Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 1 February 2016

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

     Carolyn Steiner Stevens’ Prayer of Thanksgiving - Piano / Organ Duet was sewn up and finally transmittedebruar to the printer before noon.

     I finished a digital reprint for Jane Ripplinger Fjeldsted’s Perfect in Christ, S.A., and started planning a layout for David Len Allen's serene two part arrangement of Let Us All Press On for young women.

     Next, I made a few changes to my string transcription of Bach's Invention No. 13 in A minor (took the harmony out of a portion of the Violin II part and assigned it to unison with the first, then gave melody to the viola in a few short phrases,) printed new score and parts, and drove over to Maple Mountain High School for an hour-long rehearsal with Abigail's Maple Mountain Festival Quintet. 

     I am so pleased with the progress they are making. By the time we finished at 3:30p., they had worked out the detail, and had played through the piece twice without stopping—and without my conducting. 

     They can now get through the piece in the class festival tomorrow. Abigail is visibly relieved. Our hope is that the quintet will qualify for the regional festival in two weeks. What a challenging experience this is for high school sophomores!

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 11 January 2016

Thursday, 14 January 2016
     Because my granddaughter Abigail needed score and parts tomorrow for her festival string ensemble, I was feeling pressed. I set out to do something that I could finish today.
     I did a quick string orchestra transcription for Johann Sebastian Bach's Invention No. 1 (BWV-784), and delivered the score and parts to her electronically at about 2:00p. That will give her group something to work on.
     Bach's two groups of contrapuntal pieces for harpsichord—the Inventions and the Symphonia—are both arranged in order of ascending key, each group covering eight major and seven minor keys. Invention number 13 contains only two unison voices—one in each hand—and was written in the key of A minor. I learned it on the piano to satisfy my keyboard proficiency requirements at BYU in 1973. It is slightly less than two minutes long.
     My new five part string transcription gives this piece a different personality. I have defined the phrases with instrumental combinations. In one place I voiced the second violin on the lower part (usually would have been assigned to the cello), but transposed it up an octave—even crossing above the first violin part in a couple of places. This gave the section a solid change-of-texture.
     The piece is a little difficult. Both violin parts go higher than I wanted, but Abby has a good second violin player, she says. Her ensemble will work everything it out.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 29 December 2015

29 December 2015

          While working on back-list restorations today, I started new engravings for Robert Manookin’s choral setting of Beautiful Savior. It hasn't sold well, but it is an important part of his history, and I have decided not to let it go to “download only”. He wrote the arrangement in response to an invitation from Jerold Ottley and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in the 1980s. It is chromatic and a bit challenging to the ear—probably one of the first in that series. He mellowed greatly later on—calling the process ”repentance.”

Jerry Jackman Blog - Week of 1 December 2015

4 December 2015

    The Calvary Baptist Choir appeared at our Canyon View Stake Center at 7:00p for a Christmas Concert.

     I learned so much from them about how an amateur choir can operate spectacularly.

     The director played the piano. The choir watched him for cues and sang mostly in unison. Those who could sing a part added them where appropriate. The choir had been taught by rote. There were no sheet music parts anywhere, even for the pianist. The continued format was soloist with punctuating, and background choir and choir in unison. Occasionally, it would involve the congregation.  I am very impressed with how effective that is. I was amazed at the response of the Spirit. There was a wonderful outpouring of love and gratitude. That tells me that the Lord approved.

     The experience tonight with the Calvary Baptist Choir had me thinking all evening about how we might use this format all over the world for Ward Choirs—especially where trained singers are not available. Everyone singing the melody in unison by rote is plenty good enough. What matters is the devoted condition of the singers’ hearts. (See D&C 25:12).

5 December 2015

     I have been thinking most of the night about the Calvary Baptist Choir’s concert.

     Latter-day Saints are afraid to rely on their hearts. The Baptists showed us how to do it last night.

     I wonder if it is possible to work on this for the blessing of the Saints? It would require a decent pianist and singers who are willing to memorize a unison line, then to abandon all self-consciousness and sing from the heart.
     We could publish a variety of simple pieces (not necessarily familiar hymns) in a single book which are taught to the choir by rote and performed from memory.

     This might be the solution for devotional singing in South America, Africa, etc. where music is prized so deeply, but where music literacy is less abundant.

8 December 2015

     We are planning to discontinue the ChoralClub after the end of this month. Club membership has dwindled to below the number required for bulk mailing by the U.S. Postal service. We are also finding that only very few members actually order from the monthly packet.

     A choral piece for the final packet, “He Loves Us That Much” by Michael F. Moody and Kristen Allred was delivered from the printer yesterday. I found two pieces  in our warehouse which have never been released. Both are already recorded: #01370 “The Lord Inspires His Prophets” by A. Laurence Lyon from the Oratorio Visions of Light and Truth, and #01590 I Am Truly Blessed by Rob Millett. This will make up our final ChoralClub release.

     The club has been in existence for more than thirty years. Growth in technology has made it more effective now to communicate with our market electronically. We can deliver full color literature around the world in seconds with links to recordings—even videos.
     It is a new day!

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 20 July 2015

     I finished the ChoralClub slips for a June packet to include a description for each of the four titles in the release: one version of the slip for club members, one for dealers, and another for reviewers.

     While I worked, a new choral piece Missionary Medley by Chemain Evans and Ryan Eggett was delivered from our printer. We stopped production on the ChoralClub slip, and added this important new piece to the document—expanding the June release packet to create a five title June/July combined release.

     As of today, Abigail Anne Jackman is officially my assistant assistant. She will take over when Heidi is away.

     This is her second summer serving on our staff. It is a joy to have my granddaughter working with me in editorial—plus, she is a precise helper. I can trust her.

     Abigail commenced expanding the previously-prepared release package with the new title.

     Next, she and I discussed technique details of scanning from our archive.

     We scoured through the archive files which we had on hand for each volume of the Hymn Preludes for Organ series scrutinizing them for quality.

     Abby then scanned Book Five by herself. 

     She did a perfect job.

     In the afternoon, I took home a dozen sales reports and contracts from Carole and created Royalty Schedules for our newest titles. These documents record exactly our understanding with the writers— including royalty rates, shares, and each party's contributions and responsibilities.

     We maintain a product file for each title which contains the royalty schedule, the royalty agreement, a copy of the first edition of the work, and, if possible, the original manuscript. This was Carole's creation. I don't know what ever did without this file. Many times, like today, we have gone to this product folder for an early edition to scan in order to restore it. If there is ever confusion over what our or the writer's intent was, ostensibly, we can go to the product file for the answer.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 13 July 2015

13 July 2015

We are restoring the Sonos® Hymn Preludes for Organ series. Robert Manookin put this series together during the 1980s and 1990s. We have unified all of the covers according to a preplanned color scheme, and we are restoring and reassembling each book for use on the Internet. This series has been valuable for everyday ward organists. Though there are a few original postludes in some of the books, most of the offerings are prelude arrangements of LDS hymns.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 6 July 2015

Monday, 6 July 2015

      I finished a half dozen or so cover graphics for internet files, and completed the internet layout for #00029 “Where Can I Turn for Peace” for medium-high vocal solo, arranged by James C. Kasen.

     I edited new engravings provided by T. Chemain Evans for her “Missionary Medley” for SATB choir which was performed in the last General Conference by the Missionary Training Center Choir and organ, conducted by Ryan Eggett. 

     In the afternoon, I re-engraved #09169 “Where Can I Turn for Peace” edition for oboe and piano. Both the vocal and the oboe editions use the same accompaniment, but the oboe solo needs an instrumental line set in small notes with rehearsal letters in the score and part, and an adapted oboe part in a range which better serves the instrument.
      I may fall back to these new engravings for a final edition of the vocal score as well. The one we have been using is beautiful, but has staff lines which are faint and won't download well.