Boosey and Hawkes

[liturgyprof]

Our diocese ran into difficulties with B&H when trying to order multiple copies of the MacMillan revised St Anne's Mass. Took them ages to deliver.
I have had on order for about 8 weeks of the congregational edition.
Got an email today saying :

The publisher has now informed us that these items are no longer available and as a
result we will be unable to fulfil your order. Please accept our apologies for this
disappointment - it is something that happens only rarely and is beyond our control.

I was somewhat surprised and rang up Boosey and Hawkes. At first I was told the Mass Settingwas no longer published. I expressed surprise, and sought confirmation that they were checking on the revised version. Finally I got the astonishing answer: too many people are wanting to order it, and we can't keep up with the demand! So what do they do? They cancel the outstanding orders...

I suggested that as the congregational sheet was just two sides of A4 it would surely not be too difficult for a publisher to run copies off. 'Oh no sir, that wouldn't do...'

So I was told what one could do would be to place a further order (with all the fuss of filling in Credit card details etc) and maybe at some time in the future it could be supplied.

Hopefully James MacMillan is able to live off the royalties from his less popular pieces because it seems like Boosey and Hawkes won't be providing him with much in the way of royalties from with anything popular!

Mad! And maddening!

[johnquinn39]

I placed an order for this last year, and nothing has happened.

Could Boosey maybe get round this by passing it on to another publisher to do an offprint?

[Tsume Tsuyu]

Maybe it's time to try something different? There are lots of new and revised settings that are available.

I must confess that the St Anne's Mass has never really done it for me. We've been using Martin Barry's revised Spring Sanctus Acclamations for six months or so and the congregation has really taken ownership of these. We're now just introducing Paul Wellicome's Bicester Mass (which has another name, but I can't remember it!).

[festivaltrumpet]

I understand that the archbishop of Westminster has mandated this setting for his archdiocese.

[Nick Baty]

Not quite "mandated" – more "recommended":
http://www.rcdow.org.uk/liturgy/default ... t_ref=3700

[Boadicea]

I ordered 35 copies of the vocal score a couple of weeks ago, and they arrived within days. It's not easy to find the '2011 edition' on the B&H website though, as initial searches bring up the old version, which is still for sale. Could that be what's causing the confusion???

[keitha]

Firstly, the problem is, I think, with the congregational cards only (ie not the vocal score). Secondly, I think both editions may be in print at the same time because our Anglican friends are, of course, still using the pre 2011 translation.

[liturgyprof]

You are right, Keith.
The vocal score is available with ease, but not the congregational part.
Allen

[PaulB]

I make a living as a sheet music retailer & I'm not surprised there's a problem...

B&H titles are are actually warehoused and distributed from Germany (Mainz), whoever it is you're attempting to buy from in the UK. As far as I'm aware there's no problem with availability of the MacMillan St Anne mass in either the old or new format (I'll check with a human in the Mainz office on monday morning but the distributor's systems, being German, are uber-accurate and efficient and I've no reason to doubt them).

The problem probably arises because of the freight costs from Germany - retailers will tend to hang on to orders until they've accumulated enough to make the carriage costs palatable - or they'll go through a UK distribution middleman who has the same problem but won't admit it. So there's a tendency for B&H orders to get overlooked or lost - and an inevitable tendency to make up excuses about what's happened to customer orders...

No doubt I'd get told off for using this forum to tout for business but if anyone's experiencing difficulty getting hold of this title, do send me a PM.

[Peter Jones]

The Calamus scheme was explained to B & H at the time of preparation for the Papal Visit and they were paid fees for a copyright licence to reproduce the BJHN Mass for the choir at Cofton Park. James MacMillan himself, by the way, took no fee whatsoever for composing this Mass setting.
Would that B & H could produce downloadable melody editions of the MacMillan materials and charge an appropriate fee for the number of copies a parish might like to print - or - would that they joined Calamus. They are reluctant to give permission for complete MacMillan Mass settings to appear in hymnals and other collections.

[JW]

Would that B & H could produce downloadable melody editions of the MacMillan materials and charge an appropriate fee for the number of copies a parish might like to print - or - would that they joined Calamus. They are reluctant to give permission for complete MacMillan Mass settings to appear in hymnals and other collections.

Given these circumstances it is a pity perhaps that Westminster recommended this particular setting.

[IncenseTom]

Does anyone out there know if MacMillan's Galloway Mass has also been revised? I'm a big fan of the St.Anne's Mass and I used to use the Galloway Gloria alongside the rest of the setting, which I would quite like to continue with in it's updated form (as a bit of variety from the chant setting in the St.Anne's Mass).

A search around the Boosey and Hawkes website has only come up with what I presume is the old setting. I presume this because the updated St.Anne's Mass has a big red '2011 version' next to it and the Galloway setting does not.

[keitha]

The Galloway setting has not been updated. I will be talking with B&H in the next day or so, will find out if there any plans to update it and post accordingly on this forum.

[IncenseTom]

Thanks for that Keitha.