Gamingforce needs help

[bench warmer]

Just saw this today at GamingForce.

Anyone who has utilized GF's unique  attributes may want to check the link below.

It would be sad to lose it.

https://www.gamingforce.com/forums/concert-hall/announcement-gamingforce-needs-your-help.html

[thalbergmad]

Not the first time, not the last.

[ahinton]

Not the first time, not the last.

Only my personal opinion, of course but, from what I've seen of it lately,"help" is by no means the first thing that I'd say Gamingforce needs (and don't ask me what is...)

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Only my personal opinion, of course but, from what I've seen of it lately,"help" is by no means the first thing that I'd say Gamingforce needs (and don't ask me what is...)

Best,

Alistair

Shame you can't log in an assist

[ahinton]

Shame you can't log in an assist

Can't or won't? Given its past willingness to play fast and loose with unauthorised scans of scores, I'm hardly likely to want to, am I? Let the children in the playground sort out their own differences and problems, if they can. That's all I have to say on the subject.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Can't or won't?

Can't i assume, considering you are in the banned members list.

Thal

[ahinton]

Can't i assume, considering you are in the banned members list.

Thal

You should be more careful of your assumptions; being in such a list does not preclude the possibility of registering logging in under other IDs and email addresses. And that really IS all that there is to be said on that subject.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

If you have been in, i am amazed you have not had all the Sorabji scores and recordings removed.

Thal

[bench warmer]

Play nicely now, children.

[ahinton]

If you have been in, i am amazed you have not had all the Sorabji scores and recordings removed.

Why are you amazed at that? If a few people won't do it, they won't. Fortunately, however, most people still come to us for their Sorabji scores and buy their recordings of his music either from us or from legitimate outlets. Suffice it surely to say (as I have already), however, that I am obviously not about to offer help to an organisation that puts such stuff in front of members without authorisation.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Play nicely now, children.

That's an instruction (or recommendation, or what you will) that is probably more appropriate to address to the Gamingforce folk...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

That's an instruction (or recommendation, or what you will) that is probably more appropriate to address to the Gamingforce folk...

Best,

Alistair

Including Jonathan Powell, who is a member at gamingforce?

[thalbergmad]

Why are you amazed at that? If a few people won't do it, they won't

If they are breaking Copyright, why don't you sue.

Surely you are not completely powerless to stop them.

Thal

[thalbergmad]

Including Jonathan Powell, who is a member at gamingforce?

Excellent response.

Thal

[ahinton]

Including Jonathan Powell, who is a member at gamingforce?

No - I'm sorry, I should have been clearer in what I wrote; by "Gamingforce folk" I meant those who run it and make decisions as to whether or not to permit scans / uploads / downloads, not individual members themselves (and especially not those members who do not provide such unauthorised scans / uploads and/or do not download unauthorised material).

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

If they are breaking Copyright, why don't you sue.

Surely you are not completely powerless to stop them.

Thal

There's no "if" about it, but it seems that you may believe that we have considerably greater financial resources at The Sorabji Archive than is actually the case...

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Excellent response.

No - excellent pianist, excellence of response measurable in terms of my comment on that question which, as you will now see, is the more detailed one that I should have provided in the first place.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

That's all I have to say on the subject.

I would hate to find you in a more talkative mood then.

Thal

[soliloquy]

Lol.  Alistair... no offense... but you're not exactly hard to "pick out" on a forum.


Just look for the guy hanging around all the Sorabji threads posting dissertations per post XP

[ahinton]

Lol.  Alistair... no offense... but you're not exactly hard to "pick out" on a forum.

Just look for the guy hanging around all the Sorabji threads posting dissertations per post XP

I think that you're overlooking something fundamental here; if the identity of the member is not known, it is hardly likely to be revealed by that member merely browsing the forum; posting to it might reveal something if the posts' contents were capable of giving something away, but silence can be especially golden in this context.

By the way, I've never written a dissertation anywhere.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

I would hate to find you in a more talkative mood then.

On what subject? Any? I merely observed that there was nothing further to be said about this one...

I'd stop worrying about it, if I were you!

Best,

Alistair

[living_stradivarius]

What's Gamingforce?

[ahinton]

What's Gamingforce?

Excellent response.

Thalistair

[thalbergmad]

I'd stop worrying about it, if I were you!

I am not, but you appear to have a bee in your bonnet.

Thal

[ahinton]

I am not,

That's good.

but you appear to have a bee in your bonnet.

Appear? You can see one? Amazing! Especially since not only are you not around here to have a look, but also since I have no bee and no bonnet either. Sure, I have an issue about fora that take unauthorised scanned uploads and make them available, but that's hardly a "bee in a bonnet", since plenty of other people have the same or similar concerns (you might have them yourself if you were, or represented, a composer - and I fulfil both of these capacities).

It's useful to be able to see who's trying to do what from time to time, however - and I have to say that one thing for which I have to thank Gamingforce is their illicit supply of the typescripted edition of Marc-André Hamelin's Cadenza to Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, which I happened not to have previously and of which, having downloaded it, I began to sell copies instead of supplying the transcriber's ms. as I had been doing before. Nothing quite like playing these people at their own game, is there?...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Are those your final words on the subject?

Thal

[ahinton]

Are those your final words on the subject?

Thal

I certainly hope so. Don't ask me anything else about it and the chances should be very good!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

It's useful to be able to see who's trying to do what from time to time, however - and I have to say that one thing for which I have to thank Gamingforce is their illicit supply of the typescripted edition of Marc-André Hamelin's Cadenza to Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody, which I happened not to have previously and of which, having downloaded it, I began to sell copies instead of supplying the transcriber's ms. as I had been doing before. Nothing quite like playing these people at their own game, is there?...

You pirate.

[ahinton]

You pirate.

Not sure that this is quite the correct term (on which more in abit). Still, it sounds plausible and effective, so if you accept it as such, then of course it's terrible, isn't it?! Just imagine if it had been one of my own works that I'd had to steal from a thief in order to sell copies of it! Same principle, really. You use the term "pirate" here and, whilst it's not entirely appropriate, I do think that you may have started something where it and the term "captain" might (on the basis of adopting naval terminological references for each), be forced into a neatly unholy synonymity - i.e. one in which the "pirate" and the "captain" are one and the same. Anyway, at least it should prove in this particular context that I have not a shred of moral scruples when it comes to taking advantage of people who may in turn have tried to take advantage of someone else's work...

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Would you like a copy of your "Cabaraphrase Op14", or have you already got one.

Regards

Admiral Thal

[ahinton]

Would you like a copy of your "Cabaraphrase Op14", or have you already got one.

Regards

Admiral Thal

If you are specifically referring to a typescripted one, then no, I don't have one, as a matter of fact.

I just wonder for how much I will get sued by John Kander if anyone ever plays the piece in public without authorisation; I mean, he's not exactly short of a bob or three, so I imagine that he could well afford to instigate legal action from wherever in California he resides. Pehaps you will be the one to perform it; if so, all that I ask is that you do so on the instrument for which it was written and not transcribe it for five-string banjo first...

Vingt Regards,

Admiral of the Fleet (sorry to pull rank) Alistair

[tompilk]

Thal and Alistair, please can we stop? I know Thal is a wonderful source for hard-to-find scores and that there is no-one in the world with quite a collection like his. His sense of humour is also wonderful - I laugh at nearly every post (even when I shouldn't, really!). I also know that Alistair provides a wonderful service for information about Sorabji (he's had some of the most wonderful experiences and presences at live events) and scores of sheet music, in humongous A3 (which I have to say surprised me when it arrived in the post!).
Gamingforce is good to download and have a play through pieces, but really you cannot work from a print-off. Then you buy the real score (unless of course it's so rare you can't - I'm still looking for that damned Antheil Jazz Sonata).
The service which Gamingforce provides is very important for me, because it allows me to evaluate the "playability" of the music. I mean, I can't just go and learn Vingt Regards No. 1 as easily as Gluck-Sgambati Melody. Seeing the score helps to evaluate a piece.
Tom

[ahinton]

Thal and Alistair, please can we stop?

"Please can we stop" what? Having a bit of fun? Exercising our respective senses of humour? Surely not! There'a already far too little of that kind of thing around here to leaven the general effect of what there is here (that can sometimes get genuinely abrasive in an unwelcome way).

The service which Gamingforce provides is very important for me, because it allows me to evaluate the "playability" of the music. I mean, I can't just go and learn Vingt Regards No. 1 as easily as Gluck-Sgambati Melody. Seeing the score helps to evaluate a piece.

The service provided by Gamingforce and other like fora in providing scores of music that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to obtain is indeed extremely valuable and welcome when the material it offers (or successfuly encourages its members to offer) is - as is the case with quite a few other such fora - exclusively in the public domain. Where it falls down is in offering non-public-domain material without ever making the slightest attempt to seek the authority to do so. Where it could - even without necessarily resorting to such prior consultation (though some attempt at that would obviously be preferable) - provide a really valuable service for the specific purposes for which you praise it would be if they were to offer up sample extracts of such works, as does the pianist Fredrik Ullén's website in the case of some of Sorabji's 100 Transcendental Studies (the entire cycle of which I admit would be a very expensive speculative purchase for most people). We're all in favour of the offering of such extracts, provided that they are both short enough and illustrative enough; these can indeed interest people in purchasing the scores.

Best,

Alistair

[tompilk]

"Please can we stop" what? Having a bit of fun? Exercising our respective senses of humour? Surely not! There'a already far too little of that kind of thing around here to leaven the general effect of what there is here (that can sometimes get genuinely abrasive in an unwelcome way).

Sorry. I was saying this because I thought I was in the thread entitled "the most overplayed and overrated... blah blah blah". I thought it was getting a little off topic and that it was a pointless topic.
Apologies. Continue your debate, it is an entertaining read. And, now I have realised, entirely on topic.
Tom
Oh, and I agree, Mr Ullen's website is very good. If only there was a defnitive sheet music web-shop for pianists... there's always one or two scores that are impossible to find...

[thalbergmad]

I ask is that you do so on the instrument for which it was written and not transcribe it for five-string banjo first...

The chances of me being able to play it is extremely remote. My transcription for tenor banjo is almost complete.

Prime Minister Thal

[ahinton]

The chances of me being able to play it is extremely remote. My transcription for tenor banjo is almost complete.

Prime Minister Thal

You mean that the chances "are" remote, not that they "is" remote, methinks. I really must ask that you do not perform in public, or allow to be performed in public, your tenor banjo transcription of this work without first seeking and obtaining the express written consent of Mr Kander and myself (though what you do in private, either on your own or in the company of consenting adults, is, of course, entirely up to you).

President Alistair (above whom there is but one higher authority, whose identity, if not already know to you, may be obtained from a certain Susan of our mutual acquiantance)

[thalbergmad]

My life would be dull without you.

I love the banter.

Regards

God

[ahinton]

My life would be dull without you.

I love the banter.

Regards

God

And God said (before all the witnesses of Pianostreet that could be bothered to look) "I am going to burn in the fires of hell, for i am a non-believer". Hmm. Bit of a credibility loser, that, methinks...

Best,

Alistair

[allthumbs]

What... no comeback Thal? LOL

[thalbergmad]

It is impossibe to argue with Alistair "last word" Hinton.

Thal