Nordisk Musikbibliotekskonferens 17

The first part of my paper will focus on the reference needs of the orchestral librarian, by looking at the nature of the job. The second will show which reference sources are used to provide the answers for librarians of different kinds of orchestras -opera and ballet orchestra, the period instrument orchestra, the contemporary group, the bands: brass, big, military, and the symphony orchestra - for the conservatoire orchestral librarian has to deal with music for any of these different categories.

John Wagstaff has suggested that every book, music score, recording or web site can be a ‘reference tool’ if it supplies the answer to our question - my interviews with librarians of different professional orchestras in the UK revealed that personal contact with another librarian or publisher is probably the most significant reference source for the orchestral librarian.

Emails from the MOLA list give some idea of the reference needs of the orchestral librarian, and also of the particular pressures created by musical performance deadlines, by the large performing body and the quantity and nature of the music materials. Stories of emergencies abound, as you will see from some of the recent emails on the MOLA list. (Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association )-

‘Our concert is starting in 15 minutes and we need the 2^nd trumpet part of Prokofiev Piano Concerto no. 2.... Thanks - the part is coming through now - five minutes to spare’

‘Stravinsky Firebird Suite 1912 cymbal part. I need this part for a concert TONIGHT. Could someone fax it to me.’

‘Rococo Variations. Can anyone tell me what’s the difference between the original version and the revised version of this work?’

‘Can anyone enlighten me as to the nature of the following 2 percussion instruments that are required in Param Vir’s ‘Theatre of Magical Beings’? - ASXATSE & CHOCOLA’

The principal task for the conservatoire orchestral librarian is to locate sets of orchestral material - or missing individual parts - in the correct edition or version, often with inadequate notice. At the Royal College of Music, I have to provide music for approximately twelve orchestras, bands and large ensembles - symphony, opera and period instrument orchestras, contemporary ensemble, an orchestra to accompany the chorus, brass and big bands, symphonic wind orchestra, string and woodwind ensembles. This does not include orchestral repertoire sessions for woodwind, brass and strings. The orchestral library includes approximately 3000 orchestral sets, 1000 wind orchestra sets, big band, brass band and saxophone choir collections, individual parts of particular difficulty from sets only available on hire (eg. clarinet part of Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin), and a large special collection of dance band music. The individual parts are necessary because orchestral study books are of limited value. The principal flute player of the London Symphony Orchestra talks of an audition candidate for a flute post who failed to recognise the opening bars of Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe, although she had learnt the famous solo in the middle.

I have had a number of difficulties in locating music during the academic year 2002/3. These illustrate the importance of finding the correct version or in one case, the difficulty of finding any performing material at all, for works which were chosen for concerts. The visiting conductor, Janos Fürst, specifically asked for the 1950 Tuxen version of Nielsen’s Symphony no. 5. The staff conductor arrived at rehearsal to prepare the orchestra, with a score of the new Nielsen edition, which had a number of differences from the parts. A personal contact recommended the expert on Nielsen at Hansen in Denmark, and he reassured me about the version we were using. For a concert of popular classics, I had to get hold of a waltz from Léhar’s The Count of Luxemburg. The conductor was not happy with an arrangement he heard performed by the Hallé Orchestra, and wanted Léhar’s own arrangement. This proved to be available directly from Doblinger in Austria. Another programme included ‘2 Episodes from Lenau’s Faust’, by Liszt. One was available on hire from Schott and the agent for Schott in the UK told me the other ‘Der Nächtliche Zug’ was available from a publisher called Schuberth, in Germany. But there was no telephone or email address, and my letter received no answer. A MOLA email only produced the same information. On studying work lists of the composer, and the Edwin Kalmus catalogue, I discovered that ‘The Nocturnal Procession’ was available for sale in America.

A work programmed for our Baroque Orchestra, a Suite from Alcione by Marais, is not published at all. Direct contact with the period instrument orchestras and their conductors has produced a score from Roy Goodman, whose Suite is his own arrangement from the opera, and he was only prepared to give me a score. Parts were made up using a cut and paste method - setting on Sibelius music writing software would have taken too long in this case. Bruckner symphonies always present a problem of version or edition: Haas and Nowak both edited the symphonies. We recently performed Symphony no. 4 and the librarian of the London Philharmonic Orchestra advised me which was the most frequently performed version. I once hired the wind parts only of Bruckner’s 8^th Symphony for a repertoire session, to be told by one of the horn students that her teacher thought that I had been sent the wrong edition. The hire of music for two short operas - Barber’s A Hand of Bridge and Vaughan Williams Riders to the Sea for semi-staged performances organised by a student conductor, presented the complication of signing a licence and paying for grand rights - an additional copyright issue relating to staged works. Finally, our development department recently organised a concert of duets and solos from American musicals - to be performed in aid of the college, by two famous opera singers who were once students at the Royal College. The musicals were Oklahoma, Carousel, The King and I, South Pacific). It was essential to check the keys in each case.

After the locating of performing parts, the most important information an orchestral librarian has to find is the orchestration of works. Percussion requirements are seldom listed in catalogues and orchestration books -although a reference book has been compiled by Maggie Cotton, the former principal percussion player in the CBSO. It is hinted that a percussion mafia operates, preferring such information to be inaccessible to anyone but themselves, but the truth is that different orchestras operate different doubling arrangements for the percussion section. Publishers have to be asked for percussion requirements of hire music.

As a conservatoire with a royal patron, the Royal College of Music has been involved in a number of important outdoor concerts, connected with royal events. The Queen Mother’s 90^th birthday concert on Horse Guards Parade used an RCM orchestra alongside massed bands and the Queen’s Jubilee in 2002 used our student orchestra outside Buckingham Palace. Any outdoor concerts must be prepared for on the basis that the weather will be very windy and wet. Abundant supplies of clothes pegs to attach music to stands, and waterproof folders are required. We have to find particular categories of music because of our royal connection. Every time we are visited by a royal patron - Prince Charles visits once a year - I am asked to supply a fanfare in addition to a version of the national anthem for a specific combination of instruments, depending upon the group performing in the concert - string ensemble, wind ensemble, period instrument orchestra for example.

Arranging for the bowing of string parts is one of the most important tasks for a professional orchestra’s librarian. However the conservatoire librarians do not have time for this, with responsibility for up to 12 orchestras. The parts we hire from publishers are not consistently bowed, and will have been used by many youth and amateur orchestras before us. We cannot pay the professional rate that guarantees the professional orchestras’ clean and consistently bowed sets. This is a problem, now that we are inviting distinguished visiting conductors to conduct our orchestras.

Reference needs for the orchestral librarian include finding out about storage, cataloguing and conservation of orchestral parts. Personal contact through networks are essential to solve these issues. This leads me to the second part of my paper.

B REFERENCE ANSWERS - SOURCES

I will now speak of the sources for answering the reference questions and problems of the orchestral librarian.This part of the paper is divided into categories of orchestra, and therefore of types of music. But first I will speak of the Networks and their publications, which are of use to all orchestral librarians, as are many of the sources I shall refer to under the separate headings.

In the UK we have an informal network of orchestral librarians, organised under the auspices of the Association of British Orchestras (ABO). We meet once a year, together with publishers’ hire librarians, and have a meeting followed by dinner. It is very helpful in our work to maintain good relations with the publishers, as well as each other. One of our members (the London Philharmonic Librarian) produces an annual newsletter called ‘broken pencil’.

Scandinavia has its own organisation for orchestral librarians NOLA (Nordic Orchestra Librarians Association). Marco Feklistoff of Swedish Broadcasting Resources described cooperative initiatives in Nordic countries and the activities of the organisation of Scandinavian orchestral librarians, NOLA, at a recent IAML conference. He spoke of the sharing between music schools and between professional orchestras and music schools. He tells me there are now 35 institutional members, and they hold an annual meeting every Autumn -the 2003 meeting is in Helsinki. He says that NOLA focusses on education and network building.

A useful international network for orchestral librarians is MOLA, which started as an organisation for American orchestras, but is now international in membership.Apart from its email list, and its useful membership list, MOLA is responsible for a number of useful publications for the librarian, all to be found on the web site:

The orchestra librarian; a career introduction

Music Preparation Guidelines

Journal Marcato, which lists errors in orchestral sets for sale.

List of sources for popular classics.

Like the IAML- List (including the IAML UK-List) the MOLA-List can be a useful source of information.

BANDS

(Librarian of the Royal Marines band)

Apart from specialist suppliers, networks are important to the band librarian - WASBWE and the other service bands. The important factor in the supplying of band music is to check the category of band - for they all involve different combinations of instruments. A military band is not the same as a brass band, and a big band different from a wind orchestra, or symphonic wind band.

OPERA HOUSE

(Royal Opera House Covent Garden (also for ballet) and Welsh National Opera)

The librarian of the opera house stressed the importance of personal contacts, and in fact of the telephone call. More information is revealed than on an email. For example a recent phone call to Chicago Opera proved useful because the librarian there warned that a particular singer sang one of the arias in a forthcoming opera, in a transposed key - and Chicago lent their parts for that aria. When the parts of the musical Sweeney Todd were required by Covent Garden opera house, it was revealed that the vocal scores did not match the printed orchestral parts - Chicago again lent the royal opera house their own produced parts.

A famous operatic tenor recently telephoned the librarian of the Royal Opera House from a taxi in New York to ask to borrow the parts to an aria from The Queen of Spades, that had been specially transposed for him. For a recent gala performance including ‘The Lesson Trio’ from the ballet La fille mal gardé the first and last pages had to be faxed from another ballet company, to check exactly which musical number was ‘The Lesson Trio’.

A binding company is important for ROH. The thickness of opera parts requires particularly skillful binding so that the music turns easily on the stand.

The Books on the shelf included:

Letters of Wagner, The Köchel catalogue of Mozart’s works, Harvard Dictionary of Music

Puccini by Mosco Carner, Concise History of Opera by Leslie Orrey, Complete Operas of Verdi by Osborne and a set of Royal Opera House programmes. These are for the librarian’s use only - there is a separate department with its own reference works, responsible for producing programmes.

The Welsh National Opera Librarian lists an important recording catalogue as a useful reference source. This can help in the location of music, by showing who has already performed and recorded a work. Welsh National Opera are buying OPAS, orchestral management software which includes a library database, already containing much data. A number of other British professional orchestras are also purchasing this, and we plan to do so in the near future. The WNO librarian has a substantial number of arrangements of standard operas for small orchestral and chamber forces. There is a demand for these in the UK, for small professional and amateur opera groups.

PUBLISHER’S HIRE LIBRARIAN

(Boosey and Hawkes)

Publishers’ hire librarians are a useful source of information about other publishers’ music. They possess copies of each others’ hire catalogues, and have access to cooperative databases of these catalogues. For example there exists one called Repertoire, which includes the catalogues of United Music Publishers, Peters Edition and Boosey and Hawkes. Boosey and Hawkes, London, represents so many other publishers, that the librarians have to undertake research into any obscure title they are given, in case it is published by one of the publishers for whom they are agents. The librarian I interviewed was recently asked about Staiger’s Carnival of Venice. It proved to be a Carl Fischer work - a publisher that Boosey represents. Their Scandinavian branch is Fennica Gehrman, Finland.

The hire database is the librarian’s first source of information. It contains such data as scoring, duration (because hire charges are based on duration), copyright information, and detailed information about each of their sets of parts and scores for a work - version, edition, whether it was used for a first performance, who last hired it, whether it is a professional or amateur set - that is, the condition of it and the consistency of its bowings. This is useful information if we have a visiting conductor, and need to use the set of parts marked for him.

Boosey and Hawkes’ hire librarian can consult also the Promotion Department’s database, for the history of performances - particularly to find out about first performances - and the Copyright Department’s database, which will indicate when and to which publisher a work became assigned if and when it moved from Boosey. He consults also the BBC’s 4-volume printed catalogue, to glean as much information, before he searches on the web - using Google. Boosey and Hawkes have a list of works which are not in their catalogue, but are by composers whom they represent for most of their output. For example Bartok’s The Miraculous Mandarin, Stravinsky Symphony in C. Boosey and Hawkes is the first port of call for Bartok’s and Stravinksy’s works. They can then easily direct users to the correct publisher.

Their brass band catalogue is now with Subito, USA, and they would contact the New York office for any of this material. They have devised a publisher relationship diagram which they keep up-to-date, (for publishers are constantly amalgamating with each other, or closing down. The diagram indicates which publishers are agents for others. The Music Publishers Association in the UK produces a handbook which has similar information. It is a frequently used reference source for information about publishers’ agents. This is the so for all national Music Publishers Association organisations. Grove Online is a final resort for obscure composer names, for this hire librarian.

BROADCASTING LIBRARIAN

(British Broadcasting Corporation - Librarian responsible for hire for all the BBC orchestras)

Efficiently and long-maintained in-house catalogues and indexes are a very significant source of information both for him, and for every other orchestral librarian in the country. Because the BBC commissions a large amount of music, particularly for the summer Promenade Season of concerts in London, this librarian deals a lot either directly with composers or with the promotion departments of publishers. The BBC Symphony Orchestra performs much contemporary music, and not just by British composers, so the Music Information Centres of different countries are an important source of information.

The period orchestra is particularly concerned with good, authoritative performing editions. So the publishers of urtext and facsimile editions are essential sources. - Bärenreiter, Carus in Germany, King’s Music in the UK, where the publisher is a musicologist, and formerly BBC librarian - and a useful source of information. The librarian of the OAE is happy with Edwin Kalmus parts for a number of standard repertoire works- he cited Schumann. The Kalmus catalogue is useful for timings and orchestrations of standard orchestral repertoire. This librarian frequently has to make up sets of parts from microfilms of manuscripts or out- of- print scores to be found only in national libraries or other archival and research collections. He recently found an Anton Reicha work, programmed for performance by his orchestra, in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. To help him in this research, he will contact a specialist on the composer concerned - the author of an article in Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, for example.

Like the BBC librarian responsible for hire, the contemporary orchestra librarian relies upon the promotion departments of publishers, international music information centres and direct contact with the composer, when a young composer does not yet have their own publisher. Individual composer leaflets, produced by the publishers for their composers are a useful, and sometimes the only source of information about their works.

(Information from ‘Hunting and Gathering Orchestral Music’ prepared for 2001 MOLA conference by Greg Vaught, San Antonio Symphony and used by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra)

Vaught’s favourite web sites are MOLA, Indiana University School of Music, Duke University Music Library. But he believes ‘the Librarian’s Memory bank’ is his ‘ultimate resource’. The list indicates that American orchestral librarians are using web sites and email lists more than English. MOLA’s ‘Pops Music Sources’, compiled for the 2001 conference and available to MOLA members only is a useful reference source for film music, children’s concert music, (Tubby the tuba) popular classics, jazz settings for orchestra, gospel, big band and pop medleys, Beatles, and Music Theatre.

Finally I have added to your handout my own favourite reference sources. Hard copy sources of information for publishers, orchestrations and timings are the BBC catalogue, Daniels’ orchestration book, Farish’s Orchestral Music in Print (now also available online) - both American publications, with an American bias - and publishers’ catalogues (some also available online). But the publishers catalogues have to be requested, are less current now as web sites are developed, and agents in one’s own country don’t necessarily send the catalogues of all the foreign publishers they represent. I am frequently asked by members of the public where they can get hold of a set of parts. I direct them to a useful UK database of sets (a national union catalogue of orchestral and vocal sets) held in public and other music libraries, called ENCORE. This site has been created as a IAML UK project - and it is hoped that publishers’ hire libraries will soon add details of their sets of parts to it. Personal contact is also essential for me - the UK ABO network of librarians in particular. The BMIC (British Music Information Centre) web site, leading to the IAMIC site, is helpful for the location of contemporary music. I also use the Performing Right Society who have a database of all the musical compositions for which rights have to be paid. It is a useful final resort as a source of publisher information.

My conclusion from speaking to librarians in various branches of my profession is that the most important reference source is another person - a publisher, professional colleague, musicologist or a good retailer. (I often call on the expertise of our suppliers, Kensington Music Shop) For this reason, informal networks and email lists (MOLA, NOLA, the ABO and IAML) are very useful. Publisher and agency information can be found in Music Publisher Association directories, from Performing Right Societies or Music Information Centres. In -house catalogues, and retail (reprint) catalogues - particularly Edwin Kalmus are also very important, but with the caution that some works for sale in the USA are still in copyright in Europe. Finally, knowledge built up from personal experience is, as the MOLA ‘hunting and gathering’ document notes, ‘the ultimate resource’. I should like to thank all the librarians who helped me in to produce this paper and compile the list of reference sources.