As someone once remarked, the (marginal) cost of manufacture of the CD
itself is around $0.50 (fifty cents), while the marginal cost of the notes
is around $2.00.  Ironic, huh? And the better produced notes they are
(photographs, libretti, essays), the more they (probably) cost.

However, I am as fond of them as anyone else; I treasure among other things,

* Details of the history of the composition
* Pointers to the possible enjoyment of the recording, especially for first
   time listeners,
* Information about the recording
* information about the performers and the instruments.

The last, especially, is sometimes hard to come by, unless one buys
recordings by popular performers only.  (Nobody needs to know about Maria
Callas, etc, but not everyone knows who Bob Van Asperen is, or has much
information about him.)

However, it might make sense to separate information about composers from
information about works from information about performers, and have those
published independently from information about recordings.  So, for
instance if I'm buying the Matthew Passion, I would expect to buy

1.  The Archiv Matthew Passion recording, with liner notes specific to
that recording, with the briefest possible introduction to the Passion,
particularly insofar as the recording might have been based on a new
philosophy about the performance of the work.  If relevant, extraordinary
intrumentation could be documented.  This should cost around $20, in
contrast to the $30 it costs typically.  (Remember BMG is discounted.)

2.  A libretto which I could buy, say, for about $3.00, but which I might
have already bought to go with the other 29 SMPs I already have.  The
librettos to this work I own could reach from here to the moon...

3.  A little book ($1.95) on Gardiner and his boys, published by Archiv,
that would go with any of their Gardiner Series, of which I have many.
In this, Gardiner could carry on about life in general and his music
performance philosophy.  But SMP-specific stuff could be in the liner
notes of SMP, not in this booklet.)

4.  A big book on Bach, his passions and Passions, say about $4.50.

The advantage of this is that you don't have a lot of duplicate information.

And they could give you one little sheet of paper with how wonderful CDs
are, and how you shouldn't hold them except by the edges; and you never
need to have one of them again.  (Every damn liner has the same silly bit
of information....)

Archimedes
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