i am thinking of shelling out a lot of coin for a collection of piano music books i have always wanted, in one form or other, since high school. the complete set such as it exists today probably did not exist in the 1980s, and today it is available in something like 28 volumes for about $2000 USD. that’s a lot of money for a bunch of books, but there is more to it than just materialism and further accumulation of fire-hazardous paper product. the scores are of Liszt’s arrangements and transcriptions, many of which are not available in any other form, and which i have been unable to find in any form online as downloadable pdf. and even if i did find certain of these pieces as pdf i would be unlikely to download, print, clip or bind together, etc. that whole arts-and-crafts process of making downloaded PDFs usable is an annoyance. printed scores are hardly perfect, either, but i can accept and live with their idiosyncracies, having done so already since the 4th grade.
anyway, there is something of a “greater good” at stake in buying the set of scores. evidently it is at present impossible to buy individaul volumes from this series. only the complete set is available, and it might even be that the set would be printed on demand if i do order it. the “greater good” to which i might contribute is that by ordering a complete set the publishers would actually print up several sets, thereby making individual volumes available for others to purchase. that would be a big yay for me.
the funny thing is, there is a 2-page piece by Liszt, an arrangement of tunes from Weber, that I have wanted for years. i found that piece in an $80 volume of Liszt arrangements at Patelson Music House many years ago. at the time i thought $80 was a lot of money to pay for a book when i only wanted 2 of its pages. now i am thinking of spending $2000 to get that single volume and several others, and the first thing i would look for if/when i get that set would be that 2-page Liszt/Weber arrangement. so i’ve gone from demuring at $80 for this piece to embracing $2000 for the same thing.
aha, it is not that straightforward, but it is peripherally emblematic of the situation.
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i cranked up the Ginastera today, reading again through the American Preludes. some of that shit is better than i thought. and the Shostakovich 2nd concerto is so familiar to me that i sight-read it pretty easily.
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an anorexic woman and her man just stopped to ask me about this keyboard i am using. that was fun. the woman works at another bar i go to sometimes, but i’ve never mmmeet the guy before. nice people. good peoples.
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i bought a giant bottle of Stoli and a medium-size bottle of Beefeater Gin this afternoon. the liquor cabinet rises again. i did Stoli gimlets a month or so ago, unaware what havoc those tasty concoctions wrought upon my brain matter. good times.
