If you have an old piano at home, you may also have a small piece of furniture that often comes with it: a piano bench, full of sheet music that you discover by lifting the seat like a lid. What interest, what value does all this music have? Often very little, if it is a learning method published in large circulation or a collection of varied pieces arranged for amateurs.
But sometimes we find treasures there. Sheet music composed in Quebec and published in the last century: I remember coming across the Quadrille of snowshoe enthusiasts of the Quebec Commercial Union. Nothing grandiose in terms of music, but literally a page of history.
Sometimes, we find on the piano bench still solid editions of classical repertoire: Bach’s partitas, Schubert’s waltzes or Mozart’s sonatas. They never go out of style, and they cost a fortune for music students who have to obtain them online.
What to do with all this music when, paradoxically, we can no longer buy it in Montreal?
It was a message from a reader named Nathaly who put me on the trail of this column: “Say, musician friends, where do we buy our written music? Where do we discover written music? It is essential for us, musicians, to leaf through the scores, to look at the layout… And above all to discover new scores, by reading them. »
Since the closure of the venerable Archambault store downtown, it is the branch on rue Jean-Talon which holds what remains of the musical score collection.
How sad… a department where everything is jumbled, piano pieces for children alongside the formidable Ballades of Chopin, an orchestral score by Mahler and Jean-Michel Blais.
We will not resolve the issue of purchasing sheet music today, but I at least have a solid alternative solution for Nathaly, and a free one at that: the Grande Bibliothèque de Montréal and its little-known collection of… 17,000 sheet music well-classified musical files, which can be consulted and borrowed in the same way as books. The place is beautiful, peaceful, you will find composers from all eras, known and lesser known, as well as an imposing shelf of film scores, musicals and popular music. You even have a few instruments at your disposal (including three digital pianos with headphones) to test the merchandise!
Oscar Salazar Varela, BAnQ’s music librarian, is working to increase the instrument collection and is hoping for a violin for Christmas.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Oscar Salazar Varela is working to increase the BAnQ instrument collection.
We offer a complete course for those who want to learn music: scores for beginners, the possibility of trying an instrument on site, then free access to online learning platforms to which BAnQ subscribes.
Oscar Salazar Varela, BAnQ music librarian
Tailor-made for the position, this friendly guitarist of Mexican origin studied his instrument in Montreal from 2001. A doctorate in music teaching showed him his love of books and libraries: he therefore completed a master’s degree in information science, his fifth university degree!
In the musical scores department, Oscar is responsible for acquisitions, “12 to 15 new documents per month”, and his department accepts suggestions.
Interlibrary loan also applies to sheet music, so you can have music delivered to your local library. However, the online search tool is not yet perfectly adapted, Oscar admits: “The site has been redone and we are working to improve the path so that certain scores are more easily accessible. »
Good to know, in the general catalog, you absolutely have to go through the advanced search to select “musical scores”.
But a few tests confirmed to me that searching online can be laborious. With very small variations to identify the famous Moon Sonata of Beethoven, we end up with very different results: a reference to an online platform where the sonata is not the correct one, then a reference to a score that we only obtain on request, to finally come across the available score at 4e floor of the Grande Bibliothèque, provided you know the precise opus number! (opus 27 number 2, for the curious).
But the place is worth the detour, and there is the pleasure of browsing music.
Knowing that many musicians at the end of their careers seek to offer their scores, I asked Oscar if BAnQ accepted donations. He remains very cautious: “Yes, but you have to be realistic, because it can take a very long time to sort out; our space and time resources are limited. »
We will accept if it constitutes a significant addition to our collection, if it completes our offer. You must also make sure not to bring in partitions that come with an odor, humidity or, even worse, mold.
Oscar Salazar Varela, BAnQ music librarian
Obviously, no one wants to collect a collection of moldy sheet music! But I have the impression that we should imagine a solution to prevent thousands of pages of music from ending up in the recycling bin, in many families where musical practice has not been transferred to the next generation.
What places could host small music libraries where you can drop off and pick up music, under the principle of Croque-livres?
Certain cultural centers, music schools? Places of cultural dissemination like Place des Arts or Bourgie Hall? Your ideas are welcome !
And above all, until we imagine something, don’t throw away your scores, as long as they smell good.