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Publication Date: Friday, September 24, 2004 Free music for all
Free music for all
(September 24, 2004) CSMA gives away unwanted sheet music
By Candice Shih
Mountain View's arts school is having a garage sale next week, and everything is free.
When the Community School of Music and Art's library of sheet music was sorted during the summer, 33 boxes worth of material were identified to be tossed.
"We found lots of stuff that was duplicated many, many times, or we found things that weren't appropriate or useful for a library such as ours," said CSMA music librarian Barbara Bernstein.
With no purpose for the unwanted music, CSMA is giving it all away to the public for free on Wednesday.
Among the available items in abundance are piano books for beginners and sheet music of sacred songs. There's also instructional material for those who want to learn how to play the banjo, organ, accordion, Hawaiian slack key guitar or ocarina (a simple flute made of clay), instruments not taught at CSMA.
The variety of music is broad, including classical, choral, sacred and show music for most instruments.
But not every piece of music is in great shape. "Some of the stuff is pristine. Some of the stuff has walked a long and weary road," said Bernstein.
The imperfect sheets include music with markings, others missing covers or pages, and music that's just plain old. Among the findings were scores from the 1920s. Bernstein surmises there must be some collectors' items in the boxes, but hasn't had the time to identify them.
In fact, she's not quite sure what the value of the giveaway is or how many pieces of music are available, just that she's ready to let it all go.
"I have no idea if we'll get 100 people at 12 o'clock, and they will be scratching and grabbing like Macy's basement after Christmas. I don't know how much interest there's going to be in this," said Bernstein.
Regardless, CSMA will be imposing a limit on the number of pieces of music each person can take, but hasn't yet decided what it is. Faculty and staff will also have an opportunity to pick up a limited number of pieces, too.
"If we have a lot left, I don't know what we would do with that," said Bernstein. "Some of it could be really good kindling."
E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com
Information
What: Big Music Giveaway
When: Wednesday, Sept. 29, 12 p.m.-7 p.m.
Where: Community School of Music and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle
Cost: Free. Donations are accepted.
Call: 917-6800 or visit www.arts4all.org
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