Carmen Orchestral Parts

[varnis]

Having ploughed into typesetting the complete opera i realised somethine namely i'm fairly sure anyone planning to perform the piece would get a set of published parts, for convenience etc. As such i doubt anyone will ever USE the extracted parts, thoughts people?

Just for your information, ive finished nos. 1,2,3 and half way through no.4; perhaps just if i make the preludes for concert performance or something, what think wise and sage members of the forum?

[daphnis]

Well, I can't speak for everyone else, but I will say that as a performing musician often called to play this, I would be very hesitant to rely on someone else's extracted parts from a typeset of the full score. There's just too great a chance of introducing errors with that much music, and I'd rather buy the part from Kalmus before trusting a random typeset.

[varnis]

Understandable, same thign occurs with everyone's typeset, though i would ad that we have her eprobably the greatest collection of editors ever, with several thousand users if someone sees an error they could note it, if it was sufficiently desired.

[EDIT]On a similar note, perhaps it would be a goood idea to compile a list of people who are willing to copy-edit other peoples typesets, since i know just how easy it is to look at an error dozens of times and not notice it because you think your work is right My name would certainly be on that list.

As far as the hiring of parts/printing though, i see where people are coming from on various threads, but i would say there are many pieces, Nielsen's 5th for example that I have learnt the solos from the parts here, and i see typesets as a perfect way of doing just tthat, casual and amateur musicians looking at the parts and having a blow/saw through for fun, amusement and perhaps at an amateur concert level?

My two yen anyway

[Carolus]

It's an admirable goal to make a set of parts available for free here. That's what this site is all about, after all. In the future, our orchestral music project will probably include parts to operas - I understand that the parts for the Wagner operas are now available on CD. My suggestion would be to work from an existing set of parts, preferably one marked by an orchestra who has played the piece. Kalmus offered two different sets of parts for Carmen until recently: an engraved set (reprinted from the Choudens engraved parts) and a manuscript set (which had its fans, I'm told). Working from an existing set makes planning the page turns, etc. much easier.

[varnis]

My word, I take your point about amateur typesets generally being devoid of good error checking, but seriously, take a look at the parts for H.M.S. pinafore by W.S. Gilbert, there are missing rehearsal marks on the parts, wrong dynamics, incorrect time signatures, missing key signature changes, hit-and-miss tempo markings. Dang, if that makes it through proof reading then my parts to Carmen look like perfection embodied

[Carolus]

There are plenty of bad sets of parts which have been rented, sold and otherwise distributed over the decades. The H.M.S. Pinafore set you cite is indeed pretty bad, as is the manuscript set of the Tchaikovsky ballet Sleeping Beauty, Op.66. As for Carmen, even the engraved Choudens set is not exactly a treat to look at, being a typical example of French music engraving produced in the 1870s or 1880s. The advantage of having access to a (preferably used) set is that a) you get to see a (hopefully) workable layout with respect to page-turns, etc and; b) the librarians players who used the set will have discovered mistakes present in the originals.

[varnis]

Apologies for the bump, but thanks to a project im working on, i MAY, and i emphasise the MAY be able to get the parts scanned within the next few weeks, ill update as the time gets closer

[m.kowalski49]

If on has browsed this forum lately, one can now easily browse the complete string parts at ones convenience.

I have been working on a project entirely dedicated to Utah Symphony Orchestral Parts that were used from 1960-2008, there is quite a lot to process and get up as my time is nearly pressed. But I am currently working on String Parts of Puccini, Verdi.

I can also have the full orchestral parts for the Verdi's Requiem up before the end of the year.

MK.49

[cblake1]

That would be wonderful. My first opera was Carmen!

[pianomatt]

Sorry to effectively be bumping this thread again! Varnis, you said that you were half way through typesetting no.4 (guessing Act 1?). I wonder if in the intervening years you managed to get through to the end of no.5 (and still had it around?). (Or that you had a scan of it?) I'm doing a show where we're only using up to that point, so hiring a full set is quite an effort if you've got it already?