Hi Jason -
How about looking at library fees as your contribution to keeping
the music that you love alive? Libraries are facing tough times now.
The people who work making microfilms aren't getting paid a lot of money,
and the directors of the library are getting pressured to cut services
out so that they can pay for expensive technical journals for the
researchers who have the money that the libraries need. When you pay
the library for a copy of an manuscript you are telling the library that
their manuscript is important and worth making accessable to the world.
If you are playing for free then lute is your hobby, and if you are tring
to convert electric guitar players then lute is your cause, and in both
cases you should be supporting the people who are making it possible
for you to play this music by giving them a little financial support.
Someone has to pay librarians, photographers, researchers, and
facsimile publishers, and none of these people are getting rich.
But if there was nobody preserving the old manuscripts and books, and
nobody finding them, and nobody making the music available to you, the
player, you would have no music to play (except rock-n-roll.)
So spreading the word goes two ways - you try and reach more people,
but you also should try and support the people who have reached out
to bring you to where you are now!
Wayne
>
> Dear all,
> This whole copyright issue really miffs me; the idea is to PROMOTE the
> music, not to make a profit from it. I must be on a totally different
> wavelength. Doesn't anyone have the end goal of just popularizing ( making
> more people aware of ) this music without making some sort of petty profit
> from it? I'm not referring only to the publishers, but the libraries which
> hold the manuscripts, etc.
> It's no wonder why there isn't any demand for early music (and don't tell me
> there is - when was the last time an early music CD went platinum?How about
> a video? Sold out arena?) unless they are already interested in it or happen
> (by chance, as I did) to hear it from a guitar transcription.
> SPREAD the music, folks, that's the bottom line - play it, teach it,
> disseminate it, listen to it and encourage others to do so as well. I
> entertain (for FREE) any party, wedding, occasion or otherwise and NO ONE
> has EVER asked me about some obscure manuscript #3545476 from the Tugigalpan
> library. The only people who care about the trifling details are musicians
> and scholars - and they are in short supply. I have probably turned a couple
> dozen electric guitarists onto lute music and it is a very satisfying
> experience. You can argue about all the details later, when there is
> actually a market for this stuff. Without a market (listening public),this
> music will die, just as the composers of it did a few hundred years ago.
> Jason
> P.S. You may freely distribute copies of this e-mail, free of charge.
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