Copyright and choirmasters, and whether pigs have wings

A picture of the west end from 2010
Well, being titular organist means you have to deal with the choir library, whether small, large, or middling. St Botolph's library is large for a parish church, a legacy of days of yore when the choir was all-male with the number of boys in double figures. Now it's just double figures and all adult, but at least as competent. Double-choir stuff is out of the window (only one bass and alto), but they can do pretty much anything else.

 The library. Well, I was in for a nasty shock when I looked inside the folders. I had decided I needed to know what we actually had. The official index was about 10 years out-of-date, and to find stuff just ignore the index's idea, which was based on the position in a pile in a double-width cubby-hole: eg 1 A 13, being first cubby-hole, left hand pile, 13th down from the top. Hmm. Someone had changed this into alphabetical order, dividing anthems from settings, but not updated the index. So, out with the laptop, load the spreadsheet, and nine or 10 hours later, bingo. And the nasty shock? Well, the recycling bin was one third full from all the illegal photocopies. I shudder to think how much that might have cost the church had anyone thought to officially examine the files. And how many different versions does a choir need of the descant to Michael?

 I have replaced "O taste and see", which copies were legal but probably dated from 1953 and so torn and sellotaped as to be virtually unusable. We now have a list of stuff we want to do but for which we have no copies. Anyone willing to donate?

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