Yesterday, I wrote about the different representations I want to have available in the BDL. Perhaps a clearer statement of the BDL's scope is that everything of relevance to Bach should be either be directly contained by the BDL or would referable from the BDL. There is no way a BDL can subsume all the wonderful resources that others are developing about Bach. However, it would be great if the BDL could know about these other resouces and "interoperate" with them so that it would be easy for someone to make the best use of all these materials together.
Let me get concrete by giving examples about how I currently interact Bach related materials vs how I'd like to do so. As a Bach fanatic, I have slowly been working through the 153 CDs of the magnificent Bach 2000 collection. One question that I've been pondering is how to have any single part of the Bach oeuvre quickly available to me. In my current setup, I would have to rummage through my 200-CD case to find the exact CD (providing I know the BWV numbering of the piece) and stick it into my computer or CD player. This is not a great hassle if I am listening and studying a specific work; however, if I want to compare two or more parts of Bach's music, then shifting between CDs is a cumbersome and ultimately prohibitive process. (I find it interesting that I didn't get into ripping my CDs into mp3s until I gave a talk about Bach in which I wanted to jump between different pieces of music. Before that, I though to myself, "hey, the kids can have their mp3 but I like carrying around CDs, with their cover art and liner notes, much like I suspected that my elders liked their LPs even if CDs were more convenient."
Now, I'm trying to figure out a way to rip my entire Bach 2000 collection and organize the mp3s for optimal access. Now it is possible to forget about ripping CDs and buy a 200+ CD changer in which I can load all the CDs -- but such a setup is not portable. What if I want to have all-of-Bach-all-the-time, while walking to work or biking at the gym? Hence, I've been eyeing an iPod or a Nomad Jukebox Zen to hold the digitized Bach 2000. I've put off doing so because I've been wondering whether I really need another gadget -- and even if I got one whether it is really the answer to my problems.
OK, let's say that the set (and all the other CDs that I have) digitized and organized for quick access -- so what then? Speaking as a Bach amateur -- and not as a Bach scholar -- I'm very much in a naive-stumble-along-teach-myself mode when it comes to Bach. For example, when I come across a discussion of parody (in the sense of "the retexting of a vocal composition, and more generally the production of a new vocal work based on the music of another piece" (Malcolm Boyd et al. J. S. Bach, p. 356)), then I'd like to listen to examples of parody. "The concept [of parody] is important in Bach studies because so much of the composer's vocal music appears in more than one guise." As a computer and Bach geek, I'd be even more thrilled if the lists of parodies could come in an XML format that I could quickly convert into a playlist.
Once I am able to make those digital connections for myself, I would naturally like to share them with others. However, within current copyright constraints, I'd be hard-pressed to do so in the way that I would like to (and the way the technology makes natural.) For instance, last night, I wanted to enable my readers to listen to what was moving me that time (and over the last couple of weeks): BWV 881a, the Prelude No. 12 in F minor in The Well-Tempered Clavier Book II. Ideally, I would be able point or embed the particular recording to which I've been listening (by Jeno Jando) so that my readers could experience it for themselves. The best I can do (which is great) is to point to Bach scholar Yo Tomita's midi rendition of prelude, which he generously makes available on his own website. It is fortuitous that, in this case, I can reference specific pieces of audio to support my blogging; the bulk of the Bach works will have no audio representation available on the Web.
What I hope for in the BDL is access to at least one audio rendition of every Bach piece. On this point, I've said to friends that if I were wealthy, I'd be interested in approaching Teldec to buy the right to make the Bach 2000 collection available on the Web. Assuming that we could reach a deal, how much might it cost? My first naive thought was to say that I would buy the recordings outright by paying the total estimate revenue from the set. However, when I came across the statement that 3800 complete sets were sol within the first month of the set's release , I thought, "hmm...4000 sets x$1000/set = $4 million is too steep of a price to pay".
Instead of paying Teldec, I wonder whether there is a way to convince Teldec to host the CDs online as a way of making more money on the set than it would by selling the music in its current form. Is there a subscription model that hits different segments of the market? Public access for a low-quality or short sample of works? (low quality might put people off by giving them the wrong impression of the quality of the source recordings. On the other hand, it doesn't have to be extraordinarily high audio fidelity for certain purposes.) A monthly/annual subscription fee for the Bach die-hards who would fork over $X (where X is say, around $10-$30/month) so that they can have the convenience of the set without having to digitize it themselves. Any revenue model for selling parts of CDs or individual tracks at the $1/track level as Apple has been doing in its music store? Institutional subscriptions for universities that want to teach Bach and incorporate actual audio into the instruction? (I'm sure others have looked deeply into this issue -- I might learn more about it later.)
Part II is over -- I got to get out to get some sun and fun. In future postings on the BDL, I plan to describe how I'd like to relate musical scores and bibliographic information to the Bach oeuvre.
Posted by rdhyee at August 2, 2003 02:14 PM