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Williams donates all his scores to Juilliard


Marian Schedenig

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6 hours ago, Corellian2019 said:

 It would be nice if it was digitized that way. For now, any item in that library is available to students, and outsiders by appointment only

That's a pity 

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1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Just make an appointment then.

Are you replying to me? If so, it's not everyday that you fly around the globe :) money..

 

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I was just thinking that in these modern days making an appointment doesn't necessarily mean to show up in person. It could be a telephone talk or mail exchange where you tell what you're after, and then the library can make the necessary copies for you for a given fee. And it might be easier if you make contact through another library where you're already a user.

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8 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I was just thinking that in these modern days making an appointment doesn't necessarily mean to show up in person. It could be a telephone talk or mail exchange where you tell what you're after, and then the library can make the necessary copies for you for a given fee. And it might be easier if you make contact through another library where you're already a user.

oh alright. That sounds good, I thought you have to show in person! 

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On 3/7/2018 at 5:53 PM, Jurassic Shark said:

I was just thinking that in these modern days making an appointment doesn't necessarily mean to show up in person. It could be a telephone talk or mail exchange where you tell what you're after, and then the library can make the necessary copies for you for a given fee. And it might be easier if you make contact through another library where you're already a user.

 

This is how a lot of research is done in the university archives I work for. A patron will submit a request through email or phone, we pull the material and scan it if it's not done already, then send it to the patron electronically. The problem with Williams's collection is the vast amount of material that will be included. It'll take time (years?) to process, arrange, and catalog before patrons can gain access. Ditization will likely be even further down the road as it's not a high priority for many archives since it can be quite costly.

 

Regarding copyright, we had a patron recently request a copy of a commencement video produced by the university in 1992. The university still holds the copyright, so we could only give them a copy with the agreement that they would only use it for private, not commercial, use. I'm guessing any copyright claims on Williams's scores might be handled in a similar way by Julliard until the copyright lapses. But then agian film studios might also exercise much tighter control over access to their copyrighted property than my university.

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For days, I try to think about a way to answer properly to this important news.

 

It's sad for one part, because, we know that when an artist donate his archives like this, it means that the end of the career is near...

 

It's a first step to a professional retirement, that's what it is.

 

But, it's also a good news, because it means that the artist is aware of his legacy.

 

But in overall... it's a sad news for the fans we are.

 

In his most recent autobiography, Charles Aznavour wrote that he recently gave all his awards, golden records, etc, to friends and members of his family.

 

...

 

Sorry, I don't really know how to end this post. :(

 

 

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By the way, I feel fairly certain that it will be a 'curated' selection, not 'all.. For example, I doubt Williams will include his piano sonata, wind quintet or symphony. I'm also not sure he'll include his earliest film compositions. And obviously no TV stuff, but that was never in the pot in the first place.

 

Would be delighted if I was proven wrong, though.

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True, he might very well not include pieces he considers juvenilia, or concert works written, but never performed.

Would be a pity if that is the case. 

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25 minutes ago, karelm said:

 

Thor, it says: complete library of concert music and film music scores as well as his sketchbooks.  It sounds like everything since sketchbooks sounds like ideas that might not have been fully baked.  This sounds to me like how all of Shostakovich's sketches are at the Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture in Moscow including nonextant works that were abandoned. 

sketchbooks might refer to his complete sketches of the film scores and not actual sketchbooks full of unfinished ideas.

Also it doesn't say TV scores.

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I know what it says. I just don't believe he'll include a lot of the aforementioned items. Perhaps he isn't even able to find them in his own library?

 

But time will show. I hope -- once it gets there -- someone will make a complete list of the items available.

 

They will have no meaning to me, as I can't read music, but I'm hoping others that do will post some thoughts about what the unreleased items are, exactly. I remember a few years ago, I read a comment from someone who had acquired the score sheets for his symphony and said it had a jazzy quality -- like most of his other concert works at the time. Stuff like that is truly valuable. 

 

And -- in an ideal fantasy world -- someone would use them for recordings.

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7 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

:o

Name, address and email please? :D

 

Ha, ha....I can't even remember anymore. Unfortunately.

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I can promise you, it was not a post-humous internet response from Bernard Herrmann. ;)

 

It might be Jeff Bond, actually, and it might be a thread on FSM. I'll investigate.

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5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

If it wasn't for Herrmann's comments on the symphony it's quite possible JW wouldn't have retracted it. Damn you, Herrmann!

 

And yet he tried to persuade RVW not to cut the London Symphony...

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It had too many notes.

 

3 hours ago, Thor said:

They will have no meaning to me, as I can't read music, but I'm hoping others that do will post some thoughts about what the unreleased items are, exactly.

 

Seriously, you should learn how to read music - it's never too late - and you could combine it with learning to play the piano. Just think how great it would be to play The Spark yourself! It would also strengthen your fingers. ;)

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6 hours ago, Bespin said:

It's sad for one part, because, we know that when an artist donate his archives like this, it means that the end of the career is near...

John said he won't retire as long as he can still write stuff, so I believe him.

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From what I've been told the Symphony score is kind of floating around. I've read of at least two people who were able to get copies of it. So I would find it quite likely that it would be on the stuff being handled to Juilliard. Furthermore, that one was performed both in the US and UK, before Williams removed it for revision. It's not like a thing he wrote on his teens that he don't even recall about.

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20 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

It had too many notes.

 

 

Seriously, you should learn how to read music - it's never too late - and you could combine it with learning to play the piano. Just think how great it would be to play The Spark yourself! It would also strengthen your fingers. ;)

 

Ha! I actually played piano intuitively as a kid. Quite decently too, and just from sitting down and experimenting. One of my biggest regrets is not nurturting that further (or -- to be more precise -- regret that my parents didn't give me piano lessons).

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

 

Ha! I actually played piano intuitively as a kid. Quite decently too, and just from sitting down and experimenting.

 

Great, then you already have a foundation if you want to start playing again!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/6/2018 at 9:54 PM, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Wow. 

I can just picture him walking in and dumping a huge pile on a desk. WUMP!!!!

I can't remember who the composer was, but I read an article about a composer giving all of his scores to a library, and they had all the piles of music sitting in front of him on the table as they made the announcement.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 months later...
On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 1:54 PM, TGP said:

They certainly won't now own what is technically the property of many different film studios, no.

 

The studios only own the intellectual property-- the music itself. Williams owns the physical pieces of paper, so if he donates them to Julliard, then yes, Julliard will own those paper sheets.

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On ‎3‎/‎7‎/‎2018 at 3:12 AM, TownerFan said:

It's a great gift, especially for future music students and scholars. In recent years, JAKMS had many of his scores and sketches digitized for archival purposes, but it's great to know all of his manuscripts and sketchbooks will be archived (and I hope also catalogued) in one same place. I'm sure all the material will be eventually digitized too for a more convenient perusal.

 

 

I think that's because that was all the material that was available to donate. Keep in mind that most film composers (especially in the early days) saw their work as pure gebrauschmusik, so it's likely JW and Goldsmith didn't think it was necessary or convenient to save all their sketches for archival purposes. Lots of their early material is likely to be lost. Williams once said in an interview that his own attic where he stores material is "a huge clutter" (I'm sure he has people who help him archiving stuff, btw). Also, there's the problem of copyrights and property, as music written for any film is property of the studio or company that owns the film's rights.

 

 

The music belongs to the studio, yes. But absent a contractual requirement that the composer turn over all notes, sketches, and scores at the end of the project, the physical pieces of paper that the composer writes it all out on belong to the composer.

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A composer donating sheet music to a library changes nothing about how the specialty labels still need to license the recorded music from the film studios to release a new album of it.

 

Likewise, it doesn't change the process that someone would go through to commission and release a new re-recording of an old score 

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