Randall Thompson – American Masterpieces: Choral Music

The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Choral Music initiative is designed to celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers and their works of the past 250 years.  Stanton’s Sheet Music is proud to present this series highlighting the composers and their works featured in this groundbreaking project.

(from NEA.gov)
Randall Thompson (1899-1984) was the pre-eminent American choral composer of an earlier generation. His music, though grounded in traditional European rules, always seems very much of its time and place, perhaps because he frequently drew upon the early folk music of New England and the Appalachian region.

He was a Yankee by heritage, born in New York City to a New England family. His father was an English teacher, and sent him to Harvard University where he studied choral music and composition. After graduation he had some private lessons with Ernest Bloch. He won the Prix de Rome in 1922. After studying abroad he returned to the U.S. and spent the rest of his career teaching at various universities, most notably at his alma mater Harvard from 1948 to 1965. Among his most famous students were Leonard Bernstein and Lukas Foss.

Although Thompson wrote piano music and songs, chamber music and symphonies, and even a Biblical opera, it is for his exceptionally apt choral music that he has remained most admired. His “Alleluia,” written in 1940, quickly became a staple of church choirs in towns big and small and was recorded over a dozen times in the next few decades. Thompson seemed to understand by the 1950s that his style was no longer in vogue in academia; from then on he concentrated his efforts upon community, church, and college choir ensembles – and with enthusiasm, not regret.

Among his most famous larger works are The Peaceable Kingdom, The Testament of Freedom, and Frostiana, each of which evokes stirring elements of the American experience, whether in sound, structure or textual inspiration.

Selected Works:
Alleluia
Americana
The Best of Rooms
Frostiana
The Last Words of David
The Peaceable Kingdom
The Testament of Freedom

For more distinguished choral repertoire suggestions, please contact us.

Save the Date – Sacred Choral Reading Session!

Stanton’s is pleased to welcome back Lloyd Larson as our clinician for the August Church Choral Music reading session! His compositions and arrangements include well over 1,000 published works—including choral anthems, numerous extended Christmas, Easter and non-seasonal works, keyboard collections, vocal solo and duet collections, instrumental works for solo and ensembles, orchestrations, and handbell settings. The resulting notoriety has placed him in constant demand as a clinician throughout North America.

Your registration includes a packet of over 40 new choral anthems that are hand-picked from the hundreds published each year. We look forward to seeing you on August 11th for a wonderful morning of singing with one of the nation’s most sought after church music experts.

Sacred Choral Reading Session
Saturday 8/11/2012, 9:00 am-12:30 pm
Battelle Fine Arts Center, Otterbein University
195 West Park St., Westerville OH 43081
Cost: $20.00 (There is no pre-registration; you may register the day of the clinic beginning at 8:30.)
email our choral department for more details

Sacred Piano Reading Session
- Also featuring Lloyd Larson
Saturday 8/11/2012, 2:00 pm-4:30 pm
Stanton’s Sheet Music,
330 South 4th St., Columbus OH 43215
Cost: Free!
email our keyboard department for more details

Mark Your Calendar for Stanton’s Reading Sessions!

Featuring talented clinicians from major publishers, Stanton’s summer choral clinics are a fantastic way to jump-start your school year! We always look forward to visiting with our regular customers, matching up faces with names of new attendees, and meeting teachers new to Stanton’s from across the country.

Mark your calendar for these dates:

	Elementary/General Music Clinic Wednesday August 1, 2012 Clinician: Greg Gilpin
	The John Jacobson Workshop Thursday August 2, 2012 Clinicians: John Jacobson & Roger Emerson
	The Joy of Singing Friday August 3, 2012 Clinicians: Christine Bass, Roger Emerson, Mac Huff & John Jacobson
	Stanton’s Super Session Saturday August 4, 2012 Clinicians: Andy Beck, Greg Gilpin & Jen Sper

Also in August 2012:

	Sacred Choral Reading Session Saturday August 11, 2012 Clinician: Lloyd Larson (no pre-registration for this session)
	Excellence in Choral Literature Saturday August 25, 2012 Clinician: James Gallagher

Registration will open April 2nd. For more detailed information regarding any of these clinics, contact the choral department at 1-800-426-8742, extension 1.

Virgil Thomson – American Masterpieces: Choral Music

The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Choral Music initiative is designed to celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers and their works of the past 250 years.  Stanton’s Sheet Music is proud to present this series highlighting the composers and their works featured in this groundbreaking project.

(from NEA.gov)
Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) was one of America’s most stimulating, thoughtful, original, and long-lived composers and critics. He created one of the first really distinctive American operas (Four Saints in Three Acts), he composed distinguished film scores (The Louisiana Story won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949), he wrote witty and perceptive critiques of the American musical scene for many years, and he was still active into his 90s.

He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, into a morally strict family. He gravitated to music and was composing piano pieces with names like “The Chicago Fire” at age four. During study in France he came under the spell of Erik Satie and the Group of Six who overturned Romantic orthodoxy by mixing jazz and dance-hall tunes with serious compositional techniques. It was a perfect fit for Thomson, who found a unique style by blending this with his heritage of nostalgic middle-Americana.

His music is elegantly crafted, yet warm and human. It is richly evocative of an America half real, half imagined, but vividly recreated out of nostalgia and sincere affection. The range of Thomson’s choral music is wide. His 1934 Mass for two-part chorus and percussion is a dissonant, minimalist piece that seems avant-garde even today. Also in the 1930s he wrote incidental music for productions at John Houseman’s Phoenix Theater in New York. A planned staging of one Greek tragedy never came off, but Thomson saved his choral music as the concert piece Seven Choruses from the Medea of Euripides.

Four Songs to Poems of Thomas Campion pays tribute to music techniques of Elizabethan England. More characteristic of the Thomson most of us know are the straightforwardly simple Hymns from the Old South, Variations on Sunday School Tunes, and “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need.”

Selected Works:
Capital Capitals
Four Southern Hymns
Mass
Saints Procession
Scenes from the Holy Infancy

For more distinguished choral repertoire suggestions, please contact us.

Digitally Download Sheet Music

Do you ever need sheet music in a big hurry?  Check out Stanton’s Digital Delivery to browse our digital sheet music library. There are pop songs, Broadway songs, sacred songs, guitar tabs, and much more!

You’ll need to download a free Scorch program that allows you to see the first page of each song you look up, and it allows you to print on your own printer.  Many songs can also be transposed to whatever key you need! Just pay with a credit card, download and print.

This service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Happy browsing!

William Schuman – American Masterpieces: Choral Music

The National Endowment for the Arts’ American Masterpieces: Choral Music initiative is designed to celebrate our national musical heritage by highlighting significant American choral composers and their works of the past 250 years.  Stanton’s Sheet Music is proud to present this series highlighting the composers and their works featured in this groundbreaking project.

(from NEA.gov)
William Schuman (1910-1992) ranks among the most honored and distinguished American composers, although most of his works are less well-known among the general public than those of his contemporaries Copland, Bernstein, and Barber. An exception to this is his New England Triptych, an orchestral work often paired on programs with the similarly conceived (but very different sounding) Three Places in New England by Charles Ives.

In 1943 he won the first Pulitzer Prize for music ever given. He was the first composer ever commissioned to write a work by the U.S. government. He was president of The Juilliard School for 18 years, and president of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts for its first eight years. He was granted more than 20 honorary degrees in a lifetime as an educator, administrator, and composer, and had an enormous impact through his teaching and his tireless efforts to incorporate classical music into the lives of the American public.

Schuman’s catalogue is particularly rich in choral works. He was an acknowledged master of accompanied and a cappella choral music both complex and simple in scope (some pieces are written specifically for amateur singers). He made a point of emphasizing American poetry for his texts. His Carols of Death are settings of three powerful verses by Walt Whitman. On a lighter note, the choruses from Casey at the Bat (a 1976 “baseball cantata” adapted in turn from his 1953 opera The Mighty Casey) revel in the rollicking humorous verse of Ernest Lawrence Thayer, reflecting Schuman’s lifelong passion for baseball.

Selected Works:
A Free Song
Casey at the Bat
The Lord Has a Child
Te Deum
This Is Our Time

For more distinguished choral repertoire suggestions, please contact us.

Copyright Resources for Musicians and Educators

Copyright law and its implications affect musicians and educators every day, yet most of us have little to no understanding of it.  Whether majoring in performance or education, undergraduate courses of study rarely present an introduction to the subject, let alone offer any courses that study it in detail.  It is challenging to know what is permissible under the law, and what exactly is allowed under the doctrine of ‘fair use.’  Violations of copyright occur frequently in our schools mostly due to the lack of education on the subject, and, like it or not, use in an educational setting alone does not necessarily constitute compliance with the ‘fair use’ provision of the law.  With increased scrutiny and debate over copyright infringement on the internet, the staff at Stanton’s would like to recommend the following resources to shed light on the subject for musicians and educators alike.  They are presented in order of increasing detail, and we highly recommend The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law for music educators.  In addition, YouTube in Music Education is a great resource for those looking to use this technology to enhance their programs, but have concerns about how to do so appropriately.

Music Copyright Basics – Joel Leach
What is copyright?  This seemingly simple question often causes confusion with its complex answers.  In Music Copyright Basics, professor and expert copyright witness Joel Leach answers frequent questions in a straightforward, easy-to-use format.  Whether you are searching for a simple answer to a common question or want a general knowledge of the copyright procedure, this book will quickly provide you with the information you want.  Music Copyright Basics features: a convenient question-and-answer format; easy-to-understand answers to all your copyright questions; coverage of copyright basics, copyright submission process, copyright ownership, copyright and earnings potential, and international copyright; and a compact, portable design that keeps information easily at hand. (2003)

The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law – James Frankel
The easy-to-understand guide for teachers using copyrighted music and media in the classroom.  In this era of unprecedented access to information, teachers have a wealth of readily available resources for lesson planning, but determining what you can and can’t use legally in the classroom is a difficult task.  Written by a 15-year veteran of the New Jerseypublic schools, The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law helps explain just how information, images, video, and music can be incorporated into any kind of lesson plan without running afoul of copyright laws.  This resource includes: what resources you can use without obtaining permission, how to obtain and license the works you need permission to use, how to check the copyright status of any media item, and how to apply copyright legality examples to real classroom situations. (2009)

Music Copyright Law – Moser & Slay
Music Copyright Law will help you gain an in-depth understanding of a topic that is vital to the success of anyone in or entering the music industry.  From songwriters and performers to managers, producers, and agents, everyone is affected by the issues covered in this book.  Avoiding the technical jargon and “legalese” that bogs down other books on the subject, this book explores the world of copyright law and homes in on how it applies to music.  It begins by building a foundational knowledge of the fundamentals of copyright law – what it protects, the benefits of registering a copyright, and what to do when copyright has been infringed.  Once the fundamentals are established, coverage expands to include controversies involving copyright and music in the digital age and the debates over online music.  Packed with practical examples that bring complex concepts to life, this book is a must-have for any professional in or entering the music business. (2012)

Kid’s Korner

Involve your youngest singers in worship this spring with one of these great anthems for children’s choirs!

Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
Here is an updated version of the classic Palm Sunday hymn that will make your children’s choir sound incredible. This upbeat arrangement has a beautiful contrasting section that creates a quiet moment of worship. A powerful new addition to the Hymnz 4 Kidz series!

Shout with Joy!
“Shout with Joy!” is a celebratory piece lifted from Mark Patterson’s “Can’t Wait to Sing! 2″ collection. Patterson wrote this piece specifically to be used at the beginning of his choir year. There is no doubt that this enjoyable piece will get children singing and make them want to come back from week to week!

Sing to the Lord
The use of simple syncopation in the vocal lines and a simple, yet meaningful Biblical text characterize this composition in the typical Nancy Raabe style. Suitable for children’s choirs of any age, this piece would be particularly useful at the beginning of the choir year or in any general service.

Standing on the Promises
This new addition to the Hymnz 4 Kidz series will keep your toes tapping and your hands clapping! Your children’s choir will love learning this fresh setting of the old gospel hymn, complete with a fun encore reprise!

Want more suggestions from Stanton’s?  Contact our choral department at 1-800-426-8742!

New Church Anthems for Spring

It may still be cold and snowy outside, but it’s certainly not too early to be planning your choral anthems for this spring!  Stanton’s Sacred Choral Music staff has carefully chosen these pieces to be appropriate for a variety of worship styles and services throughout the coming months.

For the Lenten season, Who Is That Man? conveys the drama of Jesus’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane with reverent simplicity. Evocative harmonic colors and an optional C-instrument obbligato illustrate a powerful text that asks the question: “Why must He suffer there and die all alone?”  Smaller choirs will excel with the new 2-part mixed voicing of Lloyd Larson’s top-seller When You Prayed Beneath the Trees, which is especially meaningful during the days of Holy Week.

The joyous spirit of Let the People Sing Hosanna!, with its catchy and repetitive harmonies and rhythms, will easily fill worshippers with the spirit of “hosanna” on Palm Sunday. A creative choice for a processional, it features a percussion accompaniment that is extremely accessible. Youth or adult choirs will enjoy proclaiming the arrival of Jesus with this instant favorite.

“On that great, great mornin’, Jesus is alive!” Filled with the spirited triumph of Easter morning, On That Great, Great Mornin’, an a cappella original from Mary McDonald, features close vocal harmonies, regular syncopation, and fun-to-sing passages of call and response. An optional solo offers the opportunity to showcase one of your singers and drives the piece to a rousing and celebratory conclusion.  For a Baroque flavor on Easter morning, Christ Is Risen! Alleluia! incorporates the famous Handel chorus from “Judas Maccabeus.” Opening with a thrilling choral fanfare and followed by a strong homophonic section and an enjoyable fugue, this is sure to become an Easter standard!

For other Sundays this spring, try Mary McDonald’s This Is My Father’s World, which incorporates a rich choral treatment and rhapsodic piano accompaniment to create a truly fresh arrangement. Options for congregational participation, handbells, and a C-instrument obbligato all enhance this worshipful selection that is perfect for use throughout the year. Other wonderful choices include Come into God’s Embrace (a compassionate communion anthem), O Magnify the Lord (majestically combined with “All Creatures of Our God and King”), and There Is a Redeemer (featuring a dramatic conclusion and lovely vocal textures).

Did you miss out on our Sacred Choral Music Reading Session?  Never fear!  If you’re interested in receiving a packet from this year’s clinic (featuring these and many more selections for spring worship), please contact us!  You can also click here to view our entire Sacred Choral promotion for Spring 2012.

Get a real, LIVE person on the phone!

We’re always talking about our knowledgeable staff—you’ll find that very phrase on much of our printed advertising, as well as on our website. Stanton’s sales staff is separated into departments to ensure that each staff member is well informed about a specific area of the wide variety of music that we carry. So when you call and ask about music for trumpet, you’ll be speaking with someone who has first-hand knowledge of repertoire, not just a phone operator with no musical experience. Here’s what you’ll find in each department:

CHORAL DEPARTMENT (ex. 1)
Church Choral Music
School Choral Music
Elementary Classroom Music
Classical Solo Vocal
Handbell

BAND DEPARTMENT (ex. 2)
Concert Band
Marching Band
Jazz Ensemble
Orchestra
Solos for all concert instruments
Instrumental Method Books
Music Software/Technology

POP/KEYBOARD (ex. 3)
Sacred & Secular Piano
Organ
Piano Method Books
Popular/Broadway Solo Vocal
Contemporary Christian Vocal
Guitar Solos and Methods
Music for Folk Instruments

BILLING AND ACCOUNTS (ex. 4)

You can direct emails to the exact department you need by clicking the links above, or press the appropriate extension when you call 1-800-42-MUSIC (1-800-426-8742). If you’re unsure of which department to choose, we’re always happy to direct you to whoever can best address your needs; press “0″ to have your call directed, or send a general email. At Stanton’s, it is important to us that you receive the most educated answers to your questions and the finest music recommendations.