I'm very proud to announce that I'm working on a new commission! Every once in a while, someone contacts me and asks me to write something special for them. In this case, that someone is the Charlotte, North Carolina chapter of the MENC (Music Educators' National Conference). They've asked me to write the sight-reading selections for their Spring Contest!
I get quite a few international visitors, so I'll explain: Here in the States, many school orchestras participate in "contest" in the Spring, where they perform a short program and get criticism from a panel of judges. The judges then award ratings and it's a source of pride (and stress) for many music programs. Along with prepared selections, orchestras are also judged on their ability to read a short selection of never-before-seen music. That's where I come in.
The Charlotte MENC has asked me to write a short piece for each of four ability levels. They even provided a list of what keys, meters, rhythms, bowings, articulations, and techniques that each level of orchestra should be able to sight-read.
Obviously, I can't give any specific details here about how my pieces will look or sound, but I can reveal that they're all around 30 measures. I'm sure judges get bored hearing the same pieces over and over all day long, so I want to make them all as different as possible.
I really can't sell 30-measure pieces for publication, and because they are all written for different ability levels, they won't hang together as a suite. So the plan is to take each one later, spin them into full-scale pieces and submit them to my publisher.
This is turning out to be a really fun project! I've already finished the Grade I and II pieces, I'm about halfway done with the Grade III piece, and I hope to finish Grade IV by the end of the year. Then I'll submit them to my contact in Charlotte and we'll work together to make adjustments and corrections so they comply with the criteria in each grade level.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Online Concert
I thought I'd program a short online concert of some of my more popular selections today.
Up first is the Cleveland School of Arts Orchestra performing Gauntlet. They do a lot of tuning and warming up (and it certainly pays off), but if you're interested in getting to the good stuff, skip ahead to the 1:45 mark.
Nice job! I especially like what they did with the "hard part" (mm. 56 - 80).
Up next is the Shaw Middle School Orchestra performing Zydeco Two-Step:
Excellent! The keyboard player did a great job.
Our final group is the Traverse City Symphony Strings - a civic orchestra - performing the heck out of Agincourt.
"Out of This World" is certainly an apt description of this group! They're a small ensemble, but they play with all the ferocity and musicianship of a group three times their size. I was also blown away by the production of this video - the multiple angles and great editing do the ensemble justice. Here's my favorite shot:
"Energy" at the end! A well-marked part is a joy for a composer to see.
Up first is the Cleveland School of Arts Orchestra performing Gauntlet. They do a lot of tuning and warming up (and it certainly pays off), but if you're interested in getting to the good stuff, skip ahead to the 1:45 mark.
Nice job! I especially like what they did with the "hard part" (mm. 56 - 80).
Up next is the Shaw Middle School Orchestra performing Zydeco Two-Step:
Excellent! The keyboard player did a great job.
Our final group is the Traverse City Symphony Strings - a civic orchestra - performing the heck out of Agincourt.
"Out of This World" is certainly an apt description of this group! They're a small ensemble, but they play with all the ferocity and musicianship of a group three times their size. I was also blown away by the production of this video - the multiple angles and great editing do the ensemble justice. Here's my favorite shot:
"Energy" at the end! A well-marked part is a joy for a composer to see.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Major/Minor Dilemma (Part 2)
About a year ago, after receiving my annual royalty statement, I posted some musings about my top-selling compositions - specifically, I noticed that a lot of the better-selling pieces are in minor keys. This led me to wonder if maybe I should just focus on minor-key music when writing for student orchestras.
Well, it wasn't long before I received an e-mail from someone who had read the post and had a different theory:
Of the 5 compositions you posted, the top 4, besides being in minor keys, have really "cool" titles.
I know this seems arbitrary, and it is, but I think we underestimate the value of the titles of our art.
He has an interesting point. I'm always trying to pin down what it is about certain music that appeals to people and maybe an evocative title can set expectations. Titles have always been tough for me and I frequently put off titling my pieces until days before sending them off to my publisher for consideration. So I wrote back:
I wonder if you'd be willing to help me put your theory to a test? My three newest pieces this year
are "Quicksilver," "A Hero's Welcome," and "Porcupine Pantomime." All three are in major keys.
If you'll make a prediction of which of the three will be the best seller, I'll check it against the results
when I receive next year's sales report.
The challenge was taken up:
I'm going to guess "A Hero's Welcome" will be the highest selling. This guess is somewhat arbitrary,
but my rationale is as follows: kids will like the title "Quicksilver" and adults will like the "Porcupine
Pantomime." A Hero's Welcome has universal appeal between the age groups. That's my best guess.
Hope they all do well for you, though.
That makes sense to me. So the sales numbers are finally in and the rankings for the newest pieces are
(*drumroll*):
1. Quicksilver
2. Porcupine Pantomime
3. A Hero's Welcome
Obviously, there are a lot more factors at play than tonality and title. First: exposure. Quicksilver was
performed at last year's Midwest Music Conference, which features huge audiences of music-buyers. Second: Tempo. In my experience, fast music is more popular than slow music and A Hero's Welcome is a lyrical moderate-tempo piece. Third: Degree of difficulty. Beginner orchestras are always larger than intermediate and advanced groups, so there's usually a higher demand for beginner-level music. Porcupine Pantomime was the only early-level piece of the three. I suppose the moral of the story is that the appeal of a piece of music doesn't rest on anything as simple as tonality and title.
So I'll put it to you, reader. I invite you to predict which of this years pieces will be the top sellers:
• Star of Valor: A medium-to-advanced concert overture with fast, heroic melodies, a little bit of shifting, and a fast tempo.
• Storm Trail: A fast, minor-key, intermediate-level piece in 12/8 time.
• Sneaking Suspicion: An all-pizzicato, minor-key piece for beginners with a moderate tempo.
Well, it wasn't long before I received an e-mail from someone who had read the post and had a different theory:
Of the 5 compositions you posted, the top 4, besides being in minor keys, have really "cool" titles.
I know this seems arbitrary, and it is, but I think we underestimate the value of the titles of our art.
He has an interesting point. I'm always trying to pin down what it is about certain music that appeals to people and maybe an evocative title can set expectations. Titles have always been tough for me and I frequently put off titling my pieces until days before sending them off to my publisher for consideration. So I wrote back:
I wonder if you'd be willing to help me put your theory to a test? My three newest pieces this year
are "Quicksilver," "A Hero's Welcome," and "Porcupine Pantomime." All three are in major keys.
If you'll make a prediction of which of the three will be the best seller, I'll check it against the results
when I receive next year's sales report.
The challenge was taken up:
I'm going to guess "A Hero's Welcome" will be the highest selling. This guess is somewhat arbitrary,
but my rationale is as follows: kids will like the title "Quicksilver" and adults will like the "Porcupine
Pantomime." A Hero's Welcome has universal appeal between the age groups. That's my best guess.
Hope they all do well for you, though.
That makes sense to me. So the sales numbers are finally in and the rankings for the newest pieces are
(*drumroll*):
1. Quicksilver
2. Porcupine Pantomime
3. A Hero's Welcome
Obviously, there are a lot more factors at play than tonality and title. First: exposure. Quicksilver was
performed at last year's Midwest Music Conference, which features huge audiences of music-buyers. Second: Tempo. In my experience, fast music is more popular than slow music and A Hero's Welcome is a lyrical moderate-tempo piece. Third: Degree of difficulty. Beginner orchestras are always larger than intermediate and advanced groups, so there's usually a higher demand for beginner-level music. Porcupine Pantomime was the only early-level piece of the three. I suppose the moral of the story is that the appeal of a piece of music doesn't rest on anything as simple as tonality and title.
So I'll put it to you, reader. I invite you to predict which of this years pieces will be the top sellers:
• Star of Valor: A medium-to-advanced concert overture with fast, heroic melodies, a little bit of shifting, and a fast tempo.
• Storm Trail: A fast, minor-key, intermediate-level piece in 12/8 time.
• Sneaking Suspicion: An all-pizzicato, minor-key piece for beginners with a moderate tempo.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Royalty Statement 2010 - Part 3
The third part of my royalty statement is a little nebulous. It involved "licensing" - an umbrella term that involves all income other than print sales. Most of it is listed as "MakeMusic Print Licensing." MakeMusic is the company that makes Finale notation software and Smartmusic, which is a great online resource where teachers and students can play along with recordings and print parts. So whenever someone pays to download one of my pieces online, I get a cut.
Some other pieces registered income from "Misc. 3rd Party Mechanical Licensing" which, I think, means that I get paid when someone records one of my pieces. A lot of orchestras record their concerts and sell them as fund raisers and, in theory, the directors should let Alfred Publishing know and pay for the copyright. In reality, only a handfull of honest directors have ever done this.
A third listing reads "Digital (Other Than Print) Licensing." and accounts for the highest single royalty on the licensing report. I have no idea what that means. Maybe something to do with video? I can only guess, but whoever you are, thanks for doing whatever you did with Breeze In the Keys and please do it again.
You'll notice that there are no rankings listed in this post, which leads me to the most nebulous part of this report. I have no idea how many MakeMusic downloads there were or how many recordings of each piece were sold - just that a certain lump-sum dollar amount is assigned to each title. And no two amounts are the same. I'd suspect that the royalty rate depends on the number of downloads or CD's burned, so it's hard to specify exactly.
Some other pieces registered income from "Misc. 3rd Party Mechanical Licensing" which, I think, means that I get paid when someone records one of my pieces. A lot of orchestras record their concerts and sell them as fund raisers and, in theory, the directors should let Alfred Publishing know and pay for the copyright. In reality, only a handfull of honest directors have ever done this.
A third listing reads "Digital (Other Than Print) Licensing." and accounts for the highest single royalty on the licensing report. I have no idea what that means. Maybe something to do with video? I can only guess, but whoever you are, thanks for doing whatever you did with Breeze In the Keys and please do it again.
You'll notice that there are no rankings listed in this post, which leads me to the most nebulous part of this report. I have no idea how many MakeMusic downloads there were or how many recordings of each piece were sold - just that a certain lump-sum dollar amount is assigned to each title. And no two amounts are the same. I'd suspect that the royalty rate depends on the number of downloads or CD's burned, so it's hard to specify exactly.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Gauntlet Got Sampled
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