Honor Our Veterans with Music

This November, help your community honor those who have served and protected our country by featuring your choir at your local Veteran’s Day events.

I Dream a World by Andre J. Thomas sets an introspective and contemplative text by African-American poet Langston Hughes – “I dream a world where man No other man will scorn, Where love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.”  A beautifully emotional poetic thought and equally moving music, now available in a new SSA voicing.

From the musical Chess, Anthem is a stirring tribute honoring the country we love.  Beautifully expressing the idea that no matter how far and wide one travels, our country is always a part of us, it closes with the moving sentiment “My land’s only borders lie around my heart.”

Both of the above selections have instrumental accompaniment parts available, so you can join forces with your school orchestra, local community band or other instrumental ensemble; contact us for more information.  For those wishing to highlight a solo instrumentalist, Joseph M. Martin’s Song for the Unsung Hero features a powerful trumpet descant on the last verse.  Incorporating “America (My Country ‘Tis of Thee),” this emotive choral is a moving tribute to those who dedicate their lives to preserving our freedom and keeping our country safe.

For more patriotic suggests for your Veteran’s Day commemorations, call us at 1-800-426-8742 or visit us online.

Experience Matters

There is a billboard up near Cleveland for an insurance company that reads in bold letters, EXPERIENCE MATTERS.  That not only applies to insurance companies, but to music stores as well.  Stanton’s Sheet Music will have been in the business for 50 years as of July, 2010.  Staff members have come and gone over the years, but many have stuck around for quite a while and they all contribute to the experience of the whole staff in some way or another.  One of Stanton’s original staff members still works here on a part time basis, several others have been here over 30 years and the knowledge passed down from one employee to the next over the years is invaluable.  As new employees are trained, they learn the way things have worked well for years, and often contribute new ideas to improve the process, which are then adopted and taught to the next generation of workers.
As held true with former employees, several of our current staff are former school music teachers, many are currently teaching music privately and several are active in vocal and instrumental ensembles large and small away from Stanton’s; they bring all that experience to the business.  Also, the whole present sales staff of nearly twenty people consists of college-trained musicians, and several have advanced degrees.  Even the majority of people in our bookkeeping, shipping and receiving departments are musicians.   That’s a lot of experience!

Our way of picking music to recommend to our customers is dependent upon the accumulated experience of the sales staff.  Every year, they read through the hundreds of new titles that the publishers send to the store, and –relying on their musical expertise and experience in knowing what has sold well in the past– they pick the absolute cream of the crop of the choral, handbell, general music, marching band, concert band, jazz band and orchestra titles to recommend to Stanton’s customers.  The experience of our staff is a commodity that our customers can count on.  The music that we recommend will be the best sounding, most highly programmable and most educationally valid sheet music that is available.  That’s something we think you should know.  Yes, EXPERIENCE MATTERS.

Hanukkah Music for Choirs

Looking for the perfect Hanukkah piece for your December choral concert?  Take a look at one of these selections:

Jason Robert Brown is best known for his award-winning musical theatre writing (Parade, The Last Five Years, Songs for a New World), and his Chanukah Suite is arranged with his usual flair.  Set in three movements: S’vivon al Hanisism, Mi Yemalel, and Ma’oz Tsur.

Concert pianist and composer Jeffrey Biegel has penned Hanukah Fantasy, an incredibly sophisticated choral tour-de-force.  This work features a full panorama of choral textures over a fresh harmonic palette.  A great feature for an accomplished accompanist.

Perfect for middle school choirs, Kindle the Candles Tonight is a memorable Hanukkah original that employs a fluid piano accompaniment, picturesque imagery, melodic vocals and effective dynamic contrasts.  A great opportunity for students to learn about the history of this holiday and its meaning for the families who celebrate it. 

For a lighter (and maybe a little silly) approach to the festival of lights, check out How Do You Spell Chanukah? (complete with placards displaying all the spelling variations!) or Chanukah in Santa Monica.

Need more ideas?  Contact us!

Things are looking up at Stanton’s!

What’s new at Stanton’s? Well, how about the next time that you are in the store you look up. Why? Because we have installed all new light fixtures throughout the store!

The original light fixtures were over forty years old and they were having issues with broken tips and ballasts (which control the flow of current through the bulb) that were burning out. After initial meetings with several electrical companies, we realized that we could install fewer fixtures but have better candle watt power throughout the sales floor showroom.

We ended up reducing the amount of fixtures from 156 to 109, which in turn should allow Stanton’s to use less electricity. Another benefit of the newer fixtures is that they use only one ballast per unit, whereas the older fixtures used two. Having fewer ballasts will be less of a current draw on the electric meter. Along with all of the other energy savings that the new light fixtures offer, the fixtures also allow us to use the new generation T-5 bulbs, which last much longer (3 to 5 years per bulb) and are cheaper to operate.

Now that all the lights are installed, the overall effect is lighting that is a little softer on your eyes, but overall brighter in the room. So the next time that you are in the store and ask “what’s up,” literally look up and you’ll see “what’s new.”

A Very Rhythmic Christmas to You!

Are you tired of singing the same old carols with your choir?  Freshen up your winter concert with one of these great arrangements – all are a fantastic opportunity to teach complex meters!

Deck the Halls in 7/8 is a long-time choral favorite!  The rollicking “Fa-la-la’s” give great motion to the arrangement.  Also available for men’s and women’s choirs.  It’s a sure-fire audience pleaser!

The familiar carol “O Christmas Tree” gets a fresh new arrangement in Tannenbaum in 5/8 for SSA voices.  Creative countermelodies enhance the melody and the text weaves English and German together.

Your guys will love Earlene Rentz’s imaginative setting of We Three Kings!  The jazz-flavored 5/8 meter is fresh, easily learned, and fun to sing.

God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen gets a “Take 5” treatment in Donald Moore’s new arrangement.  Smooth unisons, some basic scat singing, and cool jazz chords make this perfect for high school groups – might be especially effective as your show choir’s ballad on this year’s concert.

John Rutter’s original Donkey Carol is set in an unbalanced 5/8 meter, and it really evokes the feeling of a donkey lumbering its way toward Bethlehem.  It can be particularly successful when sung by children’s choirs in the 2-part or unison voicing.

For more creative winter concert programming ideas, contact us!

Not your average “corner music store”

If we may “toot our own horn” for a bit…It sometimes seems that Stanton’s employees and their regular customers get so used to Stanton’s Sheet Music being here and doing what we do, that we forget what a rare and frankly, pretty special place that it is.  We had a first-time customer come in the store to buy his daughter some violin books the other day.  He said to one of our employees, “You are a music store – but you have all these people that look like they are working here – what do they do?”
His past experience told him that a music store has one or two people working at it and they mostly stand around waiting for something to happen.  Not so at Stanton’s!  He was told that we do business with musicians around the world – conductors, teachers, students, singers and players from amateur to professional.  We get orders on the phone, through the mail, via FAX, e-mail and our website – and we are busy all the time!  Sheet music is coming in and going out at a rate unlike most other sheet music stores.  Stanton’s is one of the largest and busiest stores of our kind in the country – and probably the world.  The customer seemed quite impressed and satisfied with the answer.  We’re pretty sure that he will be back for more music as his daughter progresses.

Choral Music from MICHAEL JACKSON

With the loss of musical icon Michael Jackson in June (check out our previous blog for information on his amazing career), publishers across the country have been working hard to produce new arrangements of his music. Here are a few of the newest selections for choir:

THRILLER
Teachers have been calling and asking us for an arrangement of Thriller for years, and now it’s finally here! Using sound effects, horror film motifs and music video as a promotional tool, the choreography on the song has been replicated the world over, cementing Jackson’s appeal as a global pop culture icon.

GONE TOO SOON
Michael Jackson originally recorded this beautiful, heartfelt song as a touching tribute to Ryan White, a young man who became infected with HIV from a contaminated blood treatment. A portion of the profits and royalties from the sale of this publication will be donated to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

HEAL THE WORLD
This moving song from Michael Jackson’s hit album Dangerous encourages all of us to make our world “a better place for you and for me and the entire human race.” Originally released in 1991, the message still rings true today. Sung as the closing number at Jackson’s memorial service on July 7, 2009.

WILL YOU BE THERE
Featuring an infectious groove, this popular single from Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album also won the 1994 MTV Movie Award for “Best Song in a Movie” as the main theme featured on the Free Willy soundtrack.

And two brand-new medleys: Rock With You – A Tribute to Michael Jackson (includes Got to Be There, I’ll Be There, Man in the Mirror, Rock With You, Say Say Say, Thriller, and We Are the World) and Michael Jackson: A Musical Tribute (includes Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Beat It, and Wanna Be Startin’ Something’).  Both are sure to be show choir extravaganzas!

For more pop selections for your choir, contact us!

We Remember: Mary Travers

Until the early 1960s, popular music was almost solely a means of entertainment–then came Peter, Paul, and Mary. This trio from Greenwich Village was able to weave a timely message of peace and justice into the mainstream music scene in a way that reached more people than had ever been done before. The world lost a true pioneer of music and humanity when Mary Travers, the unmistakable raw energy and blonde female third of Peter, Paul, and Mary, died last week at age 72 after a battle with leukemia and the side effects of chemotherapy.

Together with Peter Yarrow and Noel Paul Stookey, Mary Travers sang America through the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War with such songs as “If I Had a Hammer”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, and “Puff (the Magic Dragon)”. Continuing in the tradition of Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Peter, Paul, and Mary asked America to sing along at concerts, protests, and rallies, including the 1963 March on Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Along the way, the trio also helped introduce the world to a host of talented songwriters, including Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, and John Denver, whose “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was one of the their biggest hits. The trio disbanded in 1970, but reunited in 1978 and continued to record and tour until mid-2009, when Travers insisted on performing to carry on her message for the world, despite requiring a wheelchair and oxygen. Unlike many of their contemporaries, whose musical styles and message changed with the times, Peter, Paul, & Mary continued to cling to their causes and folk music, noting the importance of “carry[ing] it on” for future generations. In later years, the trio made several televised concerts for PBS, many of which were targeted toward teaching children the impact music can have on peace in society.

While not a principal songwriter or producer for the trio, Travers’ contributions to the group were boundless. Her powerful voice, energetic interpretations, and trademark long blonde hair defined the trio for many, and her intelligence and awareness were often the conscience of the group. In early years, she was directed by their manager to remain elusive onstage by focusing only on the songs and not engaging in stage banter. However, in later years, especially after her own solo career and side projects lecturing on the role of music in society and hosting an interview show for BBC, she began to be the social commentator and frequent comedienne of the group during concerts.

Travers leaves behind a tremendous legacy of strength, hope, and peace through music, and her passing leaves an enormous hole in one of the most successful partnerships—a nearly 50-year association—in music history. In a statement, Yarrow wrote, “I have no idea what it will be like to have no Mary in my world”. Stookey included, “I am deadened and heartsick beyond words to consider a life without Mary Travers”. However, Travers’ legacy will live on through the music of her surviving partners and all whose lives she impacted. As stated in a very recent letter from President Barack Obama to Travers, “Your passion for music and your ability to stir change has helped define a genre and a generation.”

Special Thanks to Contributer:
Brandon Moss, Cincinnati Ohio
Music Educator and Stanton’s Customer

Feedback Friday: Ellen on American Idol?!

Arrrr, Me Mateys!

“Talk like a Pirate Day,” September 19th be fast upon us! Why not spend the day swashbucklin’ by perusin’ these great grand resources for yer little lads and lasses?

How to Be a Pirate in Seven Easy Songs
This reproducible mini-musical transforms landlubber students into proud pirates, through story, song and simple costumes and props.
 
Pirates! The Musical
Join this salty crew of colorful scallywags, hoist the Jolly Roger and set sail for a mighty adventure. Perfect for upper elementary and middle school performers

Treasure Island
Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, this 55-minute adaptation introduces Jim, Billy Bones, Long John Silver and a host of interesting characters and features eight original songs.

Pirates of Penzance
One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operettas has been carefully edited and condensed for young performers. This 70-minute version includes all your favorite characters and choruses from the original.

Ruth E. Schram’s collection Every Day’s a Holiday includes an original number for “Talk like a Pirate Day,” as well as songs in a variety of styles for creative holidays all year round.

Our Principal’s a Pirate Packed with humor and set in a jolly, pirate-style jig (complete with genuine pirate lingo), this 2-part choral arrangement even features a simple spoken part to involve your own principal.

The Pirate’s Life Uncover a hidden treasure with this swashbuckling 2-part novelty song. From the first “Yo-ho!” to the final “Yarr!” it’s rollicking fun all the way.

If ye be needin’ more idears, holler at us!