The point of scanning old books (or old piano or orchestrion rolls etc) is simply that in the event of some catastrophe there is an electronic archival-quality copy somewhere that can then be reconstructed. Where there might only be, say, one known extant copy of a certain book or roll this is a good idea - especially as it costs little to do once the equipment is constructed. Yes, new books or new rolls will indeed last 100 years but a back-up copy of the data is no aimless task. Agreed there is little point scanning merely to boost the repertoire of midi'd instruments - that just kills the arranger's art I reckon. Keep the books playing - but do certainly encourage the creation of an electronic archive for posterity. It works very well for the piano roll world - in decades to come the benefit will be seen clearer perhaps. Imagine for example if the White's Gavioli went up in smoke one night - all the books, all the organ! Or Thursford has some catastrophe. Or Utrecht. Just such a thing did indeed happen at Amersham once in the not too distant past. Would we ever experience all the music ever again? If it was scanned we might... A music book is computer data. Backup you data! Jake, as to the Belle of New York - I have print copies of the music and the selection so if you are missing, say, 1/2 the selection then I can let you have the music for other lost half if needed. As to musical selections I wrote a lengthy introduction to the subject in the March 2008 Player Piano Group journal. This touches upon the development of the selection from the 18-19th centuries to early 20th, the various publishing houses and arrangers, their interaction with the theatrical stage, European UK and US variants, mechanical music interplay, the place and purpose of selections in published and circulating repertoire etc etc. Any good original old show selection is, by my reckoning, one of the best windows into the musical past - far more so than some modern pastiche arrangement of some hackneyed hit from the 20s etc. regards Adam

Adam, Your theory about the value of electronic backups only holds good if the discs don't deteriorate. I wouldn't waste my time scanning arrangments. How many of us are still using the same hard or floppy dics we bought 10 years ago? Would they be the sligh-*test*-('") bit of use to our descendents in 100 years time? I think not. Meanwhile, the British Musuem has paper and clay tablature that is 2000 years old and still readable. Archives should always be kept paper-based. Electronic files are too unreliable. Ned Ludd

Dear Ned (LOL) You're right about the deterioration of electronic storage media vs digital BUT digital data can be transferred and shared - it doesn't have to just sit on one CD-R in one case. Sharing a distribution of the data increases its chance of long-term survival so even if the owner of one archival copy allows some part of the archive to degrade - likely someone else has a copy elsewhere. The British Museum won't want to store 6 mountain loads of cardboard book music BUT the new permanent developing electronic archive projects will. See archive.org and read how it all works and the purpose. The amount of perforation data that can be stored on a single CD-R these days is astronomical so it makes sense to give the idea thought. Neither the fact that one doesn't need to absolutely embark upon this course to ensure data perpetuation nor the fact that the integrity of any archival data might not be maintained latterly is no reason not to embark on departing the luddite era! In the future we can still live the past you know - the two aren't mutually exclusive. We can use the future to ensure that we remain living in the past also....it works both ways! Funny isn't it : in 50 years people might even be nostalgic for "Pirates of the Caribbean" on the Victory to be preserved or something like that! In order to tackle the issue of perpeting the mechanical music archive read : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Lifecycle_Management These are the big business issues and they may be applied to the data in the mechanical music archive that currently stretches back well over 120 year at present.

My point was that if the copyright on these books has expired, then creating a computer copy of the book means that it can be shared with many people all over the world. If a computer controlled punch is constructed by someone they can use that electronic file to create their own new book or use it to operate a midi-controlled organ. The more copies of the file that are spread all over the globe, the less chance of the unique arrangement being lost in the mists of time !! It also means that the arrangement can be turned into a computer score and studied for its merits. Rather than destroying the arrangers art, I think this allows new arrangers to study the techniques of the old arrangers and try and use them for other tunes. I certainly for one would be interested in looking at examples in score form. This is a lot easier on a computer in my opinion than trying to look at an organ book itself and figure it out - especially if the book in question is falling apart !! Obviously if the book still has a copyright on it then you are not going to distribute it. We could have a new section on IMod for non-copyrighted scanned book arrangements for the budding organ builders out there to do as they please with !! Stephen

Adam Ned et al, I think the idea of preserving mechanical music books/patterns is a very good idea. However there is always the temptation of 'electronic' copies being mercilessly plagerised. Perhaps a more secure archive could be constructed so that genuine music isn't palmed off as someone else's work & the rightful copyright/marker owner continues to benefit in perpetuem. Would as an example, the Amersham Fair organ Museum be interested in creating/maintaining such an archive? There must be many sole copies of mechanical music that could 'slip away' through fire/flood or wear & tear without anyone realising it. Regards Robert Washington PS If we got funding I could start on it next week as I got made redundant on Tuesday! :lol:

Robert! Congratulations on getting made redundant! May it open many new and interesting doors for you in the future! regards Adam