Soundtracks: March 2000
If there’s anything that the 26 new CDs featured in SoundTracks this month have in common it’s their inability to be pigeonholed. Taken together, they are proof of how far ranging American music is. While it seems ironic that the most futuristic sounding music that came across our desks this month were discs collecting early… Read more »
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard Throughout last year, across the street from Macy’s in New York City, a “Millennium Clock” counted down the seconds until January 1, 2000. Throughout January it stayed at 0, but at some point during this month it started up again counting down the seconds until January 1, 2001.… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music
Henry Brant “…Genuine indigenous music worldwide is disappearing…” Marian McPartland “…I can’t think of playing music and not including something by Dizzy Gillespie or Thelonious Monk or Wayne Shorter…” George Perle “…I have been offered 100 words to reply to the question, “What is the future of music?” but I need only three…” George Rochberg… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Theodore Wiprud
Theodore Wiprud photo courtesy of Allemar Music Self-publishing used to be a default position for me: no corporate publisher had brought out my music so I was the one copying scores and parts. Later I made a conscious decision to take my career into my own hands, to claim full responsibility for finding performers and… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Andrew Rudin
Andrew Rudin photo courtesy of Skåne Hill Music Somewhere in a warehouse in the Midwest, hundreds of copies of a work I wrote for flute & piano lie sequestered by a major American music publisher. After contracting to publish the work, three years elapsed before engraving was accomplished and 1st proofs offered. Another year and… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Amy Rubin
Amy Rubin photo courtesy of Musicians Accord Self-publishing has permitted me to circulate my music to a wide variety of performers throughout the United States and Europe. I send perusal scores as quickly as possible to ensembles and soloists who express general interest in my work, and in addition I answer “calls for scores” listed… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Terry Riley
Terry Riley photo courtesy New Albion Records For many years my written music was being handled for me by a publisher which was somewhat unfamiliar with what is needed to send out scores and parts to orchestras and other chamber groups. I supplied them with masters that were for the most part printed out from… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Donald Martino
Donald Martino photo by Lourdes Awad, courtesy of Dantalian, Inc. If not the first, I am certainly very nearly the first composer to establish by himself, for himself, and without banding together with other composers, a fully commercial publishing house which produces engraved or autographed editions in quantity by offset printing. It was the emerging… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon photo by Patented Photos I basically do everything that an established publishing house does: I take orders from customers, print scores and parts, do the binding, mail the music, do the billing, report performances to ASCAP, and negotiate contracts for commissions. The duplication of music is not that difficult – any copy place… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why Randall Davidson
Randall Davidson photo courtesy of Boys Art Music Self-publishing contemporary music is not at the glamorous end of the tide-pool. As a result, very little of my time is spent addressing the ocean of conductor/producers in the world who “might” use my music. I’m more aware of what’s close at hand, of the subtle currents… Read more »
Fit To Print: A "Hyperhistory" of the Current State of American Music Publishing
John Robinson Photo by Melissa Richard The English verb “to publish” is derived from the Latin verb publicare, meaning “to make available.” Most people think that music publishing is similar to book publishing, and many aspects are parallel. Selection: Publishers of both books and music employ editors who sift through countless submissions by aspiring writers… Read more »
Soundtracks: February 2000
While discs continue to appear on our desks that were recorded and released in 1999, the first batch of recordings with a triple-zero date have begun to surface. This is indeed an exciting time because all new music is old and contrapositively all old music is new! Plenty of new music is featuring on a… Read more »
The Current State of Music Publishing in America
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard The media has hyped the recent revolutions that computers have wrought as the most significant event in the history of publishing since Gutenberg invented the printing press half a millennium ago. But what impact will all of this have on the publishing of musical scores by American composers?… Read more »
Self-Published Composers Explain What They Do and Why
Randall Davidson, Composer and Publisher of Boys Art Music “Self-publishing contemporary music is not at the glamorous end of the tide-pool…” Jennifer Higdon, Composer “…it seemed absurd to me to have to give up the copyright to my own creative work…” Donald Martino, Composer and Publisher of Dantalian, Inc. “…To obsessive types like myself it… Read more »
How do you listen to music most of the time?
I am an incurable record collector. For me, the ability to hear something whenever I want it is more alluring than most live concert experiences. And there are so musicians I want to hear whom I would never be able to hear any other way than on a recording, due to both geographic and chronological… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play? Fred Hersch
Fred Hersch Photo by Hollister Dru Breslin When I play solo, I prefer a concert hall (non sound system!). Since I don’t have other musicians to interact with (and since my programs are largely improvised), the three things that affect my performance the most are (in order of importance): the piano itself (the tone of… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play? Mary LaRose
Mary LaRose Photo by Ron Schwerin Of course, I am affected by my listeners, but the band always depends on each other first for being it’s own audience, and then from there it goes out to involve. Different venues create unique situations in music. Performing in the studio is unnatural since music is meant to… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play? Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake Photo by Chris Drukker It’s very difficult to describe the effect that different venues have on my performances. Certain audiences have different energies. Often the audience becomes a part of the performance and that can affect the performance in different ways. The more intimate, the better. I primarily play for myself and hope… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play? Nick Didkovsky
Nick Didkovsky Photo by Pamela Farland The venues I perform in do not affect the set list I put together for my band, Doctor Nerve. I usually do that on the train on the way to the venue. If we make last minute changes, it’s usually due to a management request like, “We’d prefer two… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play? Kitty Brazelton
Kitty Brazelton Photo by Judy Schiller Performance is dialogue. So every performance must be different. I may start with the same message but I don’t say it the same – to different people or in different environments. And I expect the same skill in flexibility from my musicians. “Listen” to the room, its shape, its… Read more »
America's Most Fascinating Jazz Clubs
Lara Pellegrinelli Photo by Melissa Richard One minute, you’re just sitting around in some dark, dank, tiny, crowded, smoke-filled basement room with a drink in your hand; the next, you’re intently focused, completely absorbed, magically transported into the light of improvisation. That, in a nutshell, is the power of jazz, a power which moves listeners… Read more »
Soundtracks: January 2000
For our first compendium of new American music CDs of the millennium, of course, we’re continuing to feature discs that were recorded in the last millennium! But in the coming months we will soon find out that like so many other terms that need to be re-examined, the appellation “20th century music” no longer suffices… Read more »
Does The Place Make The Space? Clubs, Recordings and Audiences and Their Impact on Jazz
Frank J. Oteri Photo by Melissa Richard On special occasions I take people on tours of historic bars in New York City. The rule is that we won’t go into a place unless it was open before Prohibition and remained open during Prohibition and ever since. In one evening, we are usually able to stop… Read more »
How does the venue and the audience affect the music you play?
Kitty Brazelton Composer/Vocalist “…I may start with the same message but I don’t say it the same – to different people or in different environments…” Nick Didkovsky Composer/Guitarist “…It’s best when the audience is working as hard as we are to make the event happen…” Oliver Lake Composer/Saxophonist “…The main thing is that I play… Read more »
