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.