| Your community group, amateur orchestra, | | | | of Congress or another library in the country. Is it near |
| professional orchestra owns an original 1906 piano | | | | you or do you have to travel to see it? Can you get a |
| vocal score to Victor Herbert's The Red Mill. It had a | | | | copy of it or do you need permission? Can you make |
| wonderful run both originally and during a revival in the | | | | the copy yourself or must you wait for a copy |
| 50s. You decide to stage the piece with soloists, | | | | department to do it for you? This is getting more |
| chorus and utilize a piano and small combo as | | | | difficult than the project appears to be worth. If you |
| accompaniment. "Ah ha!" You say. "It's in the Public | | | | can obtain a copy, do you like what you read? Do you |
| Domain! We have everything we need." But is that | | | | wish to change it? Are you willing to spend significant |
| really a great assumption? | | | | hours re-typing it? What if you could purchase a digital |
| First and foremost, you have a 102 year old document | | | | or WORD version of the same document for a |
| which is of a certain value depending on its original | | | | reasonable amount of money? |
| condition. Next your director will want to know where | | | | Finally, there is that issue of supplying materials to your |
| the libretto (script) is. Finally, your singers and musicians | | | | singers and musicians. You've made a photocopy of |
| will need materials with which to rehearse and | | | | the piano/vocal, now you need to make another 20-30 |
| perform. Let's look at each of these areas. | | | | copies of both the piano/vocal and the librettos. |
| Your original piano/vocal may very well have lain | | | | Remember you began with one 102 year old |
| safely tucked away in someone's piano bench or book | | | | document - certainly not enough for even one person |
| case for decades. It's probably yellowed a bit over the | | | | to use regularly without destroying the historic |
| years and may need to be handled very gingerly - | | | | document. What if you had purchased a digital version |
| while shut. When you open it, it may moan and groan | | | | of the same document for a reasonable amount of |
| and do strange things along it's spine. Is it really usable | | | | money way back at the beginning? You could have |
| for performance? Will it lie flat on the music stand and | | | | been printing out the number of copies you need upon |
| what happens if you try to force the poor fellow into | | | | receiving the file. How far ahead in the process would |
| that flat position? And lastly, how many folks can use | | | | that put you? |
| that one book? "Ah, ha," you say, "I'll just photocopy it." | | | | It may be comforting to think that your 102 year old |
| Photocopying takes significant amount of time and | | | | document will save you lots of expenses when it |
| care, especially for a 102 year old document. For one | | | | comes to producing a Public Domain theatrical piece. |
| thing, you need to make it lie flat - remember, we had | | | | However, the hours that you expend and the condition |
| a bit of trouble with that one before. Let's say you | | | | of the original historic material at the end of those |
| need to photocopy 220 pages - that's at least 110 | | | | hours may make you give up the idea all together as |
| times you will have to force your document to lie flat | | | | simply not worth the effort. And yet, some of the |
| as you press upon it's spine with the cover of your | | | | most beautiful music in the world resides in those old |
| photocopier. Whatever value the original document had | | | | Public Domain works and your audiences will respond |
| when you began, you can be sure of two things: a) it's | | | | very well to your efforts to continue bringing and |
| value will be less when you have finished, and b) your | | | | introducing them to beloved music that they can |
| back and feet will be sore from the couple of hours | | | | actually hum. |
| standing at your copier. What if you could purchase a | | | | Digital versions of Public Domain materials are nothing |
| digital version of the same document for a reasonable | | | | more than a scanned image of that 102 year old piano |
| amount of money? | | | | vocal score turned into a PDF file which can be |
| Now, about that original libretto . . . where might that be | | | | downloaded and printed out as a whole or page by |
| found? "Ah, ha," you say, "on the internet!" There are | | | | page. The same is true for historical librettos. The |
| many sources including libraries and Google who have | | | | retyping of such documents takes a little more time |
| taken to scanning old documents for everyone's | | | | and effort but serves you the producer as a great |
| benefit. Unfortunately, librettos are rarely included and | | | | labor savings. This author has built a career by |
| often pages are smaller than normal, have strange | | | | assisting all those who wish to delve back into |
| lines or borders and might cause your singer or | | | | nostalgia and has begun solving the great Public |
| musician to squint quite a bit. Perhaps a search turns | | | | Domain performance material dilemma. There is hope |
| up the fact that this document is located in the Library | | | | and it's just a mouse click away. |