Must it be like that?

An Artistic Score Engraving update from (early) February 2026

Dear all,

Welcome back to a new instalment of the ASE newsletter. I am glad I managed to keep the regular schedule this month; let’s call it “an attempt at discipline”.

I would like to begin this update with a reflection: December—at least in Western and Christian countries—is sheer madness. One needs to comply with so many obligations: family, school, children, presents, festivities, expenses. I don’t think I know even a handful of people who truly enjoy those, and yet, we are all as caught up in a vortex from which we cannot break free. The results or, well, the consequences, of what we forced ourselves to do begin to surface in January. We feel empty, many fall into despair (or even depression) because of the lack of coherence all of that was riddled with, because of what we had to do and because of how far that was from what we wanted to do. On the materialist side, people realise how much money literally flew out of their pockets during December: presents to the family, to children, to friends’ children, to relatives they didn’t know even existed. As a result, they look at their balance in January and realise to be broke.

The Story of Pinky and the Brain!

But why would I be telling you about this in a blog dedicated to music notation? Well, because those looking for my services usually are human beings too (most of them!) who passed through that same mayhem as all others. They may not be aware of it, but the adrenaline rush pumping in their veins after New Year makes them feel the same urge as Prof. Brain does:

“The same thing we do every night, Pinky, try to take over the world!”

They come with enthusiastic proposals: publishing, printing, distributing, high quality, until—you guessed it, right?—the quote comes on stage, in its black, ominous dress. Most times this settles them down, like a good chamomile tea, bringing them back to reality, and we can both proceed towards more peaceful goals. Few others, instead, accept the quote, we start with the job, and, then, disaster strikes. They start editing the musical material and even the structure, completely (or pretending to be) deaf to my warnings that this will cost them more than originally quoted (after all, they are changing their part of the deal!). When the time comes for settling the final invoice, then, that’s the moment when all their creativity comes forward, wrapped in Shakespearian red. I could write a dark-fantasy novel only made of quotes and contexts extracted from the excuses I have heard over fifteen years of practice.

I am now making fun of all this, but when one is living through that, it is still painful, even after all these years. It stings, you feel (ab)used, betrayed for having put so much trust into someone who probably didn’t deserve it. I wrote it last month, though: you need to trust people around you. We are social animals, we cannot survive alone and disconnected from other people—and no, social medias are not a viable alternative; they are only a temporary (and dangerous) illusion.

I decided to write this today because, looking back at my moderately long activity, whenever this occurred to me, it happened to be January! Plenty of enthusiasm, positive words of appreciation, and then… They may simply disappear and go rogue (my first customer, 15 years ago!); or they may protest violently and with insulting language (last year!); or they may feign ignorance on the extra fees (beware the “perhaps I have not understood something” sentence); I have seen them all. And believe me, this is all part of the growing path of an autonomous worker (engraver or not). There is no handbook, no instructions set: you need to experience this on your skin and build your defences up.

What to do, then?

While we saw that one just needs to trust other people, one must also find a way to prevent this from happening, or at least to mitigate its frequency. A simple approach would be to draft an agreement contract containing all reciprocal expectations and have it signed by both parties. At least with US-based customers, this has already been the norm for a few years now. It could be a single-work-based contract if every assignment has different needs, or a general-purpose contract. In Europe, this is still being considered too formal, too strict, and emails are usually considered enough. This is fine when working with publishing houses—where your contracting power is close to zero, but it is increasingly making me feel uneasy. No contract means that, unless a customer fled with €5.000 or more, a sane lawyer will tell you to swallow it and move on, learning from your mistakes. That is why, even without a contract, I now always state that half of the fee should be paid in advance and the remaining half before the delivery. If the job is bigger, we can agree to smaller splits.

If you are a freelancer like me—in any field, then I hope that this recount makes you feel less alone. We are all on the same boat, and all we can do is help each other with our respective experience. You are welcome to share yours with me.

The Happy Ending

The happy ending to all this is that the vast majority of customers recognise your work and pay reasonably on time. Still, a fallen tree makes more noise than a growing forest, and there is nothing we can do to change that. We can just be more prepared to face it whenever it happens, and keep planting more trees! If you are not already doing it, consider looking into some meditation or mindfulness practice. It helps you ground yourself and avoid feeling stuck among the stormy clouds obscuring your thoughts.

The Rest

While I have been working on several engraving and publishing assignments in January, none of them has been finalised, meaning I do not feel ready to show anything for the moment.

I will be back in touch with more juicy news next month. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with your personal experience, if you feel that I could help you, or if you simply wanted to say “Hi!”. I may not be replying immediately, but I read all of your comments and emails, and appreciate you all for your support.

Thank you for reading this up to the end.

You can join my mailing list to get weekly gifts and promotions; browse my editions and contact me directly for printed titles. My YouTube channel, finally, contains video renditions of most editions.

See you next month for the next ASE update. Please let me know what you are doing and where your musical adventures are bringing you.

Yours,

Michele