The Organ Forum

I enjoy collecting organ music. It makes for good sight-reading fodder and an opportunity to learn new repertoire. Recently I have been buying a lot of French organ music and a bit disappointed at how expensive it can be.

 Why is this?

 Any tips where I can buy some cheaper copies of it?

---

2m Viscount Opera Organ

IMSLP,everything on IMSLP is free. Of course they don't have any non-PD music at all.

---

Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

Dover Publications have some great collections and reprints which are cheap.

Piano Files is another place where you can trade music with others in PDF format.

Alternatively, you can send me a message telling me what you're looking for and I can see if I have it.

I'm not sure why French editions are quite so expensive - quite often the quality of the paper it is printed on leaves much to be desired.

tumult_in_the_praetorium:

Dover Publications have some great collections and reprints which are cheap.

Inexpensive yes, but Dover have always had a nasty habit of not staying open on the music rack.  Then -in my experience- they add insult to injury by falling part.  I once bought a Dover score, and whilst thumbing through it on the Tube returning home, some of the pages detached!  Well, that got returned...

IMSLP have some good stuff, but currently a lot of the files are temporarily blocked.  And some of those have long been PD, i.e. an Arensky score I tried to grab the other day. 

I have had bad experiences with Dover Publications.  Their books don't last that long and the pages seem to come apart easily.  I am not too keen on PDF files.  I prefer having real books with real bindings.

---

2m Viscount Opera Organ

I remember for my Grade 8 ABRSM exam I had chose to play Mors et Resurrectio (Jean Langlais). So I placed the order and it arrived and I wasn't impressed.

It was a flimsy thing printed by some small time French organ music publisher that looked like it had been run off a photocopier. There weren't more than about 8 or so A3 pages stapled in the middle and it cost me £16 (US$32)!

Well I wasn't best pleased, since £16 is a heck of a lot of money for a couple of A3 sheets. Since then I have also noticed that French music seems to be excessively priced for some peculiar reason, especially those from smaller print houses.

... I received the piece and tried it and hated it, its been sitting on my shelf for some years now unused.

On a slightly different note, I've ordered some things from Schott recently and have been impressed by their publications. Some come in a lovely silver and yellow cover with a Schott large logo on a peculiar plastic like coated paper which is rather durable.

 

---

Currently own:
ALLEN TC-3S (#42904 - 3rd Feb 1971) with Sequential Capture System

Speakers:
x1 Model 100 Gyro Cabinet
x1 Model 105 Cabinet
x3 Model 108 Cabinet

Many of the Dover books I have used over the years I have found to be less than rigorously edited (at least to modern standards) presumably because they are simply reprints of earlier editions. Some of the Bach I have used didn’t have BWV numbers for each piece, and some of the left hand was in tenor clef! I’ll leave that to the Viola players!

 

Dover’s ‘complete’ Widor Symphonies also is inaccurate since, helpfully, Widor continued to edit his work AFTER publication, so there are different versions of some of the works! However, John R. Near has researched this as part of his doctoral studies and has published a complete critical edition of the 10 symphonies:

 

http://www.areditions.com/rr/rrn/n011_020.html

 

Still a bit pricey though, but at least your getting a good quality of thoroughly researched editing!

 

The Franck edition by Dover has served me well. Contrary to the comments here, it is rather sturdy and even after many years of use is still in one piece! You do need to read the Rollin Smith books though as there are one or two errors to beware of! The Guilmant sonatas are produced well (reprints of Schott editions) although it is infuriating why Dover should only choose to print the first 5! Schott have the remainder though.

 

The complete organ music of Vierne is also available quite reasonably at:

 

http://www.carus-verlag.com/index.php3?BLink=Vierne

 

As for the rest, yes it is quite expensive, though some of it is completely worth the investment - others quite simple isn't!

That's a good question. Looking at some of my French music, I've got Editions Durand & Cie, and Henry Lemoine & Cie. On most of my music, the price tag has faded but my book of, "Les Trois Chorals," by Franck was $48.95, but I got it on sale for 30% off at the time.

I find music in general to be expensive, but yes, the French editions do get pricey. I just figured the higher price was due to the edition being more reliable and accurate, and because it had to travel accross the pond to get to me. But I could be mistaken in my assumption.

D'ya know, I agree that they're pricey, and I agree it's a PITA, but I just can't bring myself NOT to buy those original Durand etc. editions. There's a kind of romance to them, even in the typesetting and cover pages. I know I know, I'm an idiot, but there it is.

There are a couple of shops I go to whenever I'm in Paris that occasionally have sales on certain items. Still not cheap of course.

MonsieurOrgue:

Some of the Bach I have used didn’t have BWV numbers for each piece, and some of the left hand was in tenor clef! I’ll leave that to the Viola players!

Why should violists have all the fun? 

Old-school organists prided themselves in their ability to read three clefs; it is becoming a lost art.

Yes it is a pain, but why not give it a shot?  You will feel it is worth the effort.

---

Soubasse32

Monsieur Orgue, as a violist (and an organist albeit kind of lousy at both) viola does not regularly use tenor clef, we use alto clef, and are as far as I am aware really the only instrument out there which use alto clef as a matter of course. Cellists, bassoonists an I believe double bass use tenor clef for stuff too high for bass clef, but still kind of low for treble clef. I used to know how to read tenor clef, but have forgotten since I lost my copy of Wachet Auf where the left hand is in tenor, and have since gotten a copy with the left hand in bass. But I read three clefs (sticks out tongue and makes rasberry like sound).

There is always Schirmer for music, as my viola teacher (also a piano teacher) calls it the yellow plague.

---

Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control

In all honesty, the Dover books which I use most are now rather tatty - the Vierne Symphonies and the Cesar Franck works (I have replaced the latter with the Bornemann editions).

There are some good collections of French music by Cramer - I have a few of them - which are quite good.

I just can't bring myself NOT to buy those original Durand etc. editions. There's a kind of romance to them, even in the typesetting and cover pages.

 Yeh there is something about the creamy covers and typeset.  I like the look and feel of them.  Shame I can't play very much of it lol.

---

2m Viscount Opera Organ

Yeah, I realise that now thanks. (I don't play Viola as you've probably guessed!) Should have perhaps called it the 'C' clef, but in any case, in either position, alto or tenor, it is a bugger to read!

Alto's not so bad (of course I've read it nearly everyday since freshman year of high school, it's just treble up a step and down an octave). I think tenor's a pain, but it is less confusing the treble sub-octave, that one could get you if you're not careful in your reading.

---

Once you can tie your arms into a pretzel and your legs into a knot, you've got it under control