David W. Fenton wrote:
That would be Kalmus, of course.
Ray adds:
Thanks for the first part of that sentence, David. The "of course" was
not appropriate in this instance, of course!
I have played as many or more bad Kalmus editions as any one else on
this list. Take a look at the bass trombone part to the Shostakovitch
1st for a real crime - whole passeges left out, and others written in
the wrong octave by someone who couldn't figure out how to convert alto
clef into bass. Why he/she didn't leave the passage in alto, I don't
know. I never associated with Kalmus the color pink. My color-OK
family members in the other room say they see other colors on the covers
they have - green, etc.
Well, I don't think there was any purpose served in color-encoding
the references to publishers -- I was just following the practice
already established, for humor's sake.
Yes, I realized that. I really did not mean to sound like I was
criticizing you in this instance, as the pink reference was very much in
context (more in context if it was corrrect, I suppose, but, whatever...).
It just that there are too many things in the world that are color-coded
that don't have to be.
A number of years ago, when my orchestra would do some rehearsals at the
local large university (U. of Louisville) they would give us these
parking passes that would have one shade of a color, supposedly green,
on them. I would drive around until and hold the parking pass up next
to sign until I found one that looked the same color, as far as I could
tell. Then I would come back and find a ticket on my car because that
wasn't green, it was brown or something. The supposedly green signs
looked NOTHING like the shade of green on the parking pass they'd given
me. I'd go to the parking office and complain until they would excuse
the ticket. The problem was, they'd say, the parking passes and the
signs are printed by two different companies and they're color greens
don't match. I suggested that they paint their colors on the sign and
the parking pass if they want, but right in the middle put a box with
the word "GREEN." They said they'd think about it - and did nothing.
The next year - same damn thing happened. (I tried my best, believe
me.) This time I went to the parking office and screamed louder, making
the same suggestion. They said they'd think about it - and did it! I
don't know if I'm the only one who had the problem (I doubt it) or the
only one who made the suggestion, but it gives me tremendous
satisfaction to see those signs there with all the different shades of
green and brown on them, but with GREEN and BROWN spelled out in the
middle for the 20 or 25% percent of males who are color-deficient.
Of course, Kalmus has actually changed its ways and is engraving its
own editions, some of them actually respectable new editions and not
stolen from anyone else. This has been the case for about the last 10
years, at least.
Yes, the Master Music catalog has put out some nice, low-cost, quality
editions of works that were formerely available only from high priced
foreign sources. One dealer told me it was Kalmus's son, and he was
interested in input as to what pieces to bring out. That was several
years back, though.
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