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.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 8 June 2015

Tuesday, 9 June 2015

     I began work on the layout for Nathan Bigler's The First Noel, and finished it before heading home. The piece divides to SSATTB. It is rich, but has no original melodic aspect. I am considering what we might be able to do to give it's listing more distinction. We already have published so many settings of this carol.

     This has been an issue before. Laurence Lyon reverted his lyric to the original “The First Nowell” just to make it different...and it died somewhere on the dusty trail to Bethlehem.

     Do we change the title to “On a Cold Winter's Night, That Was So Deep?” I don't think so. It wasn't winter—it was April. And in Bethlehem, in southern Israel, it wasn't even cold. There was maybe only just a cool breeze after midnight.

     How about “What the Angels Did Say?” 

     How about just “Noel”? (Or “No M”, or “No Q”, or “No S”?)

     Oh, this could get ridiculous—Ridiculous, but more distinctive. Right?

     How about “The Most Fabulous Arrangement of ‘The First Noel’?

     We could offer it for three piccolos and a banjo. That would be distinctive.

     Come on! STOP. No more of this!

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 18 May 2015

Tuesday, 19 May 2015
     About half of the work is now finished on digitizing the sixteen volume Praiseworthy Singer series.

     During the morning finished corrections for Praiseworthy Singer, Book 6. 

     Book 7 is with Meridith Crowder, my associate Editor, for scrutinizing. 

     In the afternoon I attempted the layout for Book 8, but the scans were so sloppy that I ordered a new set after first doing all the work for the final layout.

     I ordered also ordered new scans for Hymn Preludes from the Tabernacle, Book 1. 

     This afternoon, we checked four choral press proofs from our printer, plus a press proof for the folio With Strings Attached Book 1, piano accompaniment, by Darwin Wolford.

     Book 9 of Praiseworthy Singer—The populated layout was completed close to 5:30 p.m. 

     Though much of the scanned archive is passable, I had to repair about half of the pages on the fly by white-opagueing out black shadows and straightening alignments. One page I will need to re-engrave because of light leaking into the scanner bed over the music.

Jerry Jackman Blog - Week of 11 May 2015

Tuesday, 12 May 2015

     I finished building skeleton layouts for all sixteen volumes of the Praiseworthy Singer today, and am now populating them with page images. So far, four volumes are complete.
     Ultimately, we will have our entire catalog available for download—only a thousand titles left to go.

     Tonight, we attended my granddaughter‘s closing string orchestra concert at Diamond Fork Junior High School with Sherrie Farr Dunford conducting. Dunford included works on the program by J.S. Bach, Vaclav Nelhybel, Bela Bartok, and living contemporary composers. The best work of the evening was Sherrie Dunford’s own arrangement of Fandango.

Thursday, 13 May 2015 (from a writer)
Dear sir/madam,

I am reaching out to you for feedback on several organ pieces requested by ward organists and friends, who wanted the music published. My basic concerns and questions on these pieces:

1. Organ registration recommendations have not been added yet. I welcome your recommendations. Otherwise I will gladly work through each piece with trained organists.

Always include registration—an important element of the composition.

2. Will an average ward organist understand how to maintain tempo during the hemiola "With Humble Heart" mm. 15-18, or must I add explanation for assistance?

No extra explanation is needed.

3. Will an organist understand the melody augmentations throughout "Lead Kindly Light" or must I include organ registration changes so the melody and augmentation do not compete? Max Reger's works with augmentation (e.g. "Lobe den Herren") use "ben marcato," "sempre ben marcato" expression markings, and note heads with marcato markings.

Are you publishing service music, or teaching?

4. I use subtly different markings of "rit.," "rall." Should I always use "rit." to simplify interpretation?

Use rall. for a brief broadening—expression; rit. when preparing a change of tempo.

5. Is a tempo/metronome marking necessary? I use it sometimes, but not always.

Always include a metronome marking. Choose the perfect tempo ( q = 64) and go with it. Do not show a range (i.e. q = 60-66). 

6. Also, I am unsure how to measure the difficulty of each piece. Please advise.

Perception of difficulty varies with each organist. Unless the entire album is designated “Intermediate”, “Advanced”, etc. as a marketing strategy, do not bother with it.

7. Is the composer's full name sufficient, or should I include birth and death years?

Include full name, birth, and death years.

8. I have not yet requested permission to publish hymns with LDS copyrights. Most on this inquiry are in public domain.

9. I added a copyright indicator as a safe place marker at the base of each piece, though none have been requested for copyright through Library of Congress, etc.

Copyright notice must be placed at the bottom of each first page of music. Also indicate origin if available (“Appearing in the Carpathian Hymnal, first edition, 1909”).

10. None of these have been designated as prelude, postlude, special number, temple organ usage. Please advise.

The customer will decide how each piece is used, in spite of your label.

Hymn arrangement writing is the most competitive game in our business: If you are interested in your pieces being remembered for more than about three months, be the first to publish an arrangement of a specific hymn, or make your work so different that it has its own distinct personality. Perceived distinction is in the melodic content of the arrangement. The public does not perceive changes in key, forces, texture, registration, or format as being original.

Personal dedication lines should not be given on hymn arrangements when original authors are living.

Good luck,

Jerry Jackman

Friday, 14 May 2015

     I got much done today at the office—while it rained rats and hogs outside.

     The choral Midnight Clear by Nathan Bigler went to the printer.

     Delivered volumes 6 and 7 of the Praiseworthy Singer Series to Meridith for final proofreading.

     I also reviewed many submissions, and instantly accepted four new choral works for publication: two by Janice Kapp Perry with arrangements by Brent Jorgensen, and two by Brent alone.

     Ryan Murphy submitted a choral that was performed by combined YSA stake choirs from Box Elder and Weber Countes in the Saturday Afternoon session of April 2015 General Conference. It is an arrangement of I Stand All Amazed. Ryan Murphy's work is perfect. If you would like to hear and see this example, click here:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/music/2015/04?lang=eng&session=2&song=5&media=video#d

Jerry Jackman Blog - Week of 3 May 2015

 Sunday, 3 May 2015

    Carole and I just returned from business in Las Vegas.

    The Retail Print Music Dealers Association had their annual convention at the Tropicana Hote in Las Vegas, where we exhibited our sheet music all day Thursday and Friday.  Every exhibitor there is a sheet music publisher. I was in total sheet music heaven. There were music editions on display of every sort, kind, and art. I am especially impressed by engraving and art quality from G. Henle Verlag from Munich, and the Wiener Urtext Edtion from Vienna. 

     I suppose however, that their extremely conservative style doesn't merchandise well in the United States.

     This association is changing their name to the International Print Music Association. At least half of the exhibitors are from other than the United States, and are publishers— wholesale—not retail dealers. 

     The traffic in the exhibit hall was very quiet on both days. It seems that we are not the only music company effected by new technology and change in attitudes. Everyone at convention was concerned about diminishing sales and business.

     Much lecture time given to digital downloads; how profitable they might be, and whether retail members need to increse it. 

     The general feeling is that even the digital sales are flat-lining.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 20 April 2015

Tuesday, 21 April 2015
“The film was “Free Town”—a very rich and thoughtful film; a true story about five black LDS missionaries in Liberia. We were both moved and enriched by the experience. The original motion picture score by Robert Allen Elliott is strong.”

Thursday, 24 April 2015
Continuing the digitalization of Jackman Music Corporation back list publications, and assembly of the 2016 catalog of printed music.

Saturday, 26 April 2015
Spent the morning in the bay of our warehouse assembling the exhibit we will use in Las Vegas's Tropicana Hotel this week during the Retail Print Music Dealers Association annual convention.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 13 April 2015

Tuesday, 14 April 2015
     I was up until midnight reading Who Moved My Cheese? I was so stoked by it, that I had to wake Carole and tell her about it. We discussed it in more detail what we might do to make Jackman Music Corporation more dynamic. Meridith's biweekly newsletter is going a long way towards that now. I also toyed with an idea for an electronic ChoralClub where members receive publication notices with recording links instead of physical sheet music.
     “Hem” is the character in the cheese book most like myself. He is content to carry on usual business and resents distractions to the contrary.
     I have to ask myself, “What is it that we are trying to do? Is it about sheet music, or is it about service in the Kingdom? If it is about the latter, we may be more effective just serving more shifts in the temple, or going on a mission. It could be argued that sheet music is also an important aspect of the Kingdom too—I guess—and we may be in a particularly potent position to provide; possibly more so than other folks.
     I wonder if there might be a way that we could champion the Ward Choir more effectively?
--   At the office in the morning, I prepared five choral pieces and two books for download through the JMC web site.
--  We are planning an exhibit at the international printed music convention in Las Vegas at the end of this month, and a choral reading workshop tour of northeastern states in the Fall. Locations will probably be Pittsburgh, Albany, and Baltimore.

Thursday, 16 April 2015

     My brain, sleeping, processes music at an astounding rate—often with percussion. Last night, it was variations on Smoke on the Water.

--  At the office, I am performing digital transcriptions of back-list items. Carole gave me a list of ten or eleven backlist pieces that were not available from our web site; mostly for women's voices—and I have been contentedly doing new layouts from archive scans over the last three days.

     The project I left unfinished last night was very crowded. The original engravings were done  by hand in Korea.  Beautiful assembly is difficult. When I came back to my desk this morning, I knew I had to start the layout over. I split apart all of the scanned systems, and repasted them; cutting back density from four to three systems per page.

     After a full day's work today, I have one relayout project left in this batch.

Friday, 17 April 2015

      I had one item left on my list—to create a digital file of the violin part for The Lord's Prayer. 

      The Lord's Prayer is probably B. Cecil Gates' most successful publication.  The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has performed and broadcasted the piece since 1938.

     Gates issued it through The Choir Publishing Co. in editions for Mixed Voices, Women's Voices, for Men's Chorus; for Solo Medium Voice and for High Voice.

     An excellent optional violin obbligato, which was issued separately, accompanies each of these voicings—one in the key of D to accompany the high vocal solo and the chorals, and a version in C to accommodate the medium solo.

     Considering the separate part; how to assemble it for download; I decided rather than to continue with a separate edition, instead to include a violin part with each edition.

     This afternoon, I reassembled the SSA edition that I had finished yesterday, adding the violin part on page 7 out of 8, then took on the versions for Mixed Voices, and for Men's Voices; adding the violin obbligato page into each of them, and saving them all in digital form for upload to our web page and subsequent download by our customers.

     I love doing this work.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 8 April 2015

Wednesday, 8 April 2015
     Our catalog has increased in size by double since 2009. Carole, Heidi, and I are working this week  on a printed catalog edition for the Retail Print Music Dealers Association convention in Las Vegas at the end of the month.
     There is more detail to check in that list than you can imagine—barcodes, prices, voicings...

     For seven years, as a hobby, I have also played bass in a swing band called Mississippi Mood. Because of a recent change in personnel, I will be arranging more than before—and I am absolutely thrilled! The previous arranger, Lemoyne Taylor, is a consummate pro, and I will be challenged to the moon to make a contribution to his brilliant book.
     At the moment, I am studying William Russo's Jazz Composition and Orchestration. Among other principles, this book discusses the use of quartal harmony—an area introduced to me by my teacher Robert P. Manookin while I was working on my composition degree.
     I have loved all three of Russo's jazz orchestration books.
     He is innovative.
     He worked with Stan Kenton as an arranger and trombonist during the experimental years.
     Along with the regular sections of the jazz band—saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm, Russo often included four celli—and his avant garde approach to classical music mixed with jazz makes him a rich study.

Jerry Jackman Blog - week of 1 April 2015

7 April 2015

     At 11:00 a.m., I connected with Neil Burton in England by Facetime. I needed clearance for use of one of his photographs for the Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir series cover. He was very gracious. Face to face, he gave me carte blanch with two shots, then sent me original digital files for each.

     This is the was the first time I have used Facetime for Jackman Music Corportion business, and the first for a European call. It was more effective and easy than I anticipated.

     This afternoon I spent restoring the choral #00065 How Lovely Are the Messengers, from the oratorio, St. Paul, by Felix Mendelssohn for reprint. I created new engravings for page one to fix decaying art boards. This work is capably edited by Jerold Ottley.

5 April 2015
     At least four of our choral publications were used in the semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend.

6 April 2015
    I spent the rest of the day checking proofs from our printer. I have, at the moment, thirty one music publications in process—mostly choral.

2 April 2015
      Reprints all day. Cindy presented me with about eighteen reprint request slips. One of the pieces, #00328 Two Austrian Alp Carols arranged by Donald Ripplinger, required that undertake new engraving to make corrections. We then restored the Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Series cover with new art and full-color photography. Tomorrow, I will update the rest of the pieces in that series with the new art, and will archive them all until the time that these layouts are needed for reprinting.