“Legacy” Titles to Return

One of the great frustrations for any composer/arranger of printed music is that much of what one writes is doomed to eventually go POP! – “permanently out of print.”  It’s one of those cold decisions publishers have to make when a piece no longer sells enough to warrant the expense of maintaining an inventory of products.

One might think with today’s Print-on-Demand capabilities, and the increased availability of downloadable products, that “permanently out of print” might itself go POP! But it hasn’t.  Not yet, at least.  And when one has a catalogue that reaches back four decades, as does my own, there are a lot of titles that have faded away.  Many of them needed to do so. They had a date stamp on them. They were music for the moment.  But not all of them.

Some of those POP titles still have value. (Of course, no one feels their worth quite like their authors.) I receive frequent requests for out-of-print anthem, cantatas, and orchestrations from frustrated choir and orchestra directors, who can no longer find some old favorite piece that I may have written in years past. I do what I can to help, but I can only do so much. Believe it or not, the composer/arranger rarely has much, if any, say in these matters.

Worse still, if a POP arrangement has a timeless quality to it, there is potentially an entire generation of young directors that have never heard the older material because – (dramatic pause) – They weren’t even born when it was first released! 

Now – I have been fortunate that a couple of publishers (Hal Leonard, specifically) in recent years have allowed me to “freshen up” a handful of worthy older anthems.  And this really sort of proves my point. Good music still has an appeal decades later. You just have to occasionally let folks hear it again.

And it was in that spirit that I approached my old Word catalogue – seeking music that was POP, but which I believed was still viable in today’s church.  I looked for music that will still be worthy when much of what is popular today is long forgotten. (IMO!) I found some twenty choral titles and four orchestra arrangements that fit the bill, and the Powers That Be graciously granted permission to re-release any and/or all of these titles on my website.

So… I’ve just begun the process.  It won’t be easy or cheap.  It’s going to take time.  I started with the four orchestra arrangements because they were the proverbial “low hanging fruit,” the easiest to re-do, requiring little expense other than my time and effort.  I took advantage of the opportunity to tweak each of the four charts, fixing/improving mostly small things that were rushed through in the original writing and editing.  (These charts were churned out pretty quickly back when.)

You can find those four new charts here at the site under the Orchestra Music tab.   I’ve detailed the “changes”freshening up” that was made on each of the arrangements’ product pages.

Later this year there will be some of the “legacy” choral anthems to be released, but it’s going to take time. I’m working out my priority list. I still have to prep the music, which will, no doubt, involve editing and even some re-writing. And you’d be amazed at how long it takes to organize and record the vocals for a handful of choral anthems. So – keep your eyes peeled for more info.  And if you think about it – send up a prayer of support for this venture.  It involves paperwork – and I hate paperwork!

More to come! Soon, I hope.