So here’s the GREAT news from the International Isang Yun Society that I mentioned in my post from September 6 but didn’t have time to elaborate.
As I was working on my Isang Yun introductory page and doing some discographic research, I realized that the Intenationale Isang Yun Gesellschaft had published, over the years (between 1999 and 2014), a series of 10 CDs of Yun’s music, including recordings of works not available elsewhere. The complete list is given on the Society’s website (click on the link “CDs” under the heading “The Society”). Of course that series immediately appeared as potently desirable, because of the unavailability elsewhere of some of that material, but also because those discs had had only limited circulation, and most of them were propably long out-of-print. I had found a few listed on various Amazons but not the complete series, others on eBay but again just a few among the series, and when offered, always at prices significantly higher than what I’d be willing to pay, especially if I was going to buy 10 CDs.
And then I noticed that the listing of those CDs on the Society’s website was introduced by the mention “It is possible to order the CDs (12 Euro plus shipment) at the International Isang Yun Society”.
“Now, really ?” I thought. “Could all these CDs be still available, and don’t you need to be a member to purchase them?” 12 euros x 10 was still quite an outlay, but… you know… rarities… Yun… I thought it might be time to break the piggy bank, just this once. So I wrote to the Society, explaining what a great fan of Yun I was, providing the link to my Isang Yun introductory page, and enquiring if it was still possible to buy the series. And on a spur-of-the-moment inspiration, I added, trembling at my own audacity: “since I’d be buying the whole series, could you consider offering a rebate?”
That was on a Friday. No reply. Well, sure, week-end, you can’t expect these people to work on Saturdays and Sundays just for the love of Isang Yun [but about this, see my addendum from September 16]. But Monday came and still no response, so I kind of gave up hope. And Tuesday night, as I was about to shut down the computer, came the great news: yes, they could sell the whole series, sure, they’d consider a rebate, how about 5 euros each and free postage?
WHAT??? 5 euros and free postage???? 50 dollars for the whole series? Golly miss Molly… THANKS AND GRATITUDE, FRIENDLY AND GENEROUS PEOPLE FROM THE ISANG YUN SOCIETY!!! You’ve turned a shattered piggy bank into a GREAT bargain.
And I’ve received them today. It is with a certain pride that I can now reasonably consider myself to be one of the greatest collectors of CDs of Isang Yun in the world after the Society itself.
Okay, now I need to listen to all that music of Isang Yun, and review it. But THANKS AGAIN, SOCIETY!