Don't Quit Your Day Job. Yet...
Kenneth Goldsmith Photo by Melissa Richard Conventional wisdom says: Don’t quit your day job yet. Stick it out until you are sure that the opportunities and cash is plentiful enough. Then quit. It could be a long time. Let’s face it: day jobs suck. Or do they? I’ve recently spoken to 5 composers who have… Read more »
Soundtracks: April 2000
This month’s edition of SoundTracks spans a greater chronology that ever before. Perhaps it’s fitting that in the end of the first year of NewMusicBox, there would be so wide a range. Now that we’re in the 21st Century (pace to the 2001 apostates), of course, it is now possible to have recordings of American… Read more »
Hyphenated Composers
Like many other composers throughout our history, I have been a composer for most of my life but have always had other occupations as sources of income.
What other jobs might you be interested in if you weren't so busy writing music?
Michael Daugherty “I would either run a used book store or be a lounge cocktail pianist…” Daron Hagen “My second great love is to conduct my own theater music…” Jeffrey Mumford “Run a coffee house/art gallery with my wife…” Melinda Wagner “I’d really enjoy working in a library, however one that is pre-computer!…” Stewart Wallace… Read more »
Meredith Monk: Composer First
Although she is active as a vocalist, dancer, director, choreographer, and filmmaker, Meredith Monk explains that she considers herself first and foremost a composer.
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music George Rochberg
George Rochberg Photo courtesy Theodore Presser Company “Res Severa Verum Gaudium.” (“Serious things [bring] true joy.”) The past is in every present, hence in every future. “Eternity is in love with the products of Time.” (Blake) Surfaces keep changing, never substrata. The 18th/19th centuries’ in-gatherers all loved Res Severa. Their reward, Verum Gaudium, The Beautiful.… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music George Perle
George Perle Photo by Johanna I. Sturm. Courtesy of George Perle I have been offered 100 words to reply to the question, “What is the future of music?” but I need only three: “I don’t know.” I can, however, answer another, related question: “What sort of future would you like for music?” Every new piece… Read more »
American Music's "Elder Statespeople" Comment on the Future of Music Henry Brant
Henry Brant Photo by Kathy Wilkowski, courtesy of Henry Brant What is happening in music may be compared to the current degradation of the natural world environment. Most music today emerges from loudspeakers, rather than from acoustically natural sources. In the United States, public interest is largely confined to commercial popular music. Genuine indigenous music… Read more »
It's About Time
Matthew Tierney Photo by Melissa Richard When musics from all cultures of the world are considered, rhythm stands out as most essential. Unfortunately, rhythm, despite its musical importance, has been less studied than melody and harmony, the history of Western music being primarily a history of pitch. This neglect has been especially unusual because with… Read more »
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 »
Elliott Carter: The Career of a Century
A few months after his 92nd birthday, Elliott Carter invited us into his home to talk about what was already his tenth decade immersed in the new music scene.
Publishing, Self-Publishing, and the Internet
A panel held during the Women’s Philharmonic‘s “Composing A Career” Symposium The New School for Social Research, NYC Saturday, November 6, 1999—2:30-3:30 p.m. Fran Richard : Vice President of Concert Music, ASCAP Ralph Jackson : Assistant Vice President, Classical Music Administration, BMI Linda Golding : President, Boosey & Hawkes Jennifer Higdon : Self-Published Composer Frank… 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 »
