Please folks, a bit of advice.

We, (Canberra City Band here in Australia) have a very tatty copy of the Maurice Jarre music for the film Lawrence of Arabia.

It works wonderfully for concert band and we dig it out every couple of years and thoroughly enjoy playing it. The audience loves it too! 

Looking to replace our aging copy we tried to purchase a new set.  Out of print, no longer available.

Is that the end of the story? Does that mean we can no longer play this great piece?

I must admit I ‘Finale-ed’ a replacement timp part a couple of years ago. The piece has a great timp part and our original literally fell apart!

I would be quite prepared to re-do the whole thing- for our own use only, if we cannot buy it anywhere, but then I would get ‘done’ for that- right? 

Please- advice on how to proceed on this will be much appreciated. We really want to continue to play this piece.

Cheers K in OZ.

Keith Helgesen.

Director of Music, Canberra City Band.

Ph: (02) 62910787. Mob 0417-042171

Keith,

If it's not published any longer I would contact the original copyright owners and explain the situation. You may get permission. I would just go ahead and do the parts that need repair, after all, you did originally buy the piece. From a performance and recording rights point of view, the more the work is played or (perhaps) recorded the more chance the original composers/publishers have of getting a royalty, so you are doing them a favour at that,  rather than let it rot in the library. Who would object? (I'll get flamed for that)

But you have bought back a fond memory I have connected with this piece. When I was 'in the mob' back in the 80's we had an 'Old Sweat' in the Band who was always harking on about his long service and how he had a desert posting way back with a previous 'line' Band regiment.

We used to play a week of concerts in the London parks and on this particular occasion we were just about to play the "Theme for Lawrence of Arabia". The timpanist opened with that magnificent flourish we all know so well, a hand appeared from out of the clarinet section clutching a plastic bag full of sand which was swiftly deposited over the boots of the said old soldier. I was a newbie then - but I remember having difficulty in continuing playing for fear of laughing. The D.O.M. saw the prank and said nothing, just smiled, probably because the recipient was his 'batman' and so he'd also been subject to his tall tales of the old days many times in the changing rooms.

Great piece though.

Jonathan
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