Dear Google Answers:

I would like to obtain electronic sheet music for the 'Quartet for the
End of Time' by Oliver Messiaen.  I want to insert 'textual' excerpts
of the sheet music into my microsoft word thesis.

I truly appreciate any help you can provide.

Sincerely,
Cat Perry

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Request for Question Clarification by readersguide-ga on 06 Mar 2003 18:17 PST

Hi cat66,

Have you considered purchasing the printed sheet music and scanning it
with a scanner so that you can paste portions into your word document?
This might be a simpler solution than trying to locate pre-digitized
sheet music.

regards,
readersguide-ga

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Clarification of Question by cat66-ga on 13 Mar 2003 17:53 PST

Dear Owain,

Thank you so much for the guidance.  I'll look into these sites when I
have some time in the next weeks.

Sincerely,
Cat66-ga

The problem is that while the music itself may be out of copyright - I
don't know this composer - the actual page design and typesetting of
the score has its own, separate, copyright.

You can't photocopy a published version of Shakespeare without
breaching the publisher's copyright, but you can re-type Shakespeare's
words without restriction. Re-typing (or even scanning and converting
to editable text) is fine for textual materials - it's comparatively
quick and easy - but music typesetting is difficult and expensive, and
copyright prohibits the simple copying of an existing printed score.
This is why there isn't a music equivalent of Project Gutenburg, the
free text e-library (that I know of).

If the pieces are short, you could typset them yourself using music
notation software such as
http://www.codamusic.com/coda/np.asp - Finale Notepad for Windows or
Mac - according to website a free download
http://www.mozart.co.uk/ - Mozart Music Processor has a free 1-month
evaluation
http://ace.acadiau.ca/score/others.htm - huge list of music notation
software, music fonts, etc

Owain

A great place for electronic sheet music is:
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com

This site allows owners of Sibelius, a music notation package, to
share their scores.

Obviously most of what on there is either arrangements or original
compositions. I did do a quick search, and there didn't seen to be any
Messiaen. However, there is a chat board, and you could always post it
as a request there. There must be a Sibelius user out there somewhere
who has inputted the score and could upload it for you to view. Or
perhaps you could contact someone who would be willing to do it for
you - Sibelius has a music reading capability (via a scanner), so it
woudn't be too onerous.

Alternatively you could just buy the package yourself. It is a
fabulous program, and they do a good discount for registered students.

Some clarification is perhaps necessary: 

Messiaen died in 1992 and his music is still protected by copyright
(until 70 years after his death according to French copyright law).
However, most countries' copyright laws allow works being quoted in an
educational or scientific context. Nobody (i.e. his publisher Durand)
will sue you for using examples in your thesis.

The score can be bought online at SheetMusicPlus at:
http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=HL.50561457&cart=3258185402356050&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music

But I'm afraid you won't find a (legal) digital version to use, so you
still have to do the hard bit :-)

Good luck! 

Jonathan 
www.sheetmusicnow.com