Prices of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 1998-2003

As usual, the numbers presented here are based on data drawn from the journal's "Books Recently Published" and "Music Received" columns only. This allows the reporting of prices to reflect current publishing trends and not become skewed by the time lag for reviews to appear in Notes. In addition, only imprints from 2001 and forward are included. The columns include a mixture of paperback and hardback editions, however no distinction is made in the data below. When prices are present for both, the default is to use the price for the hardback edition. Further, no distinction is made between those volumes issued with accompanying materials (CDs, CD-ROMs, etc.) and those without.

This year's column continues to separate books into English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish so that price trends can be tracked by language. There were 2,128 books (up from 1,762 books last year) included in the above-mentioned Notes columns, though prices could be found for only 1,564 (73 percent) that met the criterion of having a 2001 imprint date or later. Of English-language books, 807 of 1,036 (or 78 percent) are included; likewise, 407 of 537 German-language books (76 percent), 154 of 200 French-language books (77 percent), 142 of 195 Italian-language books (73 percent), and 77 of 184 Spanish-language books (42 percent). No distinction is made between monographs published in series and those published separately. In addition, from the "Music Received" column 591 scores are included with prices for the majority of them appearing in the column.

Caveats:

1. Occasionally, it is difficult to determine from the bibliographic information appearing in Notes in which category a score might best belong. These situations, therefore, required some interpretation and guesswork by this compiler.
2. While reprint editions are included, reissues are avoided if they can be easily identified.
3. In all cases, prices were presented per volume.
4. When prices were not provided in Notes, they were obtained from a variety of online sources including Theodore Front Musical Literature (www.tfront.com), Books-In-Print (www.booksinprint.com), Amazon.com, WorldCat, Otto Harrassowitz (www.harrassowitz.de), Casalini Libri (www.casalini.it), Puvill Libros (www.puvill.com), and Blackwell's Collection Manager (http://cm.blackwell.com). If no price was found, the item was removed from this survey. Prices were converted during the week of 24 May 2004 using the Universal Currency Converter (www.xe.net/currency).
5. Inconsistencies persist throughout the data and therefore it is suggested that these figures be used with some care. Several categories have so few items that any price should be considered tenuous at best. They represent the best guess of what prices were for a given year. These calculations are intended to be used for library collection-planning purposes only.

The definitions for the categories are:

Monographs: Books that are typically classified in the Library of Congress classification ML or MT. Books issued as installments in a publisher's continuation under a distinctive series title are included as well. This category includes books taken from the "Books Recently Published" column of Notes with an imprint date not more than three years old, which are divided by the languages English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. This category no longer includes titles from the "Book Reviews" column of Notes.

Historical and monumental editions: Critical editions of scores usually representing specific ethnic, national, geographical, or chronological repertories, or the compositions of a particular individual. Such scores are often placed in special sections of library classification schemes, as in classes M2, M3, and M3.1 of the Library of Congress classification. These scores usually appear with critical apparatus, and include facsimile editions not intended primarily for performance. Titles issued with parts or an accompanying volume of critical notes are counted as one item.

Large instrumental works: Includes orchestral works, concertos, wind ensembles, and band music. Full scores present the notation for all the performing...