Trends in the Price of Music Monographs and Scores as Reflected in Notes, 1995-99

This article is the sixth in a series of annual price-trend analyses based on data drawn from the "Book Reviews," "Books Recently Published," "Music Reviews," and "Music Received" features in Notes. As in the previous installments, the data are organized into eleven categories developed to accommodate the various bibliographical forms represented in the data set. These categories are: monographs, monographic series, monumental editions, keyboard solos, instrumental solos, instrumental ensembles, vocal solos, vocal ensembles, full scores, vocal scores, and miniature scores. Each category is defined below. Sets of parts for bands, orchestras, and choirs are excluded from the data set.

Monographs: Books that are not issued as installments in a publisher's continuation under a distinctive series title.

Monographic Series: Books that are issued as installments in a publisher's continuation under a distinctive series title.

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 M 2, M 3, and M 3.1 of the Library of Congress Classification.

Keyboard Solos: Scores for unaccompanied organ, piano, harpsichord, clavichord, electronic keyboard, and similar instruments.

Instrumental Solos: Scores for a principal instrument, unaccompanied or accompanied. In the case of unaccompanied works, a single instrument that is not a keyboard; for example, a work for one unaccompanied violin. In the case of accompanied works, a single principal instrument featured with a keyboard instrument usually constrained to a subordinate role throughout the composition; for example, a sonata for violin with piano accompaniment, a concerto for violin with the orchestral accompaniment condensed and arranged for piano, or--similarly--a piano concerto with the orchestral accompaniment condensed and arranged for a second piano.

Instrumental Ensembles: Scores for any combination of two or more instruments where no single instrument is featured prominently throughout the composition. Examples include a sonata for two pianos, a string quartet, a piano trio, or a sinfonia concertante for violin and viola with the orchestral accompaniment condensed and arranged for piano.

Vocal Solos: Scores featuring a vocal line to be performed by one singer, with or without accompanying instrumental forces of any number or type.

Vocal Ensembles: Scores featuring multiple vocal lines to be performed by two or more singers, with or without accompanying instrumental forces of any number or type.

Full Scores: Scores presenting the notation for all the performing forces required by a composition simultaneously, by means of vertical and horizontal alignment and placement upon each page.

Vocal Scores: Scores presenting the text and notation for all the vocal lines required by a composition, but presenting the notation for the accompanying instrumental forces condensed and arranged for a single keyboard instrument--typically a piano or organ.

Miniature Scores: Scores identical to full scores, but reduced in size--typically to a height of around nineteen centimeters.

Though both foreign and domestic publications are represented, all prices are reported in U.S. dollars. The data presentations that follow include tables for each category showing the number of items in the category (Items), the total price of the items (Total), the arithmetic mean of the total (Mean), the highest price encountered (High), the lowest price encountered (Low), the standard deviation (S.D.), and the percentage of change in the mean compared to the previous year (%). ¹ Each table is accompanied by a line graph that plots trends in the mean price over the years observed. The vertical axis of each graph is scaled in U.S. dollars, while the relevant years are presented on the horizontal axis.

Calvin Elliker is the head of the music library and an assistant professor of musicology at...