From: Dr Colin D Reed
To: vocalist
Subject: Poor binding. Was Copying music for auditions
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Anita wrote:
>My problem is that my accompanists insist on using photocopied music to work
>from. The binding on books these days are not "pianist-friendly" and
>constantly close on them. On one occasion, an accompanist (who I no longer
>work with), took my opera score, opened it at the middle, placed it face down
>on the floor and stepped on it, breaking the binding!!

I can understand this frustration. I recently bought Bellini "15 Compositioni
da Camera" published by Ricordi. The binding is appalling, especially for
such a thin book. I should perhaps explain that my day job is working for an
adhesives company, and one of our biggest business areas is selling
bookbinding adhesives. I am not aware of us selling to any of the binders
that do the work for major music publishers, but this has set me on some sort
of mission. I am in contact with our Italian office who I have instructed to
go and sell decent adhesives to Ricordi. With any luck, my next Ricordi score
should stay open on the piano music stand. With any luck we can persuade
these binders that music needs to stay open, and will not be held open. It is
possible to bind paper so that it will lay flat, but it is a more expensive
and slower process. Given the price that we have to pay for music anyway, I
think we should expect a higher quality.

Colin Reed, Tenor
Newark, UK
Tel: +44 1636 706158
Mobile: +44 973 952447