Editions to Avoid

[j_menz]

OK, we've all bought them - error riddled, badly printed, unreadable editions that fall to pieces as soon as you get them home. So, what are they, and what's wrong with them?

To start - My Alfred's Masterworks edition of Alkan's Op 35 Etudes (2 Volumes) is basically unreadable. The print quality is so low that it's virtually impossible to tell a sharp from a natural, a demi-semi quaver from a semi-quaver, or whether a note is dotted or not. The leger lines are so vague that the whole thing is basically impossible to read! Essentially worthless unless you just want to fill up your shelves.

[kchi]

I've seen several wrong notes in Schirmer's WTC.

[49410enrique]

kalmus classics, at least the 'new ones' honestly, in addition to horrible print quality, i do not believe they even bind the paper, it's just a bunch of loose sheets with a thicker sheet as a makeshift cover


not to be confused with the old 'green ones' those are actually quite good. orders of magnitude better the the white ones, i have several of these, the standard and the more scarce 'over sized' scores


i think it was warner bros. they own/owned the current series i think they're prob to blame, as the original house seemed to do a pretty good job.

[49410enrique]

I've seen several wrong notes in Schirmer's WTC.

heavily edited schirmer for the old master is borderline complete garbage. i have seen editions where 2/3 of the page is small print editorial remarks, little of which is really of any help, let alone accurate.

on the wrong notes, yeah i've read the sentiment shared before, i believe there has even been some issues in competitions where someone learned from a schirmer and they were essentially (the competitor) told either they played wrong notes or they used music that the composer did note write.

let's talk fingerings. they're a great tool. a fantastic way to learn bad habits and possibly injur your hands.

they make great bird cage liner though. i hear they absorb animal poop quite well.


i actually don't mind their modern editions (both the 'non yellow' ones and the schirmer yellows that are 'new music', i think they share only a name and running company, there is very little editing (as the music is much newer so it is source material most of the time). the the scores are layed out quite well, i.e. good page turns, etc.

mainly stay away from 'library of musical classics' for older stuff

bad


pretty good/good

very good (and only option)-this is actually on my amazon wish list. it is freakin great. really great!

also good (non yellow stuff and modern)
ie

[zezhyrule]

Dover anything. Don't be drawn in by low prices. The pages are insanely thin, the print quality is low and inconsistent, and they won't stay open unless you set two giant henle books on either side  

At least the pages haven't fallen out yet, which is more than I can say about any schirmer publications. I was sight reading from a fairly new book and one of the pages tore out when I turned the page! I swear I wasn't pulling on it that hard  

[j_menz]

LOL. Did they just google "russian musical words" and plonk them on the cover? Trio, Quartet, Fortepiano, Music, Prelude all make an appearance without any seeming justification.

On Schirmer generally, I find them quite variable in quality. As you say, some are really quite good and some are just awful.  I think they must have had a bad (or at least "interventionist") editorial policy at some stage and those are still in their catalogue. Haven't had any fall apart on me yet.

Dover anything.

I actually don't mind Dover, though what you say is true (though thir "lay-flat" binding does seem quite an improvement on their earlier stuff and better than most.  Not usually for stuff I want to pplay over and over, but a great way of having a lot of stuff to dip into. They have a lot of stuff which is difficult to get (or ridiculously expensive) elsewhere. Their Alkan edition is pretty OK. I've found one typo and theres a line missing from a staff for half a page, but otherwise OK. The alternatives are pretty much Alfreds (who prompted this thread) or Ballidot.  Ballidot, for those of you not aware of them, don't actually bind their editions at all. It really is  a loose leaf collection in a cardboard folder. Their print quality, though, is excellent, if somewhat pricey.

[cmg]

Those new, cheap, American-reprints of the Paderewski Chopin Edition:  got the complete Etudes and NOTHING ON THIS EARTH could be done to keep the damned book open on its own.  Stiff, ugly paper that no respectable bird would look down on its little cage.

Yes, it's a facsimile of the original.  Print job okay.  But the paper!

I finally had to lay the damned score open on the Westside Highway for a day to let traffic smash it down.  STILL wouldn't stay open on its own.

Trashed it and bought Henle.

[schumaniac]

I finally had to lay the damned score open on the Westside Highway for a day to let traffic smash it down.  STILL wouldn't stay open on its own.

good one

All of my Wiener Urtext books cannot stay flat unless I use a pencil to flatten it (getting a lot of the yellow finish on the pencil on the paper) and/or have a book support it :/ but it's really good and I'd still recommend it :p

As for Schirmers, I found a bunch of wrong notes in my WTC, weird articulations in a book of Mozart sonatas (the person who wrote out all the ornamentations needs to learn math!), useless footnotes, really bad text in everything.... at least it stays flat.

There are some wrong notes in my Alfred Chopin Nocturnes book too (I compared it with my Ekier). Alfred's Bach editions waste half of the page in footnotes, as well as an 18 page introduction in one of them :p

[liug_2012]

One time I got a MEL BAY edition of a piece (don't ask me why). TERRIBLE!

I basically had to rewrite half the piece to make it sound right.