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Monday, January 24, 2005

I get dusted via listserv

Music directors know not to bootleg published arrangements. We buy one copy of a given piece, $2-$2.50 a pop, for each member of the group, plus a few copies for dunderheads who lose their music, you know who you are.

My question to the choral music listserv was: after we own music, can we tweak it? May we simplify something if it's too hard? Must we really force our sopranos out to screech out high A at the rousing conclusion?

Publishers and composers on the list insisted nothing be changed -- on fear of hellfire or lawsuit -- or choral music police storming the synagogue -- and huffed about the perfection of their publications as-is. Conductors on the list pointed out that most of us work with cheerful unpaid volunteers of varying ability and that we all do the best we can.

The nay-sayers shoot themselves in the foot. There's plenty of music in the public domain which we can arrange/abuse to our hearts' content. And then xerox for 6 cents a pop.

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1 Comments:

At 4:12 PM, Blogger AJ in Nashville said...

My experience with listservs is that they are the domain of blowhards. 90% of the input given is that of an egghead who loves nothing more than to read his own words. They typically prey most haevily upon the genuine people who are actually seeking knowlegge rather than the others who are merely showing it off.

sonsabitches...

 

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