ABSTRACT
In 1998 the Hal Leonard publication of The Beatles: The Complete Scores conferred legitimacy on the compositions of four untrained musicians, suggesting that The Beatles’ work is worthy of serious analytical attention. At over 1000 pages, the tome presents painstaking transcriptions of everything the Fab Four recorded, meticulously documenting the sounds resulting from specific guitar strings and drumhead tunings. Merely holding the weighty book makes it obvious that it is a scholarly resource rather than a songbook for performers to play from. The transcription of each song resembles an orchestral score in its scope, and the book’s publication conferred grandeur and gravitas on the work of The Beatles and – by extension – on popular music in general.
