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From: Karen Mercedes
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: RE: sheet music online
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Fri, 4 Feb 2000, Jennifer wrote:

> > I have just heard about this site: www.amazingmusicworld.com
> > It will let you buy, download and print sheet music.
>
>
> I wonder how you prove afterwards that you've legitimately purchased a copy
> and not just photocopied/scanned it, in case you're going to be using it in
> a competition or paid recital, etc.


I was warned, when I entered the NATS competition a few years ago, to make
sure I used ONLY legitimately published music, which meant I had to lug
about three books around with me, and had to tape bits of white paper over
the sections in the music I wanted to the accompanist to skip (i.e., the
cuts) - and had to go out and buy special "non permanent" scotch tape with
which to attach those bits of paper so I could easily remove them later.

How much more elegant (and efficient) to use a single 3-ring binder into
which I can put music that I have photocopied from legitimately published
scores. THis way, I can make a photocopy, cut and paste it neatly to
reflect the desired cuts (without having to include big blank white
spaces), then make a neat "sequential" copy for the notebook on heavy
paper (not cover stock, just heavy photocopy stock). This way I can also
rearrange the pieces as a performance requires, add some, delete others.

Perhaps I can get around the problem of needing "legitimately purchased"
copies of the music by including a page with the music store receipts
taped to it at the front of the notebook. But that still wouldn't
satisfy, I suspect - particularly as I have been guilty of using
no-longer-published-and-impossible-to-purchase scores from the public
library.

I absolutely believe that when a score is fairly readily available, one
should purchase it. But after spending a year and a half looking for
a particular edition of Balfe's THE BOHEMIAN GIRL on both sides of the
Atlantic (the version with 'Tis gone, the past is all a dream rather than
Bliss forever past), and discovering that not only was that edition not
published ANYWHERE, but that even the more frequently available version
was no longer in print, I finally broke down and went to the only place in
the world I COULD find the aria I wanted - the British Library - which had
a copy in their collection that was published in the 1840s. And from that
copy, I made a photocopy of the aria (for which the British Library
magnanimously charged me 14 pounds sterling! - would that I could have
found a whole second-hand score for that amount!)

My own rule of thumb is photocopies SHOULD be fine if the edition of the
score you are using is no longer in copyright (and that includes renewed
copyrights) - AND you can prove it easily if questioned. Frankly, the
only time I've ever heard of a problem in this
area is major competitions, where the ASCAP and BMI gestapo tend to lurk.


KM
=====
There is delight in singing,
tho' none hear Beside the singer.
- Walter Savage Landor
-----
MY WEB PAGE: http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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