While we wait for IMSLP to be reborn...

[homerdundas]

... there is at least one useful task that casual interested parties - 'the rest of us' - could busy ourselves with.
Just before IMSLP was taken down in fall 2007 I posted a "feature request" for a 'Humongous list of composers, arrangers, editors, translators, ...", including the years of their lives. I reiterate my request because, in theory, we need not wait for IMSLP to come back on line while working on such a feature.
One can't underestimate the importance of such information. For most countries the year of death is crucial for determining if a work is in the public domain and can thus legally appear in this library. Having such a list is not only important to IMSLP administration for copyright screening, but for anyone who wishes to donate a work. It's likely that in the past, people posted works on the site because they simply had no idea if they were in the public domain and had little way of finding out. In the future, we can require uploaders to first find all the relevant creators' names in the list, to ensure that minimum PD requirements are met. This would save everyone a lot of trouble.
Note that it is frequently no easy matter to find such information. Though finding dates of the more popular composers is usually trivial, finding editors, librettists and others may be very difficult. A few weeks ago, I set myself a task at a nearby university library, to research some of the names on my orchestra's library listing. I studied encyclopaedias, historical "who's who" volumes, and other reference works. For my efforts I found just four of the twenty people I was seeking and it took nearly two hours.
Such a list might include some additional basic information, such as nationality and firms who published them. Here are a few examples of what I would expect:

Anderson, Leroy (1908-1975) [wikipedia]
composer, arranger
published by: Mills Music

Clark, Tom ( unknown - unknown )
arranger
published by: Schirmer
some titles: Bach Suite (orchestra)

Hayman, Richard (1920-living 2007)
composer
published by: Mills Music

Lebermann, Walter (1910-1985)
German
editor
published by: Breitkopf, Hans Sikorsky

As you see from these examples, if we can't find someone, we would include the titles of a few works to aid others who might be able to locate more information. These titles could be removed after the life dates were discovered. We can link to Wikipedia to avoid duplication.
I don't have the expertise to create such a suite of wiki pages on my own - but I do have a list of 'hard to find' editors and arrangers that I would be delighted to contribute.
Homer.
P.S. On July 1, we will have a double celebration: IMSLP reopening and Canada's 141st birthday!

[aldona]

I wonder if it would be possible to open up the relevant section of the Contributor Portal which has lists like these - if not to everybody, then to those who express an interest or have information to contribute.

aldona

[smallporgies]

P.S. On July 1, we will have a double celebration: IMSLP reopening and Canada's 141st birthday!

yay.

[imslp]

Sorry for the late reply, but that is a very interesting idea. Unfortunately, that may not be possible for IMSLP right now (technically it is possible, but that would require quite a huge amount of work), but this can happen with one of the branch projects that will be online before IMSLP itself, and we could move it to IMSLP later if necessary. Another way is to just post it in the forums, and move it to IMSLP when it comes back up. At this point I'm still trying to dedicate most of my time to getting IMSLP back up, so this issue will have to be on the backburner for a while.

Yours,
Feldmahler

P.S. You're the first person to notice the date... good!

[Lyle Neff]

Is there anything going on yet with this idea from homerdundas? A list of translators, editors, etc., with their dates and their public-domain status would be extremely useful.

[Carolus]

Of course, there's always this list - which is growing all the time: http://imslp.org/wiki/Orchestrators%2C_ ... nd_Editors

The little search feature on the left side of the page often produces useful results as well.

[Lyle Neff]

Of course, there's always this list - which is growing all the time: http://imslp.org/wiki/Orchestrators%2C_ ... nd_Editors [...]

Is there a comparable list somewhere on IMSLP of poets, librettists, lyricists, and translators? Having the birth/death dates of those figures in one place would be just as helpful.

[Carolus]

Unfortunately, not that I know of. I agree that such as list would be very beneficial. For one thing, it can be a real copyright "gotcha" when dealing with songs - as we found out with the Ravel settings of Tristan Klingsor (died 1960 , and not as public domain as we'd hoped).