music literature and its dealers

Music Literature and Its DealersAuthor(s): Gordon B. WrightSource: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Sep., 1966), pp. 23-27Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/895135 .

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ANTIQUARIAN MUSIC DEALERS An American dealer speaks:

MUSIC LITERATURE AND ITS DEALERS By GORDON B. WRIGHT

Articles have appeared recently in British journals through which

prominent music antiquarians have spoken out concerning themselves and their work.1 There is nothing new about booksellers expressing themselves in print, but seldom have the music antiquarians made an

appearance. This is not surprising, since the science which music literature dealers serve is a relatively new one. With the tremendous increase in

musicological activity in the United States, which implies the publication of a great quantity of literature, the American scholar and librarian has had to depend on the European antiquarian for his books and music. While few of these gentlemen have ever grown wealthy from selling music literature, their successes have governed their selling interests as well: several recent catalogues from Europe have been of the "100 rare items"

type, containing very rare and splendid books, though the issue is some- times strained. This adds prestige to the antiquarian and serves an immensely useful purpose. Furthermore, these men collect and preserve these books with exceptional care. At the same time, the European dealer is also concerned with the smaller needs of his clientele and until recently has had a great price advantage over his American colleagues.

It is quite obvious that with the amount of literature now being published, with the increase in building of libraries, with more money available for the purchase of books and music, and with an increasing number of students turning to musicology, the problem of distributing the publications can no longer be the entire responsibility of the Euro- peans. No doubt the European dealer will continue to have the advantage over the American in rare and out-of-print books, but what of those everyday tools of students or scholars? There is a limit to the volume which any bookseller can handle.

Let us suppose that a librarian or scholar has found a bookseller who impresses him. What should the relationship be? I have found most of my colleagues to be first of all musicians-some of them at one time pro-

In addition to operating his Book Shop, the author is active as a musicologist and a composer and is conductor of the Madison Summer Symphony Orchestra.

1Hermann Baron, "The Music Antiquarian of Today," Brio, 1:2 (1964), pp. 4-6. Albi Rosenthal, "The 'Music Antiquarian,'" Fontes Artis Musicae, V (1958), pp. 80-90.

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fessionals, but almost all of them enthusiastic and experienced in music and its technical aspects. Most of them are linguists. They are all bibliog- raphers, collectors, and connoisseurs; and many of them are scholars in the true sense of the word. The librarian should take advantage of all of these qualities, for the bookseller is in a sense offering his services as well as his books. If scholars and librarians will approach the bookseller as an equal, there is seldom any limit to what the bookseller will do in

serving them. This is bookselling at its best.

What services do booksellers offer the music librarian? The supply of new books and music is probably the most important facet of bookselling, since this represents the bread and butter of the business. Most libraries

today are buying every new book that appears in the field of music. There is a little more discrimination in the purchase of music, but not much; how often are "new" publications simply reprints of hundred-year-old plates with "editorial comment" typed in. The only justification for this

practice is that some of these venerable old editions were pretty good in the first place, and, after all, music is expendable. Nevertheless, libraries

buy these things by the ton. The bookseller can be of great help to the librarian by suggesting good editions of music. Of course, this is ulti-

mately the decision of the person who wants the music in the first place. But few librarians buy things without a recommendation from someone.

The bookseller is also in a position to keep scholars and librarians abreast of new publications in all areas of music. Certain dealers in the United States are extremely astute in doing this. Regular notices of new publications are an expensive proposition for the dealer, and these lists should be studied carefully. Booksellers are, after all, particular as to what they carry in stock, and more often than not, if a publication is part of his stock, it must have some merit.

For out-of-print and scarce books the bookseller is unquestionably most useful to the scholar. Unless the scholar is able to travel and take time to rummage through second-hand shops, he will never be able to collect the books and music so indispensable to his studies. And it is here that the bookseller takes his greatest pleasure. A variety of sources is available for the dealer to acquire antiquarian items. The purchase of collections or single titles from individuals, browsing about in other shops, purchases from competitors' catalogues, searching through attics and junk shops- all these sources provide the books which have gone out of print. Few Zarlinos will be found in Italian attics, however, and it is doubtful that any of the missing Mozart manuscripts will turn up in places other than libraries, but one never gives up hope.

Aside from offering these services, the bookseller often maintains a large inventory of publications. This is to save time and money. If a

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dealer advertises a book in his catalogue, he should have it in stock. Of course, a latitude of about 90 per cent is a fair one, since every book cannot be in stock at all times. Housing books and music in the proper humidity and temperature also requires attention. And for those dealers who have shops open to the public, access and browsing are very important.

Catalogues are very expensive to produce. Not only must they be read- able and pleasant to examine, they must be accurate. I have made it a policy to include the LC catalogue number when it is available, as well as the title, author, date, pages, binding, size, and price. This is done for the convenience of the scholar, as well as for a means of exact identifi- cation. Generally speaking, a catalogue of about 1,500 items costs between $400 and $600 for a distribution of 1,000 copies. These are expensive little books. The merit and permanence of such a reference tool is up to the bookseller, of course, and a catalogue such as the one produced by Maggs Bros. in 1928 (No. 512) represents cataloguing in its finest form. Catalogues produced by Hans Schneider in Tutzing are also exemplary in appearance.

Many librarians, when receiving a catalogue of music literature through the mail, do not know exactly what to do with it. Obviously, few music librarians have the time to examine some 1,500 entries, so the catalogue usually finds its way to someone who will examine it and recommend purchases. After sitting on someone's desk for a couple of weeks, it is perhaps returned to the librarian with a few items checked, after which the librarian (when he has time) will prepare the proper order forms (which have to be approved by purchasing) and send them off to the bookseller. It is no secret that by this time the good books have already been sold, and the order is returned. In the meantime, who has bought the books? One of the larger libraries, naturally, which has funds ready for such purchases without bureaucratic processing of orders.

The purchase of new books is another matter. Many libraries have agreements with the larger publishers, through which all new publications are sent directly at substantial discounts, thus avoiding the bookseller. Even without this discount, publishers are willing to by-pass the dealer and supply libraries directly. Small wonder that some booksellers are bitter. Then the libraries pass on to the dealer all the orders for books they can't locate, including residue of all sorts. Few booksellers care to cultivate this type of customer, though I have seen few orders returned on a basis of bitterness towards the system.

It is my opinion that librarians and the scholars they serve would be wise to cultivate the services of a dealer rather intensely. The advantages of this are not always generally known. As in all professions, personal

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friendship, if even on a basis of correspondence, profits those who cultivate it. It should be no surprise that a dealer would sell a book to a librarian who had sent substantial orders and requested books once in awhile on a personal basis, rather than to the usual impolite and demand-

ing purchase order, subject, of course, to institutional discount. It wouldn't even hurt a librarian to make an occasional visit to a bookseller, in order to discuss books in general, as well as policies in buying them. Scholars would also profit from getting to know a bookseller instead of waiting for the Norton Co. to send free copies. I have attended

meetings of various scholarly organizations only to find young musicolo-

gists surprisingly narrow in their interests and completely unaware of the existence of many books in their own field. The bookseller is often approached with the inevitable question, "Do you have any books on...?" I personally have little time to prepare bibliographies for lazy scholars. Other customers have sent me lists of such bibliographic clarity that it has been a great pleasure to search for them. Incidentally, such lists are best sent on 3 x 5 cards, each title listed separately.

One of the biggest problems faced by everyone concerned with musicology and its literature is that of price. This factor alone often decides who buys what where. Some librarians (often under pressure from administra- tions or, in the case of some public libraries, from aldermen) will buy only from firms which offer ten cents off on the dollar. A book which sells for $18 in England was recently offered by an American dealer for $22.50. The book, overpriced at $18, was a reprint with the plates so poorly done as to be almost unintelligible. The American firm also claimed to be sole agent for the book, which in this case was untrue. Naturally a discount on the $22.50 price is attractive, but common sense would suggest buying the book from a dealer who offered it at the sterling price. In those cases where the sole agency is valid, the American price must of necessity be charged by the bookseller. But blind purchasing from large jobbers, in order to benefit from the discount, is often in the long run more costly. Of course, the further price advantage of dealing with a bookseller in the country of publication is not always known to librarians, and, obviously, American dealers are not going to advertise the fact. For example, a certain current large Denkmiler series purchased in England is just about half the American price. For such a large purchase, few libraries will want to pay the higher price. As a result, the sets are bought overseas. A bookseller with a conscience is reluctant to sell this set at the United States prices, since the price difference will eventu- ally be discovered, and librarians have redirected orders for lesser offenses.

The matter of price for second-hand books and music is another matter. Here the European dealer is champion. The scarcity of rare books and

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manuscripts, along with the general inflation of our decade and the increased costs of running a business, has caused prices to rise incredibly, though I have spoken with few antiquarians who cannot justify their price, based either on the price he has to pay, the cost of restoration, or a hunch as to the value of the book. Add to this the fact that the sources for rare books are quickly diminishing, and you can't really argue with the antiquarian. As for the not-so-rare out-of-print book, I find customers outraged by a price on a used book, yet they will force their students to buy the junkiest textbooks for twice the price. I would say to those who complain of prices: find me a music antiquarian who has gotten wealthy from his business; or have a try yourself at the business some time.

Naturally, dealing in musicological materials is a fairly new profession-and a precarious and turbulent one. Scholarly interests are always changing, new publications are pouring from the presses, reviews are slow to appear, and the bibliographical processes in the field are just beginning to be effective. The whole question of the paperback market is a stagger- ing one. Some general bookstores are beginning to look like supermarkets. Perhaps it is inevitable that the bookseller will become an anachronism, that books will be sold like groceries, and that the discount-house concept will prevail in all fields. In the meantime, however, occasional encourage- ment of those several dozen hearty American antiquarians and music- literature dealers might stimulate others into entering a profession that educates and stimulates in a thousand areas of musical and scholarly activity, far surpassing in broadness and enrichment a dozen Ph.D.'s.

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music literature and its dealers

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