Royalty Statement (Part 2)

The second part of my annual royalty statement is for the MP3 downloads available at alfred-music.com. Here are my top five downloaded songs:

1. Gauntlet
2. Gargoyles
3. Avatar
4. Las Mariposas Exoticas
5. Elementals

I'm proud to say that Gauntlet is currently the #1 most-downloaded original song on alfred-music.com (only behind an arrangement of the theme from Halo). Gargoyles is also in the top ten.

Royalty Statement

I meant to write about it earlier, but am just now getting to it: about a month ago I got my royalty statement! Every year, my publisher lets me know how many copies of each of my pieces were sold in the past year. They even break it down between the full packet of score and parts and just the scores (which are available separately). They further break it down between domestic sales (within the U.S.) and foreign sales (everywhere else).

The new statement let me know that my first published piece, Gauntlet, is popular. This never fails to amaze me. Also exciting is that the score for Gauntlet is also a big seller - probably because it's now a staple on contest lists and orchestras need extra scores for the judges.

According to the numbers, here are my top five domestic sellers in the 2007 - 2008 school year:

1. Mambo Incognito
2. Agincourt
3. Gauntlet
4. Gargoyles
5. Hot Potato

This is normal - Gauntlet and Gargoyles often sell big and the most recent additions to the catalog are always popular. Here are the five top-selling scores:

1. Gauntlet
2. Gargoyles
3. Las Mariposas Exoticas
4. Agincourt
5. Avatar

This is exciting. I know that the top three are on a lot of states' contest lists, but the other two are newer and higher sales of scores indicates that they're gaining in popularity. Finally, here are the top selling pieces in foreign markets:

1. Mambo Incognito
2. Hot Potato
3. Avatar & Lemon Twist (tie)
4. Zydeco Two-Step
5. Violet's Tango

I'm not sure what to make of this. Apparently, foreign orchestras have much different tastes than U.S. groups. It should be noted that my foreign sales are a tiny fraction of my U.S. sales. I've heard of performances in Australia, Japan, and Germany, but perhaps Alfred Publishing doesn't have the presence abroad that it does in America.

If you're interested in helping me out and boosting my '08 numbers, by all means point your browser to www.alfred.com or your favorite retailer (sheetmusicplus.com or jwpepper.com perhaps) and do a search for "Doug Spata" to access my complete catalog!

Got My Proofs

I'm up to the next step in the exciting publication process - my editor sent me proofs of the engraved music. When I submit new music, I mail a recording and a printed Finale file of each piece. When they tell me which pieces they've selected, I e-mail the digital Finale file their way. They then mark it up with changes (more on that later) and send it to the engravers, who make a final, finished version of the score and parts. So in this step of the process, my editors send those engraved versions back to me to double-check and make sure everything is correct and there are no typos before hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent printing out all the music.

It's not a foolproof method, but in my experience it is 99% effective. In my ten years as a part of the process, there's only been one serious mistake: in "Flambeaux," some of the measures got mixed up near the beginning in the 'Cello and Bass parts. I didn't notice until I heard the recording and I went back to look at my original file and the proofs they sent. Everything matched, so it must have gotten mixed up between my approval and the final engraving.

So this week, I received proofs for "A Hero's Welcome" and "Quicksilver." The editor, Bob Phillips, had a few editions, which he penciled into my original score. They never make changes to the content - only to little things. Mostly he recommended more bow markings and fewer double-bars. Also, I prefer to use ties, where Bob recommends using more dotted notes. Other than that, it's pretty straightforward.I only found a few minor changes - two misplaced bow markings and a missing dynamic.

Sometimes pieces check out with no changes at all. A few times, it requires a complete overhaul. As it was explained to me my first time out, the folks who do the engraving don't necessarily know music, so besides obvious stuff like wrong notes, clefs might be mis-aligned, articulations missing o,r sharps and flats in key signatures might appear in the wrong places.

I'll be looking for the proofs for my third piece , Porcupine Pantomime. The next step is to send it to press.

Bachata Update

I've been sidetracked by a few other projects and commitments lately, but found time to work on my bachata last night. I put a few finishing touches on and added the optional percussion parts - bongo drums and guiro, which are traditional in bachata music. I'm really happy with this one and I'm excited to have written something unusual and interesting.

Whenever I write a piece like this it's always my hope that it will open student musicians to new things and lead then to explore music they hadn't considered or didn't know existed.

All that's left is to edit the dynamics and articulation, add bowings and rehearsal numbers, and get a printed version ready. Unfortunately, it might be a while, because my weekend is booked solid. Not that I don't enjoy prolonging the joy of the composition experience, especially since I'm so close to finishing.

Bachata

I've written tangos, mambos, waltzes, cha-chas, and a bossa nova that's going to be published next year. You might think I like dancing, but really I just embarass myself on a dance floor. Dances are simply fun to write and to play. Nowadays, with "Dancing With The Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance" being such huge hits on TV, dancing (and especially the traditional ballroom styles) are more popular than ever. So when I sat down recently to write a new piece and decided that I want to do something different. I looked up "ballroom dances" online and found a dance that I've never heard of before - the bachata.

A few You Tube views later and I decided that I found my new inspiration. The bachata is a dance from the Dominican Republic, very similar to the merengue. The defining element of the bachata is an accent on beat four - what Wikipedia calls a "pop." The count is: 1, 2, 3, POP, 1, 2, 3, POP. It's a fast tempo (almost like a mambo), but the dance moves are often very close and romantic.

Bachata Video

It also turns out that the bachata has a long history and an established place in the world of latin dance, so it's curious that I'd never heard of it before. It has gone through several incarnations, stylistic fusions, and evolutions over the years.

So far, I've played around with bass lines and accompaniments to get the right "flow" and have come up with a good melody. I'm happy with my bachata so far and just need to come up with a B theme. I intend to play around with texture and dynamics on this one. So far, it's a lot of fun!