About Orchestra Musician's CD-Rom Library™

History

How did we start?

The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ – a revolutionary development in the distribution of printed music – makes available the original orchestra parts from the great orchestral repertoire (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern) collected on individual CD-ROMs (CDRs) by instrument. These are the standard parts used by orchestras in the United States and around the world. The series currently encompasses over 600 symphonic masterworks in nine volumes, including music by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Elgar, Ravel, Vaughan Williams, Respighi, Bartók, Sibelius, Strauss, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, and more. All the parts for each work are included on individual CDRs for violin (1st & 2nd parts), viola, cello, bass, flute (piccolo), clarinet (all parts), oboe (English horn), bassoon (contra-bassoon), horn, trumpet, low brass, timpani/percussion, and harp/keyboard/other (including piano, organ, guitar, saxophone, etc.).

The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ offers incredible economic advantage over the cost of purchasing printed sheet music for instrumentalists, conductors, and ensembles. Each CDR includes all parts for which that instrument is scored. By acquiring the complete set of parts in a particular Volume (e.g. “Beethoven, Schubert and more”), an ensemble can perform any of the works in that series. At a cost of $19.95 per CDR, purchasing the complete set of 129 CDRs included in Volumes 1-10 represents an investment of $2573.55. Purchasing the set of printed materials for the same 614 works currently available in The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ would cost approximately $300 per work or $184,200 for the entire collection.

With the advent of The Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ a vast collection of printed music is now available and affordable to both individuals and organizations. The future is now.

What is it?

The Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ makes printed sheet music electronically available on a CD-ROM (CDR) scanned in an easy-to-read searchable and printable format. Each individual CDR disc includes anywhere from 40-90 individual works.

Editions

Where does the music come from?

The primary requirement is that both the music and the editions used in The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ series are out of copyright (that is, in the public domain) in the United States. Generally, this means that the edition was first published in 1922 or before. The edition for each work is not identified but the materials are selected from the best available 19th and early 20th century editions including publishers such as Breitkopf and Härtel, C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, Ricordi, Durand, Simrock, Novello, Ditson, and Carl Fischer, and many others.

Modern editions from such publishers as Henle, Barenreiter, and Universal are currently under copyright and cannot be used in The Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ series. However, since these are standard editions used by orchestras around the world, instrumentalists can build a personal library of parts from the standard orchestral repertoire for auditions, rehearsals, and individual study. For orchestras, ensembles or music departments, these materials can supplement existing libraries serving as a backup in emergencies or as replacements for lost or missing parts.

Production

How is the series put together?

In producing each Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ collection, we take a great deal of care to ensure both outstanding scholarship and state-of-the-art production values. Our editorial unit is headed by Juilliard graduate and music industry veteran Lawrence Rosen, an established composer who has developed over 50 printed music collections. We are very grateful for the help we have received from many libraries, musicians, and private collectors. Special thanks to the Juilliard Library, The Fleisher Collection (Free Library of Philadelphia), Montclair State University Library, and the Westminster College Library.

Technical Preparation

What will the music look like?

A single CDR can contain up to 4000 pages of scanned sheet music. However, The Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ is much more just a collection of pages that are scanned and loaded onto a disc. Starting with as clean a copy of the original music as we can find (some of the music is new; some is used), we then use our specially-developed software to further clean any smudges or dirt marks on the original, straighten staff lines (if necessary) and re-optimize the margins to print at 8½ by 11 (“letter-size”) paper. While some reorganization, retitling, and touch-up of staff lines is done, we do not proofread the music or fix any of the original errors. Because of our special processing, in many cases, the music is clearer and actually looks better than the original.

Using the Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™

What do I do?

The Orchestra Musician’s CD-Rom Library™ is easy to use! Formatted for Adobe Reader®. For PC users (with auto-run enabled), just put the CDR in your drive and wait for the opening screen to display. Mac users should click on the “Mac Table of Contents” icon. We have created many helpful features to make searching for individual works quick and intuitive. Our Table of Contents page is interactive and will lead you directly to each title.

Upcoming Developments

New Titles

We are constantly expanding our offerings in The Orchestra Musician's CD-ROM Library™ series. Among the new titles currently in development are collections for Opera (Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini) and Ballet. Updates on these forthcoming collections will be posted on our web site as the contents are finalized and the publication dates are imminent.

Other Products

CD Sheet Music™

The makers of The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ also produce CD Sheet Music™, collections of printed sheet music – individual works and study scores — available on a CD-ROM (CDR). The series currently comprises sixty-one titles including hundreds of works from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods and covering a wide range of genres: symphonic, ensemble, strings, piano, organ, voice, choral and opera. Launched in July 2000 with fifteen titles, CD Sheet Music™ received an enthusiastic response from professional musicians, teachers, students, and serious music lovers worldwide. The New York Times called the series “A convenient source of music that will not clutter up the piano bench.” A companion series, The Digital Editions — reprints of scholarly collected editions — was launched in 2005 and currently offers the collected works of Bach and Beethoven, as well as the 1911 edition of Grove’s Dictionary.

CD Sheet Music™ makes printed sheet music electronically available on a CD-ROM (CDR). Each individual CDR disc contains an average of 2100 pages of music scanned in an easy-toread, searchable format. If the total number of pages available through CD Sheet Music™ were printed, the result would be a stack of 165,000 single pages standing about 40 feet high. By contrast, the 68 individual CDRs in the CD Sheet Music™ series take up less than 12 inches on a bookshelf and weigh less than 4 pounds. The price difference to purchase music in this new format is also dramatic. The cost of a traditional printed and bound copy of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas is a minimum of $35 and can range over $100 for some editions. On the other hand, for a cost of only $19.95, CD Sheet Music™’s Beethoven: Complete Works for Piano includes not only all 32 sonatas but also the sonatinas, variations, bagatelles, dances, short pieces, and even the piano concertos. Over 1500 pages of music on one CD-ROM! See www.cdsheetmusic.com for complete information.

The Orchestra Musician’s CD-ROM Library™ and CD Sheet Music™ are produced by CD Sheet Music, LLC — a joint venture of Subito Music Corporation (www.subitomusic.com) and Stephens Development Company (www.stephensmusicpub.com).