 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: LaurieBell
Date: 2026-08-19 13:43
My community band will be working on the Sorcerer's Apprentice transcribed by Mark Hindsley this season.
The original manuscript version for the Hindsley transcription is almost illegible. It looks as if it was originally formatted by hand. Apparently this is a know issue as the publisher even advises customers to "view the music sample... to ensure legibility is acceptable" before purchasing, acknowledging the potential difficulty.
Has anyone taken it upon themselves to re-notate the specific parts for their own use using software like Sibelius or Finale? I'm specifically looking for the 1st clarinet part, but others in our clarinet section would surely appreciate it as well.
If not, does anyone know of a service I could hire to do this? I honestly don't want to spend months woodshedding this difficult part that is so hard to read.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2026-08-19 20:03
Why the Hindsley transcription in particular? The old Winterbottom transcription is still in print; it's engraved. There are more recent transcriptions that are probably engraved too.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2026-08-20 22:07
No you can’t take it upon yourself to typeset it. That would infringe the copyright of the publisher. If people complain about it consistently then perhaps the publisher will invest in having new parts engraved. They are often reluctant to do so because of cost. But complaining does sometimes work. It happened to me some years ago. I was recording a work that was a transcription for clarinet and strings of a clarinet and piano work. The parts were handwritten and terrible. We wasted a lot of session time trying to work out notes etc and even discovered that in one movement there were a chunk of bars (measures) missing. I ended up typesetting it for the publisher.
Peter Cigleris
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Author: LaurieBell
Date: 2026-08-21 14:27
Thank you. I have since learned the nuances of copyright law as it pertains to sheet music.
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Author: Philip Caron
Date: 2026-08-21 16:59
Copyright law, like most or all control systems, fails in two ways: it prevents some reasonable things, and it allows some unwanted ones. In this case, the publisher doesn't seem to lose anything if you simply re-notate the parts for your own use: they were paid as usual. If it's a rental, then if you disposed of the re-notated parts after the rental terminates, again the publisher would be unharmed.
That's not how the law goes, though. As in the case Peter related, maybe the publisher would be open to a deal.
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Author: davyd
Date: 2026-08-21 21:17
Even though the director selects the music, would it be "wrong" for a player, or a group of players, to politely suggest that a more readable edition of this challenging piece would be the way to go? They could strengthen their case by offering to underwrite their proposed acquisition.
The objection being raised is not a subjective one ("I don't like this piece"). It's an objective one ("I can't read this piece").
Post Edited (2026-08-22 01:39)
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The Clarinet Pages
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