Talk:Edition Peters

How can we get more of this information? For example, I've been wanting to get a hold of a copy of the beethoven horn sonata which I can be sure is in the public domain for a while. I haven't been totally successful yet. So I just looked it up on their website: [1] which lists "Hermann" as the arranger. This could be Hermann Baumann (a well known horn player) which would put it under copyright or Hermann Scholtz (a peters editor) which would put it in the public domain. I guess I'm just wanting to assess if we might be able to just use their database of scores to decide what's public domain. This way people who already own or want to buy scores can assess their public-domain-ness easier. Any other thoughts?

Also the numbering seems arbitrary. I looked up the brahms horn trio: [2]. The number listed is 3899B. Looking at Elibron sample pages: [3] the number listed at the bottom of the page is "Edition Peters. 10442". Have they re-done their numbers? It makes it a bit confusing to understand the history of a score.

If we could access their database, we would indeed save some time :) In searching the Peters catalogue, I noticed that not all old public domain editions are still in their database. Many scores are replaced by new editions from 1950 till now, probably since Urtext is getting standard or due to new musicological views. Only the last edition is still sold I would think. On the other hand, at amazon or online sheet music stores there are still plenty of old editions....
About the numbering can we only deduct and have luck. I'm hoping that their numbers are not re-used for new editions, or this whole idea would be worthless. Since I saw already two different editions with a different number on the same backcover, this is not likely. The number on the bottom of every score page is different from the catalogue number on the front cover and on the internet (which identifies the edition of the score), and I don't have any idea what it stands for. Maybe a print number that would change with reprints? If we could just couple these two numbers, a lot would be easier...
One option to solve this is maybe just to ask the company nicely...
Oh and I'm sure Hermann is referring to the last name of the editor and not to Scholtz.
Btw nice idea, open-scores :) --Peter 03:12, 12 October 2006 (EDT)
Your entry on the peters page with no 10442 is thus probably wrong. do you happen to know the edition number? --Peter 06:06, 12 October 2006 (EDT)
I think the bottom number is the plate number. (see here for more information.) It designates the number of the plate that is used for printing, and probably will be linked to one unique edition number, but sometimes there are confusions (see the beethoven sonatas by peters).
A real goldmine for research are musicological periodicals. If you have access to an academic provider like JSTOR.org you can browse all scanned issues back to the end of the 19th century.--Peter 15:44, 15 October 2006 (EDT)