King's Music

Facsimiles and Editions of Early Music

Post Summer 1997 publications will be added in due course. Early Music Review lists new publications as they become available.

Additions 2004

This is a supplement to our 1997 catalogue, which is still valid; the 2000 reprint corrects misprints and adjusts a few anomalous prices — copies are available on request. The short items included in each issue of Early Music Review are mostly not listed here, though are available separately.

These items will be included in the main catalogue in due course - click here for the list in .pdf format.

Redcroft, Bank's End, Wyton, Huntingdon, Cambs, PE28 2AA, UK
tel +44 (0) 1480 52076 fax +44 (0) 1480 450821
email clifford.bartlett@btopenworld.com

Section Index

About the catalogue | Ordering and payment

About the Catalogue

King's Music specialises in the provision of facsimile or Urtext performing editions. Most of our output has originated from the requirement of professional baroque orchestras and ensembles. It includes :-

Facsimiles of 18th century printed parts (which are nearly always accurate and practically laid out). Page size varies. These are marked F before the price.
New, computer-set editions commissioned by ensembles, record companies, etc. These are A4 format except for a few scores marked B4. These have a number prefixed by KM or C.
Scores and parts produced by correcting non-copyright 19th & early 20th century editions in the light of more recent scholarship and changes in the expectations of performers (these were mostly prepared in the 1980s before we were equipped with computers). These are marked P before the price. Parts derived from such scores by the cut-and-paste method are marked . There are also a few manuscript parts marked MS
For a few works, we offer as an alternative the better-reproduced but more expensive reproductions by Performers Facsimiles, New York (marked here PF + series number). Prices for these may vary and our normal trade terms do not apply. We also include a few other PF items which we generally keep in stock. We are happy to order other PF titles, as well as facsimiles by J. M. Fuzeau and SPES, whose Corelli op. 5 we usually stock.
King's Music specialises in music for which there is on the whole only a small potential market. We do not, therefore, keep a large stock of each title but produce good-quality photocopies (bound in card except for small vocal items and parts) on demand. This enables us to have a far wider range of titles than would be possible were each item to be printed in 500s or 1000s, and helps keep prices down. We did, however, increase some prices for the first 1997 issue of this catalogue, our first general increase for over 10 years.

Most of the works are edited by Clifford Bartlett, with varying degrees of input from Brian Clark, who often typesets the music direct from photocopies of the sources. Other editors include Richard Charteris (for most of the Gabrieli) and Maxwell Sobel (for all the Bonporti), Rosalind Halton and Douglas Deitemyer (Scarlatti). For reasons of space, editors are not named in this catalogue, but are all, of course, fully acknowledged in the editions.

If what you want is not in the catalogue, we may still be able to help, since we have a wide knowledge of what is available. We can advise on the availability and supply facsimiles, Baroque orchestral music and orchestral material for choral works.

Ordering and payment | Section Index

How to order

Orders may be sent by post, phone (preferably 8.00 a.m. to midnight British time), fax or e-mail. Sometimes we can supply by return post, but larger orders may take a few days. If you have a specific deadline, please state it: we will do our best to meet it (and let you know at once if we cannot).

Invoices will be sent with the goods and will include postage. UK orders will be sent by 2nd class or parcel post unless we are instructed otherwise (though we generally send first-class to orchestral managements and professional players). Orders outside Europe will be sent surface mail unless we are told otherwise or airmail is not significantly more expensive.

Please pay on invoice, preferably at once, and do not await a statement or reminder. Any time we spend chasing unpaid bills ultimately makes your music more expensive.

Please always quote our invoice number when you pay.

You can pay by:

Credit card (preferably at time of ordering). We accept Visa, Mastercard, Eurocard, Delta, Switch.
Eurocheque
Sterling cheque drawn on a UK bank made payable to King's Music. (Barclays Bank, Huntingdon, Branch sort code 20 43 63; Account number 20551015)
National Girobank (Postcheque) made payable to C.A.J. Bartlett. (Account number 42 129 3705)
$US or French Euro cheque made payable to C.A.J. Bartlett (NOT to King's Music)

If you prefer to pay in your own currency, please add £10.00 to the total to allow for the cost of exchange.

VAT registration number: GB 478 1619 15

10% discount is given on orders of £10.00 or more to individuals and ensembles with a current subscription to Early Music Review. This does not apply to music we supply from other publishers or when other discounts are in operation. This offer is subject to prompt payment and we reserve the right to charge the undiscounted price if there is unwarranted delay.

About the catalogue | Section Index

King's Music is a very small organisation, despite the number of items listed in this catalogue. We have no offices or ware-houses, and operate from what was once a bungalow (until we turned the once-spacious loft into a library/work-room). Two of us work in the house, hindered by Clare and John (our two mentally-handicapped teenagers). Clifford attends to the musicology, editing and writing, Elaine looks after the business side. There is also Brian, who does most of the type-setting, an activity that is combined with editing; our business is only viable if the two processes are united. Brian does the initial inputting, either from photocopies of the original or, if there is already a reasonably accurate edition (e.g. Handel operas), from that. Clifford, checks it against the source(s) and attends to the formatting. Sorting out the best layout on the page of score and parts generally takes longer than inputting the music.

We have found over the years that paying for adverts is not cost-effective. Our main means of introducing ourselves to new customers is by attending early music exhibitions around the world. But our fame seems to spread without effort on our part, and most new customers who phone, fax or e-mail us mention that they were recommended to contact us by a friend. If you want a hard-copy catalogue, we will send one; we also normally send those requesting catalogues a sample of Early Music Review.

Much of our time is now taken up with our magazine. In some ways this puts us in a slightly awkward position, in that we have to evaluate recordings made by our customers. So far, this has not caused any serious problems, though sometimes diplomacy is necessary.

Clifford has also been involved with Oxford University Press. His edition of Handel's Coronation Anthems was published in 1990, a new and comprehensive edition of Messiah in 1998 and an anthology of Madrigals and Partsongs in the Oxford Choral Classics series (swapping roles with John Rutter and becoming main rather than associate editor as in previous volumes) in 2001. He was also involved in The New Oxford Book of Carols (1992). The only work for the press of his own university has been a chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of the Recorder.

Other Services

Microfilm printing.

We have a reader-printer and can produce copies of film (negative or positive) for 30p per page. If, however, the film is of music which we would like to publish and the owner is willing, we will provide free a neat copy of the work copied in return for permission to keep a master copy for our own use.

Music Supply.

We do not keep a stock of music by other publishers (except for the few PF titles listed here and some other items which are in demand) but we are able to obtain items requested. We have a wide knowledge of the editions available, and several baroque orchestras from around the world order their music from us, knowing that what we provide will be suitable for their needs. We specialise in obtaining facsimiles and baroque orchestral material. We also have a large library of scores and, subject to copyright law, can copy a wide range of works on request and can send urgent items by fax. We have up to now not been charging an economic rate for such activity, but in future will make allowance for the time it takes. So if you receive one page of fax and a bill for £5.00, that may be because it took some time to locate what you wanted.

Programme notes.

Clifford Bartlett has written programme and CD booklet notes on a wide range of the repertoire, from plainsong to the 20th century. He writes all the notes for the Music at Leisure hotel weekend chamber concerts, which are typeset and reproduced by King's Music.

Transposition.

Music which we have on computer can be transposed on commission. But note that, although the computer can transpose at the touch of a key, in practice it often can be more complicated: if the number of sharps or flats at the beginning of a line is changed, it can upset the whole layout. So there may be financial or temporal reasons for not being able to respond to such a request.

New editions.

We welcome enquiries about the production of new editions. We cannot always undertake them, but we may be able to find someone else, or offer advice.

Operas.

We are more concerned about protecting performance rights of operatic works than previously and have not listed the price of orchestral parts for most such works. However, our rates are not high for small-scale or amateur performances, so do not hesitate to ask for a quotation.

Corrections.

If you find something wrong in our editions, don't moan in private, tell us at once. It is not too difficult for us to omit a page or photocopy one upside-down, or for photocopiers to be temperamental and mis-sort pages; and however carefully we read a score or hear it played by the computer, mistakes can slip through. We also try to keep our editions up-dated if there is fresh musicological information; again, let us know if you find anything out-of-date. If you have found a new source or have a new theory on how something is performed, we would be glad to receive an article for publication in Early Music Review.

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