Klarinet Archive - Posting 000272.txt from 2004/12

From: Oliver Seely <oseely@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] Re: Sousa Collection
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:40:27 -0500

Following the announcement of the listing of the Sousa Collection at the
University of Illinois library site, I wrote to someone there and asked
about the conditions of use and he asked me "which one"?

So I downloaded the entire list and discovered it is divided between
manuscripts and published works. I picked a few from the manuscripts
pretty much at random, checked them against the published works and when
nothing turned up I went to the J.W. Pepper archive of published works and
checked there. When I had six pieces which seemed never to have been
published I sent the information back to my contact and told him I wanted
to create some modern editions, play them with a band to which I belong,
then put them up on my Web site.

He wrote back with an estimate of microfilming of $500 which included a $50
"use fee" for putting it up on the Internet! I told him it was a little
too rich for my blood, with which he agreed.

I have to laugh about this experience in the context of the rare manuscript
collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris being downloadable as
.pdf files and the same with the California Sheet Music Collection from
1850 - 1880 and the recently available "great works" on CD as David
reminded us today. The folks at the U of I, for all their preeminence in
pushing forward the Age of Information, still don't quite get it.

Oliver

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