Online Resources for Public Domain Materials

Are you aware that there are a number of online libraries for sheet music in the public domain? While not an authoritative resource, these sites can be very useful for research, educational exercises and, in some cases, even performance.

The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) is a large archive of free choral music. Anyone may contribute, so selections range from early music to the unpublished work of current composers.

International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP) is a WIKI site offering scanned-in public domain scores which can be browsed by composer, time period or instrument.

Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA) contains an EXTENSIVE list of links to other online public domain libraries.

In The Navy Now!

The Stanton’s staff would like to wish one of our own, Tom Smiley, the best of luck with his new adventure in life–and “adventure” seems to be the opperative word seeing that he is heading to the Navy’s basic training camp in Bethesda, Maryland.  Tom has been with Stanton’s since his early college days, working in our “Pop” department on Saturdays and putting in any extra time that he could between classes during the week.  Tom earned his bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University in the Spring of 2007 and took his first teaching job as a high school band director with the Columbus City Schools.  This past summer, Tom came back to work for Stanton’s in a temporary position until his Naval enrollment was finalized and he knew when he was to be ”shipped out” to basic training.  Tom will be enlisting as an officer and specialize in ships’ weapon deployment systems.  We wish Tom the best of luck in the next four years and hope that he stays safe in his travels around the world.

How-to: Musical Rentals and Performance Permission

Stanton’s Sheet Music receives many inquiries from customers who “just got put in charge of the school musical” and want to know where to start. Although MANY choral/band directors and drama teachers are also expected to direct musicals, it seems that most college courses skip right over this topic. One of your first steps will be to decide upon the musical you’d like to stage. While Stanton’s does sell Broadway vocal collections, choral/band arrangements and other musical theater products including most Broadway Junior productions, we CANNOT contract the licensing rights that give you legal permission to perform the work—for that you must contact the appropriate licensing company. Some of the largest licensing companies are:

Musical Theater International
Since its founding in 1952, MTI has been supplying musical materials to theatres worldwide, whether it is the newest hit from the Broadway or London stage, or a timeless classic. MTI has been a driving force in cultivating new work and in extending the production life of the great American musicals such as Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Fiddler On The Roof, Les Misérables, Annie, Damn Yankees, The Music Man, Godspell, Little Shop Of Horrors, and the musical theatre collection of Stephen Sondheim, among others.

Rogers and Hammerstein Organization
Founded by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II more than 60 years ago, the R&H Organization represents a wide variety of entertainment copyrights and over 200 writers. In addition to Rodger & Hammerstein classics like The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, The King and I, and South Pacific, they also offer a range of popular musicals including Annie Get Your Gun, The Light in the Piazza, Babes in Arms, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc
Tams-Witmark licensed the first high school production of a Broadway musical approximately 75 years ago. Today, thousands of schools and community theatres are presenting Tams-Witmark musicals each year, including A Chorus Line, Anything Goes, Bye Bye Birdie, The Wizard of Oz, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Oliver, Hello Dolly, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Crazy for You, Forty-Second Street, Camelot, Kiss Me Kate, Gypsy and Brigadoon.

Samuel French
With offices in New York City, London, Hollywood and Studio City, California, Samuel French has been representing playwrights since 1830. They began hosting the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival in 1975 which has resulted in the publishing of 181 new plays since. Some of their most popular offerings are: Anne of Green Gables, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Chicago, Clue: The Musical,  Grease,  Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Mikado, Nunsense, Peter Pan, The Rocky Horror Show, and The Secret Garden.

All of these reputable companies offer script preview programs (similar to Stanton’s 21-Day Trial) and helpful websites to guide you through musical licensing procedures. Several variables determine how much money the performance rights will cost, and the only way to get a quote is to begin a dialogue with a licensing company. Stanton’s advises you to begin this process as far in advance as possible so that you have plenty of time to research and choose the best show for your particular situation.

Now all you have to do is cast the show, run rehearsals, build sets, sew/rent costumes, book a pit, and print programs. Simple, right?

On the Road: New York, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky!

Stanton’s Sheet Music is coming to YOU! Stanton’s will be on the road this winter attending several conventions outside the state of Ohio.

Our first stop will be in Rochester, New York, December 3-5th for the NYSSMA Convention. We are extremely excited about going back to this show for the 5th time! We are eager to see some of our favorite customers and, of course, meet new educators who we’ll be able to help. We are bringing a full selection of sheet music for Solo & Ensemble, Choral, Elementary Music, Concert Band, Jazz and Orchestra, along with some of the newest publications for music educators and college music majors. You shouldn’t have trouble finding us–we’ll be under the big blue Stanton’s balloon flying in the exhibition hall. If you are already familiar with Stanton’s, or have been reading our blog regularly, you may have learned that the Stanton’s staff loves traditions. We can’t visit Rochester without having our traditional night out at the Dinosaur—a well-known restaurant with a reputation for excellent barbecue. The Dinosaur’s bar-like interior will be crowded with everyone from musicians/educators from the convention to urban professionals and leathered bikers—all mingling in waiting for a table. It’s always worth the wait because the food is fantastic and the portions are huge. We’re hoping that all of our NYSSMA crew—new and returning—will love the Dinosaur and have a great time in Rochester!

After hosting our annual January Church Choral Reading Session on Saturday, January 9th, the next stop on the winter tour will be our inaugural trip to Grand Rapids for the Michigan Music Conference, January 21st-23rd. We are thrilled to finally be adding Michigan to our roster; we have talked about attending this convention ever since this event moved from a college campus to a convention center. We have been so pleased to be of help to music educators in the state of Michigan, and we look forward to seeing those customers face-to-face. Once again, we’ll be bringing a wide variety of music publications and resources for music educators and college majors. Since this convention is a new experience for the Stanton’s crew this year, we are open to suggestions as to what to do and where to eat. We’re sure that the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel has a nice restaurant or two, but are there other fun and exciting places to dine out in the downtown Grand Rapids area?

We are keeping our fingers crossed hoping for good traveling weather. We know the trip back from Rochester can be a little nerve racking with all of the lake effect snow hitting us on route 90 (we’ve “white-knuckled” our way back home at 2:30 in the morning more than once), but we are also hoping for good weather going to and from Grand Rapids with the snow off Lake Michigan in January. Wish us luck!

Of course, Stanton’s busy schedule doesn’t stop there. After we attend the Michigan Music Conference, Stanton’s travels to Cincinnati the very next week for OMEA, then on to Louisville, Kentucky for the KMEA convention the week after that. That’s three in a row—back to back to back! Then we still have a few small February run-outs to the Morehead Band Clinic and the ACDA Central Division Conference in Cincinnati before we can settle back into our normal routine. Keeping busy on the road is not only a fun way for the staff to get out and meet new people, but also makes the dark, chilly months seem to speed by more quickly. Come out and see us sometime this winter, and if you’d like Stanton’s to come to YOUR state convention next year, let us hear about it!

Who’s in charge?!

Stanton’s gets hundreds, if not thousands of new pieces of music each year.  We make every attempt to look through them all to determine whether or not we want to stock them in any kind of quantity. Every now and then a publisher will do something that makes us wonder, “What were they thinking?”

One company who had published a “pocket sized” drum rudiment dictionary (about 3 inches wide) came out with a new edition they proudly touted as “now available with a CD.”  The CD, of course, sticks out of the book by at least an inch, just begging to be snapped off.  Good packaging, folks!

Scholarly prose in the preface of some pieces lends an air of legitimacy, but sometimes you have to wonder at some of the logic.  One reads, “The four sonatas Handel wrote for the treble (today’s alto) recorder and figured bass are eminently suitable for the oboe.”  That sounds perfectly legitimate, but the next few lines describe how they are “eminently suitable.”  The paragraph continues, “…being in the wrong range for the oboe (consistently too high for practical purposes and for comfort), they have to be transposed a fourth lower.  The problem of phrases too long to be comfortable for the oboist was solved by transferring small segments of the solo line into the accompaniment.”  So basically, somebody had to totally rewrite the pieces to make them “eminently suitable.”  Thankfully, they do work well for oboe after all that work and have become staples of oboe literature, but a little rewriting of the preface may be in order for accuracy’s sake!

GO BUCKS!!!

We won’t name names…

Considering the multitude of music titles that publishers bring out every year, it is amazing that there aren’t more printing errors that get past the proof readers.  Consequently, when a goof does come through, it usually jumps right off the page.  Without pointing fingers (it happens to the best of us) here are a few publishers’ errors that we’ve caught over the last few years.

 The writer’s name is Ruth Elaine Schram, which comically became SCRAM when printed on the cover of a piece called “Somebody Got Lost.”  And we had to wonder how much the publisher really “cared” when they printed a cover saying “Variations” for Carinet and Piano.
A boo-boo that had to have been quite disheartening to the publisher, but didn’t get caught until thousands of choral octavos had been printed, was the result of a computer font that wasn’t supported by the printer’s equipment.  Anytime an apostrophe appeared in the lyrics, the printer’s computer preceded it with the letter “i” making the apostrophe look as if it was an accent mark.  Consequently there were typos such as “all the walls came a-tumbalini’ down” and “yei’ll take the high road and Ii’ll take the low road.”  The publisher decided not to recall them but has thankfully resolved the issue for future printings.

An error that probably got the biggest laugh, but was promptly recalled by the publisher when we brought it to their attention (can anyone say “lawsuit”?) was a case a number of years ago in which a biography of rock and roll drummers had a picture of Ringo Starr in which part of the caption read, “dummer for the Beatles.”  Now some people may argue about the technical prowess of the man as a percussionist, but he had to be a pretty smart cookie to do as well as he did with what he had.  And he’s crying all the way to the bank!

Wind Band Invitational and New Music Reading Session

There’s a bite in the air and the leaves are changing colors and dropping from the trees. It’s time for the Eighth Annual 2009 New Concert Band Reading Clinic! This extremely popular clinic weekend, especially helpful for 1st and 2nd year teachers, allows participants to have a “hands on” experience with the latest and best new music. The featured composer/director this year is Ray Cramer, famed musician, band pedagogue and director emeritus of Indiana University. Taking place on Friday and Saturday, November 13-14, at Capital University in Columbus, OH. Make your plans now to attend. Navigate to the clinic website for details.

New feature at www.stantons.com!

As you may or may not realize, Stanton’s has a great Digital Delivery download site that gets more and more hits everyday. From the convenience of your home you can now purchase and download everything from the latest pop tune to entire band arrangements directly to your printer. As an added service, when you navigate to many collections at stantons.com you’ll see the table of contents when you click on, “See all titles for this item”. You’re welcome to buy a hard copy of the entire album and have it sent to you OR you can download individual titles, in your desired key, directly from the table of contents! How cool is that!!! Happy downloading!

Spend Your In-Service Day at Stanton’s!

As schools come to the end of their first grading period of the year, many districts have in-service work days for teachers.  Why not spend your in-service day here at Stanton’s?  Check with your administrators, then gather all the music teachers from your district and come on in!

Now is a particularly great time to be planning your winter and holiday concert programs.  We have all our picks for seasonal concerts on display, and we’re happy to help you find exactly what you’re looking for, or offer you some suggestions.

So give us a call (1-800-42-MUSIC) and let us know when you’re coming!  If you have any special requests (musical research, repertoire choices and suggestions, etc.), please let us know as far in advance as possible, and we will do our best to accommodate you. 

For Ohio music educators, we invite you to join us on Friday, October 16, 2009 for COTA (Central Ohio Teachers’ Association) Day.  Stanton’s will be providing free coffee and doughnuts for you on that day, and free promotional items will also be available.  See you soon!