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Sorabji score auction

During the 1980s, in the early days of The Sorabji Archive, we prepared paper master copies of all of the composer's music scores (manuscripts, out-of-print publications and handwritten editions), as well as his published literary writings.

Some years ago, we decided to create PDFs of all of this material from those master copies; these all entered the archive catalogue in June 2012 and have thereafter been available for electronic supply along with the paper copies that we have provided ever since the archive's foundation in the 1980s.

The reasons for our decision included

  1. supply charges substantially lower than those for paper copies
  2. the avoidance of additional shipping charges
  3. almost instant transmission from archive to recipient
  4. ease of storage for both the archive and the recipient

We retain all of this material as PDFs on our main hard drive and it is backed up to an external hard drive. There are no copies 'in the cloud' but there are further copies of the entire collection elsewhere, so its security for the future should be very good.

Excluded from these master copies are typeset editions which the editors have kindly sent to us electronically and of which we have therefore had no need to retain paper master copies.

From time to time, since we created the PDFs, we have found the need to refer to the paper master copies in order to make the occasional correction; however, after more than three years, we have concluded that we no longer need to retain them. Accordingly, we have decided to sell them, not least to free up the space that they currently occupy.

The collection comprises some 15,500 A4 duplex pages; some are in portrait format but most are in landscape format. Each item is held inside its own zipped plastic wallet.

We now have pleasure in inviting bids via email to sorabji-archive@lineone.net from individuals and institutions for the entire paper master copy collection. An opening reserve of £350 is set for this collection as it is currently held, to include the cost of packaging for shipping but not the shipping costs themselves.

The successful bidder will agree to pay the amount of the successful bid for the collection in advance of shipping and also to meet all shipping charges which we will notify before shipping. We estimate the overall weight of the collection, inclusive of packaging, to be in the order of 55kg.

As with those copies of the material that we have been supplying since the 1980s, it is to be understood by the purchaser and his/her heirs and assigns that no items or parts of items in this collection may be reproduced or distributed in any format other than with the prior written consent of the Sorabji Archive at any time during its copyright term, which expires on 31 December 2058; likewise, it is to be understood that acquisition of this collection will not affect the right of the Sorabji Archive to continue to distribute any of the material under its copyright.

Bidding will remain open until 31 December 2015 and the successful bidder will be notified as soon as possible thereafter.

We look forward to finding a new home for this important collection, as well as to the few cubic metres of space that its departure from the archive will release!

This is, by nature, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity; once they're gone, they're gone!

Information: www.sorabji-archive.co.uk

Posted: 1 November 2015

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