Happy Birthday to us! Stanton’s is celebrating 61 years of great service for musicians, directors, and educators. Watch our history!
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So what’s the story with “out of print” music? First, something may be temporarily out of print. That can mean that the music hasn’t been reprinted at the publisher yet. It also may mean that a new edition of the music is in the works, but not yet printed. Sometimes we can find out when the publisher plans to reprint something. It’s a matter of waiting for the music to be reprinted. The second category of “out of print” is permanently out of print. That means that, unless by some happy happenstance we have something still in stock, we can’t get it because no one is still printing it. Just because something is permanently out of print, it doesn’t mean that you can legally copy it. Someone owns the copyright. The owner simply elects not to print that music. Sometimes, we can find the holder of the copyright, and we can give you the name, address, and maybe the phone number of that company. Then you can contact them for permission to copy. If you have questions about copyright, give us a call. We can answer your questions. Call Stanton’s at 1-800-42-MUSIC, email us at http://www.keyboard@stantons.com, or visit our website, http://www.stantons.com. Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!
“Across the Field” is OSU’s football fight song (Sometimes people call it “Fight the Team”.) It was composed by William Doughtery–a student–who wrote it as a pep song for a pep rally for the 1915 Illinois game.
The sheet for “Across the Field” was in print through Morris Music for many years, but has not been printed as a sheet for a long time. It is now available in print and included in a collection of 
college fight songs called “34 Hit Parade Extras, College Songs on Parade“. It is also in a book of college fight songs called “College Songs for School Bands” in condensed score form, so it can be played on the piano.
As a curiosity, an image of another Dougherty football song, from 1929, has been included. It was published by The Ohio State University Association. The song never caught on; it is not as melodic as “Across the Field”, and the words are not as appealing.
This weekend, we celebrate the birthday of Lawrence Welk (3/11/1903-5/17/1992), American bandleader and accordion player, whose effervescent brand of “champagne music” was featured for more than 30 years on his successful show.
Welk, who was raised in a German-speaking hamlet in North Dakota, did not learn English until he was 21, developing an accent that would later contribute to his homespun appeal. From the age of 13, he earned money playing the accordion, and he later formed two groups, the Biggest Little Band in America and the Hotsy-Totsy Boys, before leading bands and orchestras, mainly in the Midwest.
Welk then moved to Los Angeles, where The Lawrence Welk Show, a program of band music with vocalists, dancers, and featured instrumental soloists, helped make him one of the wealthiest performers in show business. Welk was a demanding taskmaster dedicated to producing a nostalgic, wholesome show. He maintained a roster of musical regulars, including the Champagne Lady (vocalist Alice Lon) and the Lennon Sisters. When the network dropped the program, he contracted with more than 250 independent television stations in the United States and Canada to broadcast Memories with Lawrence Welk until 1982. From 1987 the program appeared on public television. Welk accumulated a vast real-estate empire and acquired royalty rights to 20,000 songs, including the entire body of Jerome Kern’s work. Welk titled his two autobiographies after his trademark phrases, Wunnerful, Wunnerful! (1971) and Ah-One, Ah-Two! (1974). (from Britannica.com)
If you want to personally celebrate Lawrence Welk, check out “Lawrence Welk, The American Music Maker,” a fantastic piano/vocal/guitar collection of over 200 nostalgic songs performed on the show. Here in Columbus, PBS usually airs Lawrence Welk reruns on Saturday evenings–check your local listings to see if you can still view this “Wunnerful” music!
“Across the Field” is OSU’s football fight song (Sometimes people call it “Fight the Team”.) It was composed by William Doughtery–a student–who wrote it as a pep song for a pep rally for the 1915 Illinois game.
The sheet for “Across the Field” was in print through Morris Music for many years, but has not been printed as a sheet for a long time. It is now available in print and included in a collection of college fight songs called “34 Hit Parade Extras, College Songs on Parade“. It is also in a book of college fight songs called “College Songs for School Bands” in condensed score form, so it can be played on the piano.
As a curiosity, an image of another Dougherty football song, from 1929, has been included. It was published by The Ohio State University Association. The song never caught on; it is not as melodic as “Across the Field”, and the words are not as appealing.
2010 is a very exciting year for us here at Stanton's Sheet Music - we're celebrating our 50th Anniversary! Founded in August of 1960 by Columbus, Ohio native John Stanton, Stanton's Sheet Music has grown over the last 50 years from a humble “mom and pop†storefront to our current status as one of the largest sheet music retailers in the country. We are fortunate to have become a valuable and trusted resource for musicians because of our commitment to quality products and personal customer service; a commitment we continue to build upon.
For a retrospective look at where we've come from (and where we're heading in the future), check out our video below. Thanks to our wonderful family of customers, we've enjoyed an amazing and successful 50 year history, and we look forward to continuing to serve all your sheet music needs for the next 50 years!
Are you aware that there are a number of online libraries for sheet music in the public domain? While not an authoritative resource, these sites can be very useful for research, educational exercises and, in some cases, even performance.
The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is a large archive of free choral music. Anyone may contribute, so selections range from early music to the unpublished work of current composers.
International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a WIKI site offering scanned-in public domain scores which can be browsed by composer, time period or instrument.
Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA) contains an EXTENSIVE list of links to other online public domain libraries.
Stanton's receives many calls and emails that begin with “I've got a great piece of music here that's pretty old…†and, sadly, that conversation often ends with “I'm sorry to tell you that piece is permanently out of print.†What does that mean for you, the director/musician when something is permanently out of print (POP)? Read on to find some of the most common questions and their answers:
1) Why do things go POP?
When we inform someone that a certain piece is POP, the most common response we receive is “I can't believe it—that piece is so good!†While it is true that sometimes a piece is taken out of print due to lack of sales, this is not the only reason. Sometimes there are copyright changes, royalty disputes and other business issues that have nothing to do with sales. Even if a piece is taken out of print due to low sales, that's not necessarily an indicator of quality. A piece that is “good†may also be very difficult, or extremely contemporary or use an unusual voicing/instrumentation, all of which could lead to low sales despite how “good†it is.
2) Why does Stanton's show POP titles on their website?
When Stanton's determines that a piece is no longer in print, we indicate that on our website so that you, the customer, can also have that information. If you were looking for a certain piece and simply didn't see it listed, you may just conclude that it's not available from Stanton's, or that you had typed something incorrectly.
Sometimes a piece that is permanently out of print is not yet listed that way on our website. While we make every effort to keep the information on our website up-to-date, we usually don't learn that a piece has gone POP until we try to order it and the publisher says “sorry, no.†Please call us if you have questions about the status of a particular piece.
3) How do I determine that something is POP?
As stated above, we encourage you to contact Stanton's whenever you have questions about a piece of music. If you are interested in doing some research yourself, you can check the website of the publisher to see if they have more information. If the music is from a publisher that is no longer in business, their copyrights, or “imprints,†are probably still owned by another publisher; the same arrangement may still be in print from the “new†owner of that imprint. You can find more details about defunct publishers on the Music Publishers Association's directory of imprints.
4) Do I have any options for obtaining this music?
Once you have determined that something is POP, you may contact the publisher to request permission to photocopy (Stanton's can give you their contact information) if you have at least one original copy. Especially in the case of churches and schools, the publishers will often grant this request for little or no cost. The publisher will then send you a letter stating that you have permission to make copies. If you do not have an original copy, you might acquire a copy from someone else's library by sending out a query on the ChoralNet listserv, or a similar forum. IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE PHOTOCOPIES WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER'S PERMISSION, EVEN WHEN SOMETHING IS NO LONGER IN PRINT!
5) This music is still in print, so why is it so hard for me to get it?!
In addition to “in print†and “out of print,†there are a few other ways to designate the status of a piece of music. It may be “temporarily out of print†(TOP) or “on backorder†(OBO), which means that the publisher is sold out of the music in their warehouse and will need to print some more. It also may be designated as “print on demand†(POD) or an “archive edition,†meaning that it is not something that the publisher keeps in stock, but they will print special copies on request. A piece of music might be a “special import†that is not kept in stock in the US, but that a publisher can get from their international partners. ALL of these situations may affect how long it will take to get your music and how much it will cost.
6) Is there any chance that it WILL come back into print?
No. There may be other arrangements of the same composition available, but once something goes POP, it will not come back.
Permanent means permanent.
Over the summer, the FJH Music Company pulled a number of books from its extensive catalog of fine products. This has adversely affected some teachers who regularly used these books in their studios. The following books are out of print, though some are still available in limited quantities here at Stanton’s Sheet Music.
As of the time of writing this entry, we still have several copies of the All-in-One lesson books in both levels, and limited supplies of some of the pretime to bigtime series of books. Please call us for information and availability at 1-800-42-MUSIC.
We would like to inform you though, if you’re still looking for some comparable books, that FJH has published this year a new series of In-Recital books with Popular Christmas music. These books are arranged by Helen Marlais, who was our guest at our piano teacher’s workshop we hosted earlier this year. The Developing Artist Piano Series Sonatina books, and Piano Literature for a Dark and Stormy Night are still in print and available.