Richard Barrett's "Tract".

[pies]

I know that; I was just interested in the amount of pages that "pies" wanted to buy, to make some comparatively meaningful comparison with Alistair's prices.

Do you have any idea which publishers may be selling his scores in the near future?

 
Alistair's prices for scores are very reasonable.  And he charged me only a few bucks for shipping when I bought a Sorabji score from him.

[ahinton]

And there was me thinking that Sorabji's sheet music is overpriced.

Thinking doesn't always pay, evidently! Seriously, though - to anyone who genuinely thought this, I would have to ask "compared to what?"...

What John writes covers most of what apparently needs to be said here. That said, a particular yardstick (metrestick?) for the basis of The Sorabji Archive's pricing policy when we launched back in the 1980s was prices per page charged by British Library and other like organisations; as best I recall, this was around £0.23 per single side of A3 - and for that one would need to go to BL, order up the material and do the copying oneself. Our prices didn't approach theirs then; they certainly don't do so now. In any case, they include ring-binding in hard card covers, packing and shipping within UK (supplements are charged for airmailing outside UK). Many of our prices, which were deemed reasonable when we began supplying material, have barely increased since then; those that have are, for the most part, the cheapest items and these have had to increase as a consequence of rising production and shipping costs. Our minimum when we started was £4; almost a quarter century later, it's £8.

Whilst I agree with much of what John writes (indeed, it would not be possible to disagree with it), some scores - not necessarily contemporary ones - are arguably priced at discouraging levels and there may be instances where publishers' prices raise the eyebrows of prospective purchasers if all that they succeed in doing is to put them off from buying at all; afer all, the publisher makes even less profit if hardly anyone buys their high-priced wares. If we charged current BL-type prices, I suspect that we'd sell very little.

As it is, whilst I accept that many people might initially blanch at the prospect of being required to pay a 3-figure sum in British pounds for a single score, what one gets from us for those few items that are so priced surely speaks for itself. For example, for Piano Sonata No. 5: Opus Archimagicum's £110 price tag, one gets a new edited and typeset 434-page landscape format A3 score, bound, packed and shipped to anywhere in UK (the price including airmailing outside Europe is £132.50) and which almost certainly adds up to more than six hours of music. For another example, the edited/typeset score of the 100 Transcendental Studies, priced at £245 (to UK) / £300 (to outside Europe), weigh in at over 5.5kg (bound and packed), so the shipping costs alone may easily be imagined.

The principal problem today is, I think, the assumption on the part of some people that sheet music (or at least its print-ready equivalent in electronic form) is their right to obtain, free of charge; quite how such people manage to conclude that anyone (from composers to publishers) can afford to bring it into existence in the first place escapes me. The sheer absurdity of the prospect - for a composer who self-publishes - of paying all the costs for the privilege of so doing surely speaks for itself!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

the edited/typeset score of the 100 Transcendental Studies, priced at £245 (to UK) / £300 (to outside Europe), weigh in at over 5.5kg (bound and packed)

Alistair

That is tempting.

If I bought 2, I would be able to cancel my gym membership.

Thal

[ahinton]

That is tempting.

If I bought 2, I would be able to cancel my gym membership.

If you bought two, you might no longer be able to afford your gym membership! That said, you would otherwise be able to cancel it only if you used the scores for weight lifting purposes and, if you were to do that, you'd need to keep them in the packaging in which they'd have been mailed to you, as the score comes bound in two separate volumes.

In reality, however, you'd probably lose more weight (and gain more pianistic prowess) practising the studies than using the score of them as you might use dumbells.

Anyway, regardless of the use to which you might wish to put it, you have only to send an email and order this work and make the necessary payment direct into our bank account and we will oblige promptly!

Best,

Alistair

[djealnla]

As it is, whilst I accept that many people might initially blanch at the prospect of being required to pay a 3-figure sum in British pounds for a single score, what one gets from us for those few items that are so priced surely speaks for itself. For example, for Piano Sonata No. 5: Opus Archimagicum's £110 price tag, one gets a new edited and typeset 434-page landscape format A3 score, bound, packed and shipped to anywhere in UK (the price including airmailing outside Europe is £132.50) and which almost certainly adds up to more than six hours of music. For another example, the edited/typeset score of the 100 Transcendental Studies, priced at £245 (to UK) / £300 (to outside Europe), weigh in at over 5.5kg (bound and packed), so the shipping costs alone may easily be imagined.

What about shipping to the U.S.?