Make the Most of Your Budget Dollar!

Ohio Music Education Association Solo & Ensemble Adjudicated Events are fast-approaching!  If you’re looking to expand your music library with contest literature, you’ll get the most “bang for your buck” by choosing vocal solo collections that contain multiple contest selections.  Many collections (including 20th Century Art Songs, 24 Italian Songs & Arias, 55 Songs by Roger Quilter, Anthology of Spanish Songs, Easy Songs for the Beginning Mezzo-Soprano/Alto, First Book of Tenor Solos, The Lieder Anthology, and Standard Vocal Literature [Soprano]) contain 10 or more contest pieces, making them perfect for really stretching your valuable budget!

Click here for a full listing of vocal collections on the current Solo & Ensemble list and the individual solos each contains.  Need more information?  Please contact us!

Christmas Gifts for College Music Majors

As musicians who work with the general public, we at Stanton’s know that it can be challenging for ‘non-musicians’ to know what to get for the music major in the family.  Composer names and piece titles are often long and foreign and you don’t really know what your student already has.  You want to get them something ‘musical’ because you know they’ll love it, but are afraid of getting something too easy or childish.  Don’t fret because we’re here to help!  The following suggestions are perfect gifts for any music major:

- A new metronome

- A new Manhasset music stand

- The Harvard Dictionary of Music

- The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms

- Effortless Mastery

- Teaching Band and Orchestra

- Instrument Repair for the Music Teacher

- So… You’re the New Band Director: Now What?

- The Anatomy of Conducting

- Classical Destinations

Hopefully you’ve found that last-minute gift!  If not, don’t hesitate to give us a call: 1-800-426-8742.  You can also order over the phone, or via our website!  Merry Christmas!!

12 Folk Songs for Solo Singers

Alfred Publishing has been very successful in producing high-quality solo vocal literature for developing singers.  The newest collection now available is 12 Folk Songs for Solo Singers, featuring fresh settings by well-known Alfred arrangers including Jay Althouse, Andy Beck, Mark Hayes, Douglas E. Wagner, and more.  These 12 varied folk songs from near and far offer lots of opportunities for your young singers to experience a wide variety of music all in one collection!  The accompaniment CD has piano accompaniments that are perfect for lessons, home practice or performances.

Other wonderful vocal collections from Alfred include Folk Songs for Solo Singers, International Folk Songs for Solo Singers, and Spirituals for Solo Singers.  Please contact us for more great repertoire ideas for young singers!

Are You Prepared for Christmas Eve Services?

Are you singing for your church’s Christmas Eve services this December?  Every year, we get panicked phone calls and visits from customers around the 23rd of December, desperately in need of a piece IMMEDIATELY!  Don’t let that be you!  Now is a good time to double-check your music files and make sure that you have all the pieces you need in the appropriate key.  Some of the most popular pieces sung at Christmas Eve services are Gesu Bambino, Mary, Did You Know? and Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night).  We’re happy to help you find less common or hard-to-find repertoire for your Christmas services, and we can also give you some suggestions if you’re just not sure what to sing!  Just give us a call at 1-800-426-8742, or drop us an email.

And for all you procrastinators out there, Stanton’s will be open on Christmas Eve!

Celebrating the Musical Heritage of John Ness Beck

Choral composer and arranger John Ness Beck was born on November 11, 1930 in Warren, Ohio.  After graduating from Warren High School in 1948, he enrolled at The Ohio State University.  In 1952 he graduated from Ohio State with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees with a major in English.  After working for a year in Student Union activities at the State College of Washington, he spent two years in the U.S. Army.  During this time, he became increasingly involved in arranging for various musical groups.  After his discharge from military service, he returned to Ohio State and completed Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts degrees in music with composition as his major.

John was a faculty member of The Ohio State University School of Music for seven years, teaching harmony and theory.  He left the university to become owner and manager of The University Music House, a retail sheet music store in Columbus.  In this capacity, he was able to observe the business side of the music industry, gaining insight into the complexities of music publishing and merchandising.  As his compositions found their way into print and popularity, he joined forces in 1972 with John Tatgenhorst in the creation of Beckenhorst Press.  His reputation as a composer and his experience as a choral director soon led to an increasing demand for appearances as guest conductor and lecturer at various music clinics and festivals throughout the country.  John has left a wonderful legacy of music to be enjoyed by all.

The musical heritage of John Ness Beck is well-known here in the central Ohio area, but those of you in other areas around the country may not be as familiar with his vast catalogue of work.  If you’re still looking for pieces for December concerts, check out his Lullaby or Where is the Child?  Some other long-time favorites are Canticle of Praise, Benediction, and Consecration.  Solo singers will find many options in the collections Sacred Songs of John Ness Beck and Hymn Settings of John Ness Beck.

Contact us for more information.

POP goes the sheet music!

Stanton’s receives many calls and emails that begin with “I’ve got a great piece of music here that’s pretty old…” and, sadly, that conversation often ends with “I’m sorry to tell you that piece is permanently out of print.” What does that mean for you, the director/musician when something is permanently out of print (POP)? Read on to find some of the most common questions and their answers:

1) Why do things go POP?
When we inform someone that a certain piece is POP, the most common response we receive is “I can’t believe it—that piece is so good!” While it is true that sometimes a piece is taken out of print due to lack of sales, this is not the only reason. Sometimes there are copyright changes, royalty disputes and other business issues that have nothing to do with sales. Even if a piece is taken out of print due to low sales, that’s not necessarily an indicator of quality. A piece that is “good” may also be very difficult, or extremely contemporary or use an unusual voicing/instrumentation, all of which could lead to low sales despite how “good” it is.

2) Why does Stanton’s show POP titles on their website?
When Stanton’s determines that a piece is no longer in print, we indicate that on our website so that you, the customer, can also have that information. If you were looking for a certain piece and simply didn’t see it listed, you may just conclude that it’s not available from Stanton’s, or that you had typed something incorrectly.
Sometimes a piece that is permanently out of print is not yet listed that way on our website. While we make every effort to keep the information on our website up-to-date, we usually don’t learn that a piece has gone POP until we try to order it and the publisher says “sorry, no.” Please call us if you have questions about the status of a particular piece.

3) How do I determine that something is POP?
As stated above, we encourage you to contact Stanton’s whenever you have questions about a piece of music. If you are interested in doing some research yourself, you can check the website of the publisher to see if they have more information. If the music is from a publisher that is no longer in business, their copyrights, or “imprints,” are probably still owned by another publisher; the same arrangement may still be in print from the “new” owner of that imprint. You can find more details about defunct publishers on the Music Publishers Association’s directory of imprints.

4) Do I have any options for obtaining this music?
Once you have determined that something is POP, you may contact the publisher to request permission to photocopy (Stanton’s can give you their contact information) if you have at least one original copy. Especially in the case of churches and schools, the publishers will often grant this request for little or no cost. The publisher will then send you a letter stating that you have permission to make copies. If you do not have an original copy, you might acquire a copy from someone else’s library by sending out a query on the ChoralNet listserv, or a similar forum. IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE PHOTOCOPIES WITHOUT THE PUBLISHER’S PERMISSION, EVEN WHEN SOMETHING IS NO LONGER IN PRINT!

5) This music is still in print, so why is it so hard for me to get it?!
In addition to “in print” and “out of print,” there are a few other ways to designate the status of a piece of music. It may be “temporarily out of print” (TOP) or “on backorder” (OBO), which means that the publisher is sold out of the music in their warehouse and will need to print some more. It also may be designated as “print on demand” (POD) or an “archive edition,” meaning that it is not something that the publisher keeps in stock, but they will print special copies on request. A piece of music might be a “special import” that is not kept in stock in the US, but that a publisher can get from their international partners. ALL of these situations may affect how long it will take to get your music and how much it will cost.

6) Is there any chance that it WILL come back into print?
No. There may be other arrangements of the same composition available, but once something goes POP, it will not come back.

Permanent means permanent.

Singer’s Library of Musical Theatre

If you or your students routinely perform songs from the Broadway repertoire, these books are for you!  Each book in the series of Singer’s Library of Musical Theatre  includes 2 CD’s of recorded piano accompaniment.
There are 2 volumes in each voice range: Soprano, Mezzo/Alto, Tenor, and Bass.
The fun thing about these books is the fact that the songs are in the same keys as in the original Broadway shows. The shows cover a wide time period, from the 1885 “Mikado”, to more recent shows like the Broadway production of  “Disney’s ” Beauty and the Beast”  and “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”. For more  information concerning these products please check our website at stantons.com.

Tori Amos, New album on tour.

Tori Amos’ new album, “Abnormally Attracted to Sin” , is being presented on a world tour. The tour started July 10 in Seattle, and will end in Australia on Nov. 24. There will be stops in Germany, Poland, France and Holland in between.
This album includes songs that make some strong statements.  The song “Ophelia”  is about being with someone who doesn’t respect you.  The syncopation and changing meter keep you a little off  balance, in keeping with the words of the song.  “Strong Black Vine” addresses religious intolerance. Rhythms and dissonance bring out the tension  inherent in conflict.  Check out this new best-seller.

Help–I’m a “band person” in a choir job!!

We hear it every fall: desperate pleas for assistance from self-proclaimed “band directors” who have taken positions teaching choir (or as our band department calls it, “Holler Band”). They feel disoriented and unprepared, and don’t really know where to start. If you are one of these people, take comfort in the fact that you are not alone in your struggle (because misery loves company, right?) and know that the choral department here at Stanton’s can empathize with you–some of us have even been in your situation before. We’ll try to help you in whatever way we can.

One of the major concerns you might have is rehearsal accompaniment. If you’re not a strong pianist, there are some resources at your disposal. The publisher Carl Fischer, who also distributes BriLee, offers piano accompaniment tracks to many of their choral arrangements which are FREE to download from their website. They also offer full performance tracks (so that you and your students can hear what the piece should sound like) AND part-dominant rehearsal tracks, which are a performance of one part on its own, to help with sectionals. Most of the other major publishers also offer performance and accompaniment tracks for purchase (it is usually listed on the front of the choral piece if a CD is available, but we’d be happy to help you figure it out if you’re not sure).

To get started with warm-ups, “Building Beautiful Voices” by Paul Nesheim and Weston Noble contains more than 60 different exercises and will help you find the right warm-ups to improve specific weaknesses in your choral sound. Another standard warm-up resource is “The Complete Choral Warm-Up Book” by Russell Robinson and Jay Althouse, which includes more than 200 exercises for your choir.

If you have time for reading some “how to” texts—and you might, now that your Friday nights are free—we would recommend “I Know Sousa, Not Sopranos!” by Russell Robinson. It is written by a choral expert who was once in your shoes, and who helps point out how you can use many of your strengths as an instrumentalist to achieve results in the choral classroom. Another great resource is “Sing 6-7-8” by Roger Emerson. Written in a conversational, question and answer format, this book offers practical solutions to common choral problems. It focuses primarily on issues of the middle school grades, but is definitely applicable to high school as well.

Please contact the choral department if you need any further help or suggestions—we can send you our recommendations on 21-Day Trial. We want for you to be successful in your new position, and we’re here to support you. Remember, music is music, be it instrumental or vocal; you’re not nearly as clueless as you think you are.

If any of our readers have other good suggestions for new choir teachers, please leave your comments on this post!

How may I direct your call?

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)
Choral Music for School & Church
Elementary General 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

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. If you’re unsure of which department to choose, we’re always happy to direct you to whoever can best address your needs. At Stanton’s, it is important to us that you receive the most educated answers to your questions and the finest music recommendations.