 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-19 19:29
Southern Music's had a string of disasters and they're closing their doors- this might be your last chance to get the excellent David Hite books, unless somebody else picks up their catalogue. Even if they did, I'd be surprised if the new owners would feel the need to keep multiple versions of, say, the Rose etudes in print.
http://www.southernmusic.com/
(No financial interest.)
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Author: rtmyth
Date: 2012-02-19 21:20
I bought lots of old, out-of-print concert band scores from them, over about 30 years. It was a gold mine .
richard smith
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Author: Tobin
Date: 2012-02-20 02:54
According to a press release I read (from David Blumberg) the publishing portion of Southern Music is going to remain open. It's their physical store that is closing.
I hope that's accurate!
James
Gnothi Seauton
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-20 05:04
Unfortunately, I don't believe that's correct, based on personal experience- our shop tried to check some backorders and we were told that they'd be out of business before they could be reprinted. If you go to their website, it says they're trying to sell their publishing devision (i.e. their catalogue).
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2012-02-24 15:58
Awful news.
Get your copies of the Harold Wright Signature Series before they disappear.
Bob Phillips
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Author: TJTG
Date: 2012-02-24 16:41
After talking with a sheet music distributor he left me with this impression: We may lose the music for a while, but more often than not another company will purchase their publications.
So we may be without Souther Music's music for a couple months, or a year, but it'll be back under another name.
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2012-02-26 03:09
My guess is that this is a Public Domain issue.
Much of the catalog of Southern Music was public domain but enhanced through edits by David Hite and others.
Now that this material (such as Rose etudes, Cavalini Caprices, Baermann, etc) is easy to procure through sites such as the IMSLP there is little reason to pay for over edited stuff that cost money.
So Southern Music has served its purpose unless it can reinvent itself.
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-26 18:36
I don't think it was public domain- the owner had a bad stroke and they've been fighting lawsuits after being sued for non-payment of royalties.
Moreover, I'd say that *every* major music publisher makes most of its money off of printing nice editions of works that are already available in the public domain... you can get scans of all the Beethoven piano sonatas with a few mouseclicks, but a lot of people seem happy to get the Henle editions on creamy paper for $50.
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Author: Dileep Gangolli
Date: 2012-02-27 11:47
Trevor,
Not sure if you are a musician since your reply seems vague and uninformed.
> By public domain I implied issues regarding copyright. (In US)
> Most if not all the public domain editions are not as well researched as Henle editions which use URTEXT (when possible) for their source.
For my money HENLE editions are worth the money to avoid the over edited and misprint rife editions that are available on public domain sites. And I like the texture of the creamy paper.
Regarding Southern Music - if they were not paying royalties then that is an issue with copy right and public domain.
So they deserve to go out of business if they were violating copy right law.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2012-02-27 12:03
Dileep ... sometimes the royalty issue is much more complex than it seems on the surface. Who, what, how much, how often, etc. can be negotiated and as any contract lawyer will tell you, sometimes what seems to be clear when the parties first agree becomes murkier over time and lawsuits are raised.
I don't know anything about the Southern Music lawsuit, but I have personally observed other copyright lawsuits and have seen agreements "re-interpreted" by one or the other party.
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Author: cigleris
Date: 2012-02-27 15:31
I hope not, they are supposed to be publishing a work I edited for the composer a couple of years ago. :-(
Peter Cigleris
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2012-02-27 19:22
"Not sure if you are a musician since your reply seems vague and uninformed."
Wow, I'm not sure if you intend to sound as ridiculously insulting as you come off here. If I mistook your tone, I apologize. Yes, I'm a musician, and I'd venture that I probably have more contact with music publishing companies than you do.
Your original post implied that you thought Southern couldn't make ends meet because their pieces were available for free online. If you look at Southern's site (assuming it's still up) you'll see that in addition to editions of 'classics' (i.e. pieces in the public domain) they publish(ed) a large number of more recent works, notably for concert band. Moreover, to judge by your later post, you're aware of the benefits of a nicely-printed editions such as those by Henle and, I'd say, Southern.
This is all a bit academic at this point (I believe they're closed), my main intention was to let people know so that they could try to pick up some of these editions before they go out of print, possibly forever in some cases.
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Author: Gary Van Cott
Date: 2012-06-28 22:53
Southern Music Company publishing arm has been purchased by Lauren Keiser. The music will be distributed by Hal Leonard as is the other Lauren Keiser music, but no details yet.
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2012-06-29 02:12
This is great news. Southern published lots of good things at low prices, and it would have been a great shame if they became unavailable. I hope Keiser doesn't bump up the prices.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Lelia Loban ★2017
Date: 2012-06-29 15:36
I hope when the details emerge it'll turn out to be true that Hal Leonard will handle distribution, because having a major distributor will help keep sales higher and costs lower. Not that I'm knocking IMSLP, a superb resource for research.
Lately, I've been researching Victorian-era chamber musicians who performed at the Monday Pops in London's St. James's Hall. Among other things, I needed to see the editions these musicians most likely would have used. IMSLP saved me days, probably more than a week, of work in the Performing Arts Reading Room at the Library of Congress. I would have had to pay bus and subway fare to and from, then 20 cents per page to Xerox -- and I might not have been allowed to copy some of the rarer, more fragile editions.
Thanks to IMSLP, no problem. The site had everything on my list. In a way, that's sad, because the LoC is one of my favorite places in the known universe; the librarians in the PARR are brilliant; and I'd happily seize an excuse to burn a few days there. But then, I think of the money and time I just saved.
All very well for a researcher, but as an amateur musician, would I try to set any of my home-printed IMSLP sheets on my music stand for daily practice? Yikes, no. For that purpose, a nicely-bound edition on heavy, opaque paper is the better part of thrift.
Lelia
http://www.scoreexchange.com/profiles/Lelia_Loban
To hear the audio, click on the "Scorch Plug-In" box above the score.
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