One of the best buys of my life.

[Guest Lee Blick]

Grump alert!

 

Everyone seems to say this, so I suppose I must be the odd man out, but frankly it's not my experience. I have rarely found then able to supply promptly anything I (or my wife, or my kids) have ordered - and I am not referring to out-of-the-way music either. It's just happened yet again. Of two Rheinberger sonatas that my son recently ordered for my birthday, only one was supplied promptly; I am still awaiting the other. On more than one occasion in the past they have eventually had to admit that they could not obtain the item listed in their catalogue.

 

I have no doubt that they do try hard to help, but I do have to wonder how much of their catalogue they actually hold in stock and how often they check the availability of items. It just seems to me that they list everything they can think of, keep very little in stock and cross off items when it transpires that they are no longer obtainable.

 

Now I'm not trying to put anyone off using the firm. They do seem very keen to help and they are a convenient "one stop shop" if you want a variety of organ music from disparate sources. That's why I'm still prapared to use them. Just don't expect a fast service.

 

Oh yes! I have a number of very cherished Gregg Press reprints I picked up there in the mid 70s after the firm went bust. One of the best buys of my life.

 

I have bought several things from Allegro and their service was very quick and I got everything I ordered. Maybe you were just unlucky.

[MusingMuso]

To be honest MM, I wouldn't be too happy engaging in a conversation of that kind. I would feel a bit patronised, "I know how long that piece is, go away..." I want to be left alone to make my choices, have courteous service then pay and go!

 

 

==================================

 

 

Nicholas is far from patronising....he is absolutely formidable!

 

He proved utterly invaluable in my student years, when I would ring Bank's and ask if they had a particular piece, whereupon he would say something like, "Would that be the Op.54 or the Op58?"

 

That was the information I was looking for, and it saved hours going through the listings when I went to the library!

 

I don't think there are many "shop assistants" who can tell you which copies contain the most mistakes, and whether the urtext contains mistakes made BY THE COMPOSER which need to be corrected to produce a suitable performer's copy!

 

Like those who drive London Cabs, I think it is what we might call "the knowledge" after a lifetime in publishing, which is an absolute specialisation in its own rights.

 

For some obscure reason, it reminds me of an evening I spent at a viewing of modern British art at Christie's, which was an invitation-only event. A funny little man was shuffling around with a piece of paper and a pen, and he approached people politely to ask their names, whereupon he thanked them and ticked them off his guest-list.

 

In one delightful encounter, he approached a well dressed Yorkshireman and asked, "Your name Sir?"

 

The Yorkshireman replied gruffly, "Parkinson."

 

The funny little man looked at him and asked, "Would that be Mr M Parkinson or Mr W Parkinson?"

 

"Parky," with a hint of growing incredulity, simply replied, "M"

 

The funny little man smiled, ticked off the name and shuffled away, at which point, Micheal Parkinson rolled his eyes, shook his head and then burst out laughing.

 

I guess some people just live in a world quite removed from that of most, and I am grateful that they do.

They are the interesting individuals and eccentrics of this world.

 

MM

[Vox Humana]

Nicholas is far from patronising....he is absolutely formidable!

I suspect he may also be unique.

The funny little man smiled, ticked off the name and shuffled away, at which point, Micheal Parkinson rolled his eyes, shook his head and then burst out laughing.

Ah, a man after my own heart. The funny little man, I mean. Personally, the more a celebrity thinks people have a duty to recognise them, the more I am likely to make a point of not doing so. I did it to Leslie Crowther the first time I met him ("Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you"). For a moment he looked mortally offended, but the look passed as quickly as it came. Actually he turned out to be an exceptionally nice chap and not at all "up himself".

[contrabordun]

I guess some people just live in a world quite removed from that of most

It's easily enough done. 30 of my 37 years - including the last 12 - have been lived in houses without TV. As a result I have very little idea of what anybody famous looks like. I could walk through a room containing the entire English football and cricket teams, the British Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet (Blair, Brown, Cameron and Hague excepted), every current TV 'personality' (a few newsreaders and journalists excepted) and the casts of almost every Hollywood blockbuster released in the last decade and not recognise a single face. And strangely, I don't think I'm missing very much.

[Vox Humana]

Also, seeing these people on TV is one thing; they invariably look different in 3D.

 

What this has to do with music publishing I've no idea!

[AJJ]

I have bought several things from Allegro and their service was very quick and I got everything I ordered. Maybe you were just unlucky.

 

I have also always found Allegro good - it is fun, however to be able to browse and Blackwells seems to be the nearest place for me to do this - unless one wants to flick through the complete Mayhew catalogue.

 

AJJ

[Peter Allison]

I suspect he may also be unique.

 

Ah, a man after my own heart. The funny little man, I mean. Personally, the more a celebrity thinks people have a duty to recognise them, the more I am likely to make a point of not doing so. I did it to Leslie Crowther the first time I met him ("Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't recognise you"). For a moment he looked mortally offended, but the look passed as quickly as it came. Actually he turned out to be an exceptionally nice chap and not at all "up himself".

In 1989 my father was a steward in Durham Cathedral, and the aforementioned asked him if a "private" tour was possible, my dad said yes, but did not recognize mr. Crowther either until later. To cut a long story short, he told my dad that when he came to the Cotswolds to visit me ( I was working there for 10 months), he should come across to see him. We did and got the full tour of Bath and an american museum and tea at his marvelous house. And as you say, a very nice man

regards

Peter

[Nick Bennett]

I'd like to put in a good word for Allegro, too. My experience is that they are generally very prompt, with items often arriving within 48 hours of being ordered. I have ordered odd items from them that have taken a while, but they have at least kept me informed by email of the progress of the order.

 

I have also used Bodensee Musikversand on occasion. They have an interesting organ catalogue, and were pretty quick with the items I ordered from them - within the week.

 

One of the charms of Brian Jordan's establishment in Cambridge is the checkout experience. Business is conducted at a desk, with the proprietor seated at one side and the customer seated at the other. Details of your purchases are written up in a ledger using a quill pen. Leave plenty of time if you are buying a few items and have an appointment afterwards!

 

Returning though to MM's point, I do agree with him. Buying online is great if you know what you want but you can't browse an online catalogue in the same way you can browse books in the shop. There is no substitute for being able to read the music, gauge what it goes like, and assess whether you stand a chance of being able to play it.

 

Another excellent place to browse, but not buy, is the Henry Watson music library in Manchester. It is on the top floor of the Central Library, and you will need to get a reader's ticket from the desk in the lobby if you want to borrow items. They have an extensive collection of organ music.

 

PS I made up the quill pen.

[contrabordun]

What this has to do with music publishing I've no idea!

Dunno, I'm getting confused. I think that a Mr Crowther runs a mail order music shop from half way up the tower of Durham cathedral.

[MusingMuso]

Returning though to MM's point, I do agree with him. Buying online is great if you know what you want but you can't browse an online catalogue in the same way you can browse books in the shop. There is no substitute for being able to read the music, gauge what it goes like, and assess whether you stand a chance of being able to play it.

 

 

PS I made up the quill pen.

 

 

==================================

 

 

This is the most critical point, and it demonstrates that the "cherry pick" approach to music retailing is both commercially and artistically self-defeating, self-destructive and ultimately driving itself out of business.

 

I suspect I am in a fairly interesting, if not quite unique position, because I can see the wider picture in both musical and commercial terms, and I also know a little about the way publishing is changing.

 

For instance, it is possible to have a novel "published" but not actually "printed" these days; in that it will never appear on the shelves of a retail bookshop unless it achieves a certain popularity. Basically, the "publication" is available on-line (for a fee), and because the print-layout is stored on disc, it is possible to utilise the "just in time" Japanese method of procurement, where things are made to order on almost a bespoke basis.

 

So let's assume that one browses a database and finds something of literary interest, it is possible for a hard-copy of the book to be printed using a fully automatic process, bound and posted out to the buyer, because modern print-machinery, being computer controlled, can do this almost as a one-off.

 

It really is astonishing to walk into a huge print-works these days, and see no type-setters at work, and everything fully automated. The computer discs go in, the press fires up, and at the touch of a button the hard-print is created instantly. Some of the more sophisticated machines, working in unison, are capable of printing, cropping, collating, folding and binding; all in one seamless process, with very few staff looking after it all. In fact, in a modern print-works, the majority of hard-labour involves moving the finished product onto pallets, wrapping it and taking it to despatch on a fork-lift truck. The brighter people are the ones who have tool-kits and work from digital monitors.

 

Technically, there is no reason why this could not be applied to music-publishing; with a suitable facility for on-line browsing, electronic-ordering, payment and then postal delivery of the hard-copy.

 

Of course, there is one thing preventing all this, and that is the traditional competition between major music-publishing houses, who not only fight their own turf-wars, but jealously guard their hold on the copyrights to the work, the layout or a particular edition. However, I just wonder if this isn't the biggest reason for the decline in music-sales, because freed of such barriers, the music-publishing business could grow and flourish.

 

What I see as artistically scandalous, is the fact that when I stumble across a superb piece of music which I haven't heard previously, I then discover that it has been out of print for half a century or more, and it is not available through the music-shops or even direct from the publishers.

 

Computer technology could totally revolutionise this, because with electronic scanning, just-in-time production methods and electronic-ordering, almost ANY piece of music could be through the letter-box in no time at all.

 

If the music-publishers got their act together, this is a real possibility, but I fear that the alternative is a slow, agonised death for the more specilaised, low-volume titles, and for the publishers involved in producing them.

 

Of course, there is the rather sad implication that the middle-man and small retailer would be driven out of business, because their service would be made redundant.

 

I suspect that anyone who wishes to open up a music-shop these days, when music costs an average of maybe £10 per copy, must be prepared to outlay £250,000 just to have a respectable level of stock, and for the majority, this is simply not an option. I feel sure that the capital investment required, coupled to ever higher costs of day-to-day running, are at the heart of the decline in music retailing, and unless there is radical change, the whole industry goes into slow terminal decline; if it hasn't already.

 

Food for thought!

 

 

MM

[Guest Cynic]

What I see as artistically scandalous, is the fact that when I stumble across a superb piece of music which I haven't heard previously, I then discover that it has been out of print for half a century or more, and it is not available through the music-shops or even direct from the publishers.

 

 

Yes.

[Vox Humana]

So let's assume that one browses a database and finds something of literary interest, it is possible for a hard-copy of the book to be printed using a fully automatic process, bound and posted out to the buyer, because modern print-machinery, being computer controlled, can do this almost as a one-off.

Indeed this is already being done.

[MusingMuso]

Indeed this is already being done.

 

 

======================

 

Indeed it is, and to a far greater degree of sophistication than this.

 

The creator of a manuscript (in the case of music, the original publisher), simply has the thing set-out and then loaded to disc, whereupon a proper printing-press will re-produce the results at lightning speed, with as many copies as one wishes.

 

There are now printers who will do this, and all aspects of copyright, marketing, selling and distribution remain with the owner of the document.

 

It is a very clever method of integrating electronic-sales with hard-copy sales.

 

Music publishers take note! Were I a composer to-day, the last people to whom I would entrust my output is to a music-publishing house.

 

MM

[Richard Fairhurst]

For the past couple of years, every time I've been into Blackwells Music in Oxford, I've idly looked for a copy of Langlais' Triptyque. It's always been listed as "On order". A few months ago I finally took the plunge and ordered it.

 

The copy that eventually came had a generic Novello cover, with "Special Order Edition" and the title overprinted on it. I strongly suspect that this was print-on-demand, and that Novellos don't have a stack of Langlais sitting in their warehouse. So yes, it's already happening.

 

(A quick Google confirms this: "Items that are made up to order are called Special Order items. These could be items that are low on stock or currently out of print. To contact special orders email special.orders@musicsales.co.uk ." http://www.musicsales.com/doc/184/ondex.htm#4 )

[Guest Barry Williams]

For the past couple of years, every time I've been into Blackwells Music in Oxford, I've idly looked for a copy of Langlais' Triptyque. It's always been listed as "On order". A few months ago I finally took the plunge and ordered it.

 

The copy that eventually came had a generic Novello cover, with "Special Order Edition" and the title overprinted on it. I strongly suspect that this was print-on-demand, and that Novellos don't have a stack of Langlais sitting in their warehouse. So yes, it's already happening.

 

(A quick Google confirms this: "Items that are made up to order are called Special Order items. These could be items that are low on stock or currently out of print. To contact special orders email special.orders@musicsales.co.uk ." http://www.musicsales.com/doc/184/ondex.htm#4 )

 

My copy of Jeremy Dibble's superb book on Stanford was made specially for me at a cost of £75. It is well printed and excellently bound. Apparently it is intended for libraries only, so individuals have to have their copies made as a one-off item.

 

Barry Williams

 

======================

 

Indeed it is, and to a far greater degree of sophistication than this.

 

The creator of a manuscript (in the case of music, the original publisher), simply has the thing set-out and then loaded to disc, whereupon a proper printing-press will re-produce the results at lightning speed, with as many copies as one wishes.

 

There are now printers who will do this, and all aspects of copyright, marketing, selling and distribution remain with the owner of the document.

 

It is a very clever method of integrating electronic-sales with hard-copy sales.

 

Music publishers take note! Were I a composer to-day, the last people to whom I would entrust my output is to a music-publishing house.

 

MM

 

 

It is possible to use modern methods of production, but for the composer to retain traditional moral rights. My co-author and I will be publishing church music later this year. All the composers will retain the copyright to ensure that they say who can make arrangments of their works. I consider it immoral for a publisher to permit a simplified version to be made, published and sold without the composer's permission, though Bach, Handel and Mozart did some quite naughty things with other people's music! (I assume that Miss Holmes gave consent for her song to be used by Cesar Franck in the A minor Chorale!)

 

Barry Williams

[giwro]

I'll throw in my experiences here...

 

Like MM, Cynic and others I've observed on this board, I have a thirst for obscure music...

 

If I can't find it for sale, and I've exhausted my options with the publisher, I'll dig up a copy from a colleague, library etc. I've never come across a piece that I couldn't find eventually (albeit some have taken YEARS to track down, like the elusive Organ Symphonies of Vaubourgin and Fleuret)

 

I agree that traditional publishing could benefit from an on-demand system - I currently produce my stuff that way, and while I lose some profit, I don't have to spend time printing/assembling/posting scores.

 

I started my own company out of disgust for traditional publishers shenanigans - they all seemed to want to have complete control over my music (down to permission to re-write portions of it) and no guarantee that if it went out of print that I could regain control. When I take on a new composer, I make an agreement to take half of the net profit (what's left after production cost). The composer can ALWAYS ask to have their score removed from my catalogue and rights returned to them.

 

So far this has worked well and seems to be a fair way to go.... would that more companies could do the same.

 

Cheers,

 

-G

[Vox Humana]

Yes, if you're a composer and you want a publisher to take something you have written, then your bagaining position is weak. I remember Howells complaining about having to be firm with publishers who applied their house style to the layout of his compositions - and he was in quite a strong position.

 

As an editor I have had similar issues and have come to the conclusion that, if you want things done your way, you're best off publishing it yourself.

[Peter Clark]

I used to buy quite a lot of music from Oecemuse (is that how he spelt it?); as far as I could tell all the scores were kept on computer, printed off and bound on demand and sent out within a week or so of your cheque being cashed, usually less. But there seems to be no Oecemuse these days, and it is a long time since I have seen a review of any Oecemuse publications in the OR or CMQ; has it folded? The quality of the music varied I admit, especially in its reprints of fairly obscure Victorian stuff (have you seen the William Faulks piece beased on Ein Festenburg?), but some of the "house" compoisers - I think of Paul Edwards, Nicholas Clucas, Ronald Watson and others - were always good value for money.

 

I think Musicroom may operate a similar "print to demand" policy at times, because the last piece I got from them, the Philip Glass Mad Rush, was sent as a "special order edition" and the pagination started at page 30 or something. By the way, they didn't put sufficient pastage on the parcel and I had to pay the difference plus a £1.00 administration fee to the post office and it delayed its arrival!

 

But I played it in a recital last Friday - admittedly in a slightly shortened version - and it went down very well, comments after the recital over tea and biccies being "haunting", "serene", and even "disturbing" (in a positive way).

 

Peter

[Guest Roffensis]

I used to buy quite a lot of music from Oecemuse (is that how he spelt it?); as far as I could tell all the scores were kept on computer, printed off and bound on demand and sent out within a week or so of your cheque being cashed, usually less. But there seems to be no Oecemuse these days, and it is a long time since I have seen a review of any Oecemuse publications in the OR or CMQ; has it folded? The quality of the music varied I admit, especially in its reprints of fairly obscure Victorian stuff (have you seen the William Faulks piece beased on Ein Festenburg?), but some of the "house" compoisers - I think of Paul Edwards, Nicholas Clucas, Ronald Watson and others - were always good value for money.

 

I think Musicroom may operate a similar "print to demand" policy at times, because the last piece I got from them, the Philip Glass Mad Rush, was sent as a "special order edition" and the pagination started at page 30 or something. By the way, they didn't put sufficient pastage on the parcel and I had to pay the difference plus a £1.00 administration fee to the post office and it delayed its arrival!

 

But I played it in a recital last Friday - admittedly in a slightly shortened version - and it went down very well, comments after the recital over tea and biccies being "haunting", "serene", and even "disturbing" (in a positive way).

 

Peter

 

Yes it's a gem, glad it went down so well. I am playing that and also his "Satyagraha" at my church in September. Plus the Aaron Copland "Episode", should be interesting!......

 

R