Edward Greenfield’s last scores are being settled on ebay
NewsThe Guardian and Gramophone critic liked to attend concerts with a pocket score, which he signed and dated on the cover to remind him of the event.
Ted died in July 2015, leaving his possessions to his partner, the writer and label PR, Paul Westcott. Paul died at the end of 2022.
Ted’s scores are now being sold off on ebay for pitifully low prices, starting at £3.95.
The sale is on behalf of the Vinerbirds bird rescue charity in Essex.
You can bid for them here.
One of the greatest of the old school critics!
Lovely chap, excellent writer, more or less tone deaf.
Nothing to get too excited about here I’m afraid. This must be the residue of what was presumably a substantial collection. He must have had signed scores by many of the composers he knew and admired personally (eg Walton, Bernstein, Tippett, Previn etc). Hopefully these have already found a worthy home.
About 90 scores, 30 of which have sold already. You could have stepped in and bought the lot for about GBP 1000, and then tried to sell them off at higher prices, or donated to some more suitable home. But if they were truly a treasure, they’d be gone already.
Seems to be about the right price for second-hand pocket paperback score once owned by a critic.
If you know where to look, that kind of price does indeed reflect the going rate at various outlets that sell second-hand scores — other good hunting-grounds include Travis & Emery, the music sale sections of Westminster Music Library & the Barbican Library, the basement of the Archive Bookstore in Marylebone, Reed Books in Aldeburgh, Hancock & Monks in Hay-on-Wye…
The real bargains tend to be found with items that have not been fully catalogued and indexed online (the low price reflects the fact that little/no time and money have been spent on getting the item listed)… one has either to be lucky or to spend much time searching the shop’s shelves (whether in person or by the proxy of individual telephone enquiries) with no guarantee of finding something that one wants.
In Blackwell’s Oxford in the summer of 1994 I remember seeing in the 2nd hand section a number of pocket scores signed by Norman del Mar. I seem to recall that they weren’t especially expensive.