Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

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Christof Schardt
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by Christof Schardt »

RMK wrote: 17 Feb 2017, 19:39 Spiral bound parts are a nightmare for orchestra librarians. They take up a lot of storage space and the spirals are always getting tangled up with each other.
..orchestra librarians...: That's the term I'd been unsuccessfully looking for to translate the german Notenwart.
Indeed, these are the persons who depend on the handling of the parts and give you valuable feedback from practice.
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John Ruggero
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by John Ruggero »

Interesting and enlightening. Yes, comb- and spiral-bound music takes up more storage space. But for me, the ease and reliability of page turning when using such parts far outweighs that consideration.

And I've never had any trouble with comb-bound music getting entangled, and I own shelves of it and dealt with a lot of it with Arnstein, which may explain why he used only comb-bound. For many decades, the parts of important American stage works were bound in this fashion, including the Menotti and Barber operas, the Bernstein Mass etc. with no complaints. And when the parts came back, there were no issues. These parts were sturdy and reliable.

The spiral can be problematic if the ends are not properly bent in to lock it. But I have stacks of that stuff too and never had problems with entanglement.

How else does one conveniently bind parts that have more pages than can be stapled into one signature? Perfect bindings, gluing signatures together, taping, Gamble hinges etc. are all problematic, at least for me. Perhaps a new thread on binding techniques would be helpful.
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David Ward
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by David Ward »

I've been told by one publisher's hire librarian that some orchestras this side of the Atlantic specifically ask for coil bound parts for hiring.
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RMK
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by RMK »

John Ruggero wrote: 18 Feb 2017, 03:18
How else does one conveniently bind parts that have more pages than can be stapled into one signature? Perfect bindings, gluing signatures together, taping, Gamble hinges etc. are all problematic, at least for me. Perhaps a new thread on binding techniques would be helpful.
I use a slant style binding via a VPC machine. I reinforce the inner pages with clear tape. Open pages lie perfectly flat and parts are easy to store.

I recently finished a project where the Violin 1 part was 44 pages long, and this worked without a problem.
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by John Ruggero »

I think that I would have to experience the VPC machine first hand, because from the descriptions, it doesn't seem substantial enough for my uses. I don't want to worry about pages falling out. Perfect binding would seem to be more substantial than the VPC system and yet pages drop out after some use.

I have comb-bound scores and parts that are 40 years old and still going strong. The secret to this longevity is one that I mentioned on another thread; one prints single-sided on 20 lb paper and glues the pages together with a thin strip of glue on the unbound outside edge after the pages are bound. The slots in these double pages pages never break through and the parts last forever. The same system can be used with coil binding.
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by RMK »

John Ruggero wrote: 20 Feb 2017, 02:48 I think that I would have to experience the VPC machine first hand, because from the descriptions, it doesn't seem substantial enough for my uses. I don't want to worry about pages falling out. Perfect binding would seem to be more substantial than the VPC system and yet pages drop out after some use.
John, I don't want to be argumentative (especially with a fellow Arnstein alumnus) but if you read my post carefully you will see that I stated that I reinforce inner pages with clear tape. Pages will not come loose - you can't even pull them out on purpose.

I mention this for the benefit of anyone else on the board who might be interested in this method of binding.

BTW, I think perfect binding is a less than optimal choice. Excellent for storage, but good luck getting parts to lay flat.
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John Ruggero
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by John Ruggero »

Ah, RMK, now I think I get it: you tape the joins with, I assume, the special library tape that doesn't break through with folding or deteriorate over time. That sounds good, but would be too much work for me, at least.

I guess I not only have a thing about taping pages together but also using scores with taped pages. The pages are so free and easy to turn with comb and coil binding. i really prefer such for performances even over music bound in signatures. So I only use tape for foldout pages alla Arnstein: masking tape. (Unfortunately the latest masking tape is not the quality of the old, which lasted amazingly. I should probably use the latest library tape.)

Yes, perfect binding is awful from every point of view. I wish that publishers would stop using it. I wind up comb-binding so much piano music after it falls apart.
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jrethorst
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by jrethorst »

The 2017 revision, with much more detail, is at:

http://mola-inc.org/article/MOLA-Guidel ... ration.pdf
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OCTO
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Re: Music Preparation Guidelines (from MOLA)

Post by OCTO »

Wonderful! Thank you John.
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