My Latest Composition for a Level 4 Concert Band
The Musings of One Composer
Firstly, let me start by saying I’m not a legal person so I’m not going to give any legal direction on music issues here. It is a minefield, I agree, and I only really understand the legal issues surrounding the specifics of what I do (I think). These musings are more a personal response to a chain of Facebook posts covering various issues regarding borrowing/loaning/buying/hiring Wind Band music specifically, and why it’s such a ‘hot potato’ for me, personally (I’m not speaking on behalf of any other Concert Band composers).
These musings are more an attempt to let others know the sorts of issues regarding the composing and publishing of original works for Concert Band that I have faced over the past 15 or so years. This response is designed more as a ‘for information’, as it appears to me that there are lots of ‘holes’ or misunderstandings in the knowledge of musicians/conductors in our field. With some background information from someone in my position, as a composer, it is my hope that an understanding of why the copyright laws are so complex can be gained but, more importantly, the ‘intent’ behind those copyright laws and their attempt to protect composers and publishers as best they can. While the copyright laws in Australia appear complex it is really up to all of us in the Concert Band field to do our best to follow the intent of the laws for the good of us all given, for the most part, simply purchasing music you want legally, not copying it illegally, not loaning it without prior permission, are simple procedures that most of us already follow and accept as fair and reasonable.
As an overview I will be making various comments about composing and publishing so you can separate fact from fiction/myth/rumour on the issues I present. I do not publish music other than my own so my comments on the publishing side of things are based on my own personal experience with publishers of my music in years gone by. My guess is the issues are the same for publishers today as they were 10-15 years ago but there are probably additional considerations these days of which I have no knowledge.
So here goes. All of my compositions are usually written for two reasons:
1. Commissions
2. Personal desire
Irrespective of the reason, once a composition has been committed to paper, then starts the process of finding someone to, hopefully publish the work. Before I tell you my experiences of this, let’s give some background, as I’ve experienced it, on commissions.
Commissions
When an organisation requests a commission from me, as a rule (not always) an initial dialogue follows wherein I try to clearly ascertain what it is they want. For example:
a. the size of the band
b. the level of the band
c. the length of the composition
d. the type of composition (popular, ‘classical’, loud fast overture, slow hymn-like, etc, etc)
e. solo features
f. size of percussion section
g. exotic instruments/vocalists, etc
h. specific requirements for this particular ensemble or requesting body
My congratulations go to the Band Association of NSW. With my Anzac commission, they clearly laid out their requirements of me. What they wanted, the length, standard, instrumentation, optional instruments, release date for sale, permission to sell the work and the recommended sale cost. Beautiful. Thank you Jeff Markam and Co.
With a commission for a band or ensemble (as opposed to a commission like that of the NSW Band Assoc), once the details of what is wanted, who for, etc has been determined I ask the ‘requestee’ to check out my compositions (via my website or any other source) so they can be clear in their minds the type of music I write and whether that is in-keeping with their expectations. I then tell them that they will have exclusive use of the work for 12 months which allows them Premier Performance and first recording opportunities. After that, I have the option to see if I can get the work published. If I am successful, sale/performance royalties, etc come to me. The ‘carrot’ for me is to write a work that I think may be considered worthwhile for others to buy in an attempt to make additional $s for my composing time–given most commissions only cover the smallest percentage of that time.
For each composition that is commissioned, I write a ‘dedication’ stating the ensemble/person who commissioned the work, and, if agreed, the reason for the commission. This information is placed on every part and score just below the title of the work.
After all this has been ascertained we discuss price. I am not at liberty to tell you what I have charged in the past but, to give an idea of what the Music Arranger’s Guild of Australia recommended in 2006–eight years ago remember, my recent work for the NSW 2015 Nationals would have attracted an asking price tag of $16,000. The orchestration of the music only comes to $14,000, to which is to be added (quoting from the 2006 document):
Where a commissioned work includes arranging and orchestration, the Arranger’s creative contribution shall attract an additional agreed amount over and above the orchestrating fee.
For these musings, I have added a $2,000 creative fee hence the $16,000 price tag. Remember, that’s a $16,000 recommended price tag for eight years ago.
I’ve been around concert bands long enough to know that not many organisations can afford this type of price tag today let alone eight years ago so, for me, negotiations get to a point where both the requesting organisation/band and myself are in agreement on an acceptable price.
From what I can ascertain (mainly from hearsay), compositions for Concert Band in Australia can sit between the $500-$3,000+ mark dependant on length, standard of ensemble, etc. Interestingly, I know of two ‘big name’ band composers from overseas who, for a Level 6 work, give you their fixed fee which is around the $25,000 figure for a work of about 10 mins duration. In 1984 the standard commissioning fee for a work for the USAAF Band was $10,000 for a commission at level 6 standard with a duration of at least 10 minutes.
I personally don’t request a 50% down payment myself but I know a few composers in this country stipulate a down payment, for various reasons. Why the down payment/deposit? Well, what if the requesting body doesn’t like the music you write for them? Where do you stand? This is one of the pitfalls of which a commissioning body must be cognisant and why they must do their homework on the composer beforehand. This point alone raises a number of important issues. What are you paying for with a commission? I would suggest you’re paying for the composer’s time, experience and ability for starters followed by your considered opinion as to whether you like their style of writing, whether you find them easy enough to work with, whether they follow your requirements or instructions for the writing of the music, etc, etc.
Here then is the first tricky question, if a commissioning body/person doesn’t like the resultant work do they base their like/dislike on the age old ‘personal taste’ and nothing else? Which leads to another probing question: should the decision on the worth of a work be based on technical issues, compositional techniques used, instrumentation craftsmanship (or lack thereof) or a simple like/don’t like? If the decision is based on technical issues the next obvious question is: does the commissioning body have the knowledge and experience to make informed decisions about the composer’s technical abilities? Sadly, personal taste only seems to be the basis of most people’s like or dislike of a commissioned work and this leaves composers with nowhere to go. If a composer writes a work following all the conventional rules/guidelines of music structure, correct/accurate harmonic technique, firm melodic structure and development, highly developed arranging/ instrumentation craftsmanship, intelligent writing of the instrumental parts, etc then the like or dislike is purely down to personal taste and nothing else–as I said, leaving the composer nowhere to go. How can you possibly write to personal taste? Whose personal taste? What, specifically, does personal taste mean? So, the composer, who may have spent some weeks or months writing a work potentially misses out on any payment at all simply because the requesting body/ensemble/person may not like the finished work (and it’s happened where some composers have not received any money for their efforts and why some composers stipulate an up-front payment before they commence work).
One work I was commissioned to write some 10 years ago had a $1,000 commissioning fee–it was all the money the ‘commissionee’ could afford and I knew that. It was an A Grade work for brass band (and my first commission to write a work at this level) with an expected duration of some 15 minutes. I was getting a weekly wage in the Military so I was not trying to survive on the commissioning money so I decided to take it as the experience for me would be worth it. If I wrote a suitable work maybe a publishing house would publish it and I could get some sales royalties or performance royalties that would make up the difference. One of the conditions was that an Australian publisher would publish the work so at least it would be published. How many copies would it sell?...at the time who knew!
It took me six months to write it (off and on over the six months–not eight hours a day in front of the computer for five days a week for six months altho there were a number of days where I sat at the computer for up to 10 hours at a time…when inspiration flows you go with that flow no matter how long the flow lasts). I entitled the work, Through a Soldier’s Eyes.
The work was subsequently published. The agreement was that I would receive 50% of sales–following the recoup of publishing/printing costs, plus any performance royalties. Given nearly all publishing houses in the US and UK, as the composer, you receive just 10% of each sale and any Performing Rights payments, 50% of sales seemed reasonable. The selling price of this work, I think, was around $100–maybe a bit more, I can’t remember.
This work was set as the test piece for 2004 Victorian State Brass Band Championships. It saw two bands participate in the contest which equals a grand total of two sales. After publishing/printing costs were removed, I made about $50 in sales after which I then had to pay the mandatory Aust tax requirements. The end of that year saw a performance royalty payment of $0.75–not for this work, however. I still don’t know what happened to the two performances of this work in the Ballarat Theatre from a performance royalties perspective. Perhaps the two performances weren’t reported to APRA?
A comment by one of the members of one of the bands at that time (and to my face, in fairness to this person) was ‘…that’s the biggest load of sh** I’ve ever heard’. Interesting…there was no input as to why this person disliked the music–perhaps their part was too hard or their band came 2nd? I know this person had no training themselves in music theory, arranging, harmony, orchestration or compositional techniques. I know they’d never arranged, composed or even conducted a work in their lives at that time however, they were very vocal in their opinion which they freely passed on to others. Herein lays an interesting point, as a composer you bare your soul to everyone with the music you write. Whilst you like feedback, I for one would prefer feedback which is more helpful than simply ‘I don’t like it.’
For interest, if you click on this link (www.grahamlloydmusic.com/sheet-music) you’ll hear a computer generated recording of both the brass band AND concert band versions of Through a Soldier’s Eyes and you can even download a sample score. I encourage you to have a listen to it and follow the score through. As you do, check the music for melodic structure, harmonic progression and structure, its form, orchestration techniques used, compositional techniques used, the specific placements of the various climax points and how those climax points were approached and left, the specific writing for each and every instrument (including the percussion section), correctness of accidentals (should it be an F# or Gb?), etc, etc. Then make your own mind up if you like the work. If you don’t like the work then see if you can ascertain why. If it’s because you simply really don’t like the music I’m OK with that but that will give me nowhere to go to improve because, as a composer, I can never meet everyone’s specific likes of dislikes in one work. It’s simply impossible.
I personally think it’s a great work but the point I make here is that, as a composer, whether a work is worthy or not is often down to the personal opinion of those who choose to buy it or not to buy it and their own knowledge, experience or lack of...which begs the question yet again, how can you write to personal opinion? You can’t so I simply write to my opinion as a composer which, in my case, is based on 40 years as a professional clarinettist, professional conductor, professional arranger and teacher (for those who don’t know, I was the Director of Music of the RAAF for some 15-odd years and Officer Commanding of the Defence Force School of Music for some 7 years, I completed 3 years full time at the British Army School of Music in London [topping that course] and 3 years completing a Masters in music composition at Melbourne University). I draw on all that training and experience whenever I write a note and I believe that’s what should be considered in payment for my services.
My own approach to composing a work for Concert Band is: a) I consider the audience first and write my music to what I think the average ‘non-music trained’ audience member would enjoy; b) I then overlay music difficulty, structure, orchestration, etc to suit the standard of the band/level of music that’s been requested. In the end I simply hope it meets everyone’s requirements.
I don’t know if it is generally known but the bigger publishing houses in America stipulate very strict guidelines for composing works for Concert Bands. You cannot go outside those guidelines. For example, if you’re composing a work at Level 2 then you are given the range of all the instruments and you must keep within these given ranges, there are strict guidelines on acceptable keys and time signatures that you can use, strict limits to the amount of chromaticism (at the lower levels it’s virtually none!), strict limits to rhythms used, etc. I think it’s a great idea personally as you, the ‘chooser’ of the music, know that if you have a level 2 band then the level 2 printed music you look at meets the standards of a level 2 band. However, as a composer, you’re naturally limited in what you can write hence you hear comments about the ‘sameness’ of sound (with US music in particular) specifically at the lower levels.
As an aside, and my last point on commissioning, one ‘requestee’ about 5 years ago considered the $1,000 I quoted for a level 3 work of eight minutes duration a bit exorbitant claiming they couldn’t afford that amount, ‘…our budget is only…’ (etc, etc, the recent Facebook posts on the issue of $ cost are exactly the same or very similar today as they were back then). I suggested they call a plumber and have that plumber work exclusively for them for just two weeks (8 hours a day, 5 days a week). I told them that whatever the plumber charges them, I’d charge half (at today’s rates: $80 per hour, eight hours a day for 10 days you’d be looking at an all-up amount of around $6,400 for a plumber).
Composing for Personal Wish
I have composed a couple of works for no other reason than wanting to. Nearly all have been written for some purpose or occasion but not requested/commissioned as such. With a work such as this there is no initial $ injection and the potential only for some sort of $ recoup at the other end via sales–assuming you can interest a publisher. You spend the same amount of time writing it and put the same amount of skill, knowledge, experience, heart and soul into every note however, when it comes to any income you rely completely on a publisher taking a chance on your music. Given most publishers avoid level 4 works and higher, and most of my works are around Level 3-5, I’m up against anyone publishing a lot of my stuff before I start.
How did I go about publishing Fanfare for Freedom? (feel free to have a listen to the Chinese Liberation Army Band combined with the Australian Army band performing this work recently in Australia (link: http://www.grahamlloydmusic.com/sheet-music) –a sample score is there, too…both the recording and the score are at the bottom of the page). Well, I found the address of a few of the ‘bigger’ US publishing houses and sent one of them a recording of the work along with a score. I received a letter a week later that thanked me for sending the music and stated:
1. We will look at it as a possible addition to our catalogue. This could take up to six months
2. We will not consider it if any other publishing house is also considering it
3. We will let you know as soon as we have come to a decision
I sat and waited for a reply, and waited, and waited. After six months I received a letter stating they felt it was too difficult for their catalogue and that they will not be publishing it.
I’m back at the start now having lost 6 months.
So, I sent it to a 2nd publishing house, Barnhouse. They accepted it after perusing it for a short period but warned me that they didn’t expect it to sell well due to its difficulty reminding me that they really concentrated (at that time) on the Beginner - Level 2 area of Concert Band music. But they said they’d take a chance on it.
Here, the learning is that the Publishing Houses have to make money to survive, too. Someone within their organisation has to make a judgement call as to whether a work is going to sell or not and I’m assuming that call is not simply based on whether they like it or not–altho I also assume that a simple like or dislike would be a part of that decision.
I do know that Robert Sheldon is the editor for one of the biggest Concert Band publishing firms in America. His opinions of a chart would be based on his consummate knowledge of Concert Band music and composing in general but specifically for Concert Bands. He would, no doubt, peruse the work for its musical structure and orchestration techniques along with everything else before making a recommendation. I hope publishers in this country do a similar thing with the music they publish as a ‘sound writing technique’ must be a prime consideration apart from just ‘it sounds good’, and someone who actually knows what sound technique is must surely give that input. I do know publishers do get it so wrong from time to time. For example, a few years back a big name publisher published a work written in 3/2 that was grouped on the score and parts (and in sound) in 6/4. Clearly the composer and editor either had no idea that 3/2 and 6/4 are as different as 3/4 and 6/8. A simple mistake? Maybe, but a huge mistake all the same. Another publication (different company) saw a very simple work where some of the basic harmony was incorrect (doubled major 3rds in first inversion chords, the incorrect use of a Passing 6/4 and one or two other things)…at least the composer thanked me for pointing out the errors saying the company’s editor and himself had not spotted them. An arrangement of an Aussie song was published (some 15 years ago) that was so pathetic in its writing and scoring that no band could play it. I was called in by a band’s director to see if I could get it his band to ‘sound right’ with this iconic Australian song. After getting the score I informed him that the music was so poorly written NO band could play it to make it sound right. This Director had wasted $120 of his music purchasing budget for that year.
This direction of my thoughts leads nicely into Publisher Considerations. Remember, I’m only writing about my own experiences with publishers. There are publishers in Australia and overseas with far more information about the issues they face in trying to publish music than I.
Publisher Considerations
Can I say up front that publishers are in an extremely challenging position. They wish to publish music that people will buy so they can keep their businesses afloat however they need to sell the music at a price that is both competitive and one that covers their costs. They are in the unenviable position of trying to print music that is ‘liked’ and often cop the brunt from conductors who think a particular chart is ‘not good’ (back to my question of what are opinions such as these based upon).
I know, from having a work or two published by Queenwood and Barnhouse, that their running costs include:
1. Printing costs
2. Advertising costs
3. Payment to the professional band that records all of their new music for CD (in the US, most often it’s the Washington Winds which is made up of many professionals from the Washington Military Bands and which performs most of the music on the recordings provided with almost any new music purchased from the US–the band is about 30 or so strong and each musician receives professional pay for their services. Each year they record for about a week non-stop doing these recordings for the various publishing houses in the US. Add onto that costs for the recording engineer, the studio, recording equipment, production of the CDs, etc, etc and you can see that this cost is not cheap. However, by having a number of publishers use this band in this way the overall cost is spread out and kept far lower than each individual publisher hiring a separate band).
4. Payment for the actual CDs to accompany advertising material
5. Distribution costs of the above, along with the actual sheet music, to outlets the world over
Barnhouse needed to sell something like 15 copies of Fanfare for Freedom to reach ‘break-even point’. I believe they have sold 30 copies over the past 8 or so years. Not good for them or me!
Once a work has been accepted for publication, for me Barnhouse, Queenwood, De Haaske and a small publisher in the UK sent me a contract in which I basically signed the music over to them. This gives them the right to, if they feel it’s necessary, change it a bit for whatever reason, in their efforts to make the music more saleable from their perspective. You, in effect, give them the complete rights to that version of your work. You no longer own it in its current format…it’s theirs. You still own copyright of the music and can, say, arrange a version for brass band or orchestra but that particular Concert Band version is now theirs…you can’t sell it to anyone unless it’s their printed music version (and you have the rights to sell their printed music).
A work of mine was entitled, Visions of Geelong, and was commissioned by the Geelong Concert Band. Barnhouse said the name wouldn’t sell in the US so changed its name, with my concurrence (I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted it published by them), to Visions of Australia. In fairness to them, the name change made sense…most importantly, they kept the dedication to the Geelong Concert Band on each page.
Queenwood publications actually contacted me with a suggestion to change two bars of my work, Prelude for a Festival. John Edmondson wrote the adjustment and asked if I’d mind changing the music in this way. I had no problem at all as his suggestion and his reason for the change made perfect sense (I wish I’d thought of it myself)…what a muso he is. He also suggested I change the last few trumpet notes by adding an alternative note as my high D’s made this 5-minute work suddenly become a Level 4 work instead of a Level 3 work and there’s more opportunity to sell a Level 3 work. Easy, the added A below the top D (making the top D an optional note) brought the work back to Level 3 standard and more saleable from their perspective as it could now be advertised as a true level 3 work.
As part of the contracts I signed, which I believe is the same for nearly all publishers the world over, you receive 10% of sales. The sale price for Fanfare for Freedom is around $150. So, on sales alone I made around $450 US all up (over eight years, remember). Take into consideration the exchange rate at the time the royalty cheques arrived along with the Aussie banks’ fee for handling overseas cheques ($10 per cheque) and my payment barely reached Aus$400…then I had Aussie tax to pay on that $400. Worldwide performance royalties for this work have amounted to around $22 all up–that’s the total world-wide performance royalties over a 10-year period, remember. So, for a work that took me some two months to write (I wrote it initially as the opening number for the 2001 Melbourne Festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl where I conducted the Bells and Brass concert with 4 brass bands and over 1000 bell ringers featuring a huge symphony for this specific group written by my dear mate, Brenton Broadstock), by adjusting it a bit (I added a slow section) I handed it to Barnhouse for publishing and I made a grand total of about $400–before tax over a 10-year period. Not bad! Barnhouse, thankfully, covered their costs and made a bit more but not much more.
In fairness to publishing houses the world over, the majority of bands fall into the Beginner to Level 2.5 to 3 area so, writing works at the Level 4 and above standard will never make them much money. I get that but that’s the standard I’m generally writing for either in commissions or for personal enjoyment. Obviously it’s my choice, of course, to write at this level.
So, money wise, for me, I’m better off selling my music through my website. Sure, I don’t get the possible exposure the larger publishing houses can offer however if I get only a handful of sales then any $s go to me in total. Had I been able to sell Fanfare for Freedom from my website which, of course, didn’t exist 10 years ago, it would have sold for around $90 (digital copy), so those potential 30 copies would have netted me $2700 instead. Would I have gotten the ‘global’ coverage that Barnhouse gave me, probably not. So, what do you do? It’s a bit like ‘pulling the pokies’ forever hoping the next pull will win the Jackpot!
On a slightly different tack, The Loaded Dog in its first year sold some 10 copies for brass band. Around the same time I arranged Jonny O’Keefe’s, Shout, for brass band. Shout sold over 40 copies. Even after paying the copyright fee for Shout I made three times as much for Shout than The Loaded Dog. Guess what…The Loaded Dog took me some 4 months to write whereas Shout took me two days to arrange!
There’s no money in composing unless you manage to get to the standing of people like Philip Sparke, Robert W Smith, Robert Sheldon and the like or write a Top 40 pop song that reaches No 1.
This background will, hopefully, explain why I do not agree with Loaning out my music and why it’s a ‘red rag to a bull’. One Facebook comment suggested any music loaning be done like a library, after all you can borrow books from a library without paying. I think you’ll find that libraries come under strict government guidelines as to how they are to operate, purchase and then loan out the material. As for music libraries, those in existence have very strict guidelines on how their music is to be used. You’ll need to check the individual library’s websites for specifics.
Regarding the loaning of my music, legally, lending your own original copy of printed music that you have purchased is fine so long as during the period of the loan YOU have no access to it. However, you cannot lend a ‘digital’ copy because a digital copy is always going to be a copy. This also means that if you print off a digital copy you cannot loan the printed-off music either because it’s also a copy…unless the copyright holder has stated the contrary.
For me, I feel an obligation to the purchaser to do the right thing here. So, I sell my music at a very low price and give them the right to print off as many parts as they need for their own use. Unlike printed music, where you have to purchase extra copies for lost/damaged parts, with my stuff you can print off 10 parts per instrument if you want…just don’t give them to another ensemble. For this, a Level 5-6 work will cost you well under $200. Try buying a printed chart at that level for under $200. Also, with the music there will, more often than not, be an MP3 rendition of the music that you can listen to along with a sample score so, there’s no need to ‘waste’ your money buying something you may not like…you can make that decision with all the factors there in front of you…a recording (albeit a computer rendition for my stuff) and a score. What more do you need?
Sure, by self-publishing I don’t get the exposure of a large publishing house and my works won’t be recommended at various festivals across this country or overseas (often, but not always, the suggested music list for festivals means income for the music businesses supporting the festivals in music sales through their businesses…I get that, too) but, as I said before, even if I sold just two copies of The Loaded Dog from my website in digital form, I will make more money than I received from 30 printed sales to brass and concert bands over the previous eight or so years. AND, the purchaser gets all the advantages of low cost and freedom to print off as many parts as their ensemble requires. Another related benefit is if I notice any mistakes in my music, a simple email to the purchasers with the adjustments is all that’s needed.
As for taking legal action against someone who does the wrong thing, well, I’ve not needed to at this stage and I hope I will never need to. My experience has been that nearly all in our business are aware of copyright requirements in a general sense and most band libraries are no longer full of photocopied music. Regarding my digital music, as I’ve said, every part has the words: This copy is for the sole use of the ***** band and may not be loaned, copied, hired or sold. If I ever go to a performance and hear a work of mine played that I know was not purchased from me then we’ll cross that bridge, from a legal standpoint, at that time.
If a ‘hire’ system was to be set up I would be very interested in how it would work. Another post questioned the possibility of having a hire fee which would go to the composer. On the surface this could work well. Hiring is a different kettle of fish to loaning. I can only say that there are very strict guidelines around how libraries work that hire out music. I don’t know what they are but I understand that those rules are strict because of the need to ensure the IP of the writers is fairly taken care of. Before going down the road of setting up a music hiring library I’d suggest some proper legal advice be sought.
For me, hiring my music at a fee to see if you like it or not doesn’t make sense given you can already download both a sample score and listen to an MP3 rendition of the music. If you can’t decide from that whether you want to buy it then seeing an original score or playing it through probably wouldn’t assist you either. Also, given my level 2 works go for around $40 (digital) and nothing on my website at the Level 5 standard costs more than about $190, why would you pay a hire fee when you can buy it so cheaply? Again, proper legal advice would need to be sought before setting up a hiring library.
One post suggested that, with a hired music system the composer would, at least, receive performance royalties $s. As I’ve pointed out, an $8 cheque at the end of a year for performance royalties during that year which includes your works being played in the US, UK and Australia and on ABC FM Radio (a 15-minute ‘live to air’ broadcast) is clear proof that performance royalties are not some magical bucket of gold that every composer can simply retire on. 2% of bugger all is very much bugger all. My average royalty cheque each year is around $15. I once received a one-off $800 cheque…of all the others, one or two have barely reached $20 whereas the majority seldom reach $10 a year. So, let’s put the performance royalty payments argument to rest. Unless you’re a world-renowned established composer or the composer of an Elton John hit, annual performance royalties are hardly biscuit crumbs for many Concert Band composers.
A last and contentious final perspective. Over the years I’ve heard many conductors give opinions of compositions, composers, the high cost of music, and yet there seems to be an apparent overlooking of the ‘other side’ of the argument. For example, there are a couple of conductors who I wish I could ban from performing my music due to the botched mess they’ve made of it…and others’ music, too. So, the conductors and band musicians are as much an integral part of all this as are the composers and publishers. I have heard my music performed so badly on occasions that not even I would buy it on the performance rendition presented.
As an adjudicator, just two examples of many for you to consider: Air For Band by Frank Erickson has a marked tempo indication of around 80 or so beats per minute. Over 80% of performances I’ve adjudicated (which would number above 50 to date) see it taken closer to 50 beats per minute. Another performance I adjudicated said a particular work had an approx. duration of 6 minutes. This particular performance ran for 12 minutes. You don’t need to be a Rhodes Scholar to work out what the problem was. So, here we have an interesting situation, Air For Band, taken at 50 beats per minute presents issues for the players–and particularly young players, including:
a. phrasing cannot be sustained as the breath required to play the phrases at this slow speed is simply not possible. It’s not possible with professionals either! The composer wrote the phrasing to match his suggested tempo and, if the music is taken at the suggested tempo it all ‘miraculously’ works well. 30% slower and all turns to the proverbial…
b. intonation suffers
c. balance cannot be maintained,
d. style is completely lost,
e. dynamics are difficult,
The list goes on…and all because the conductor takes the music too slow. I’ve heard more music crucified by conductors who don’t understand tempo alone than anything else. What kind of damaging experience is this for the kids? What kind of damaging experience is this for the audience? What kind of damaging experience is this for the composer? Who, on hearing a work performed so badly, would then line up at the music store to purchase the music?
I’ve had conductors tell me that it’s their right to choose the speed or ‘my band can’t play it at the marked tempo so I slow it down to a tempo they can play it.’ What a load of nonsense. If an ensemble can’t play the music at least close to the marked tempo (+/-10% of marked tempo is a perfectly reasonable error factor) then DON’T PLAY IT. Find something that’s written at a tempo that the ensemble can play whilst retaining the integrity of the music.
An analogy, our National Anthem and Glenn Miller’s, In the Mood. A band, for whatever reason can’t play our Anthem at the indicated tempo (the official speed is 110 beats per minute for our Anthem), so, let’s slow it down to 80 beats per minute. In the Mood can’t be played by a band at the swing tempo of 140 so, let’s slow it down to 108–have a listen to these two charts at these slower tempi. Our Anthem suddenly becomes so much more difficult to sing due to the now longer phrase lengths and In the Mood cannot be danced to because the tempo is now too slow to dance a swing. Apart from these basic issues, I’m sure you will instantly hear how ridiculous they now sound. Be clear in your minds that band conductors are wrecking ‘unknown’ Concert Band music in this way on a daily basis (and all over the world, too–You Tube is full of 3rd rate performances from across the globe which are then, sadly, downloaded and copied by other conductors).
Don’t get me started on pauses! Too late! Most conductors these days ignore pauses to the point that I avoid writing them into my music. My 25 April 1915 has most of what should have been pauses written out in full because most conductors ignore pauses. Why? One reason is because I’ve seen too many so-called conducting teachers say, ‘don’t conduct a pause…simply stop beating.’ This alone is a primary reason why pauses are ignored these days and why those particular conducting teaches should be prevented from teaching conducting–at least teaching how to conduct pauses.
I will say there are few shining lights in the community Concert Band/school Concert Band conducting arena who are doing marvellous things. I won’t mention any names here, but I make it a point to personally tell them how impressed I am with their abilities and encourage them to continue doing what they’re doing whenever I can. Interestingly, their bands are all at the top end of their respective state contest/festival levels…funny that!
So, it’s a four-way street in our business. Conductors are just as responsible to ensure Concert Band music is played with integrity as the composers are in composing with integrity, the publishers in selling the music with integrity and the performers in performing it with integrity.
To finish, I hope these words give you something to consider above and beyond many of the comments in the Facebook posts of recent times. I hope that you can understand why people like me become quickly agitated by some of the views and opinions that have been written.
I’m not going to make any more comments on this matter as I have a commission to finish by the end of January next year!
P.S. I’ve just received my Performance Royalty Payment for this year: 3 cents (for one Loaded Dog performance in the US–my thanks go to the conductor of that performance for both performing it and, I’m assuming, registering that performance).
Graham Lloyd–Dec 2014
Firstly, let me start by saying I’m not a legal person so I’m not going to give any legal direction on music issues here. It is a minefield, I agree, and I only really understand the legal issues surrounding the specifics of what I do (I think). These musings are more a personal response to a chain of Facebook posts covering various issues regarding borrowing/loaning/buying/hiring Wind Band music specifically, and why it’s such a ‘hot potato’ for me, personally (I’m not speaking on behalf of any other Concert Band composers).
These musings are more an attempt to let others know the sorts of issues regarding the composing and publishing of original works for Concert Band that I have faced over the past 15 or so years. This response is designed more as a ‘for information’, as it appears to me that there are lots of ‘holes’ or misunderstandings in the knowledge of musicians/conductors in our field. With some background information from someone in my position, as a composer, it is my hope that an understanding of why the copyright laws are so complex can be gained but, more importantly, the ‘intent’ behind those copyright laws and their attempt to protect composers and publishers as best they can. While the copyright laws in Australia appear complex it is really up to all of us in the Concert Band field to do our best to follow the intent of the laws for the good of us all given, for the most part, simply purchasing music you want legally, not copying it illegally, not loaning it without prior permission, are simple procedures that most of us already follow and accept as fair and reasonable.
As an overview I will be making various comments about composing and publishing so you can separate fact from fiction/myth/rumour on the issues I present. I do not publish music other than my own so my comments on the publishing side of things are based on my own personal experience with publishers of my music in years gone by. My guess is the issues are the same for publishers today as they were 10-15 years ago but there are probably additional considerations these days of which I have no knowledge.
So here goes. All of my compositions are usually written for two reasons:
1. Commissions
2. Personal desire
Irrespective of the reason, once a composition has been committed to paper, then starts the process of finding someone to, hopefully publish the work. Before I tell you my experiences of this, let’s give some background, as I’ve experienced it, on commissions.
Commissions
When an organisation requests a commission from me, as a rule (not always) an initial dialogue follows wherein I try to clearly ascertain what it is they want. For example:
a. the size of the band
b. the level of the band
c. the length of the composition
d. the type of composition (popular, ‘classical’, loud fast overture, slow hymn-like, etc, etc)
e. solo features
f. size of percussion section
g. exotic instruments/vocalists, etc
h. specific requirements for this particular ensemble or requesting body
My congratulations go to the Band Association of NSW. With my Anzac commission, they clearly laid out their requirements of me. What they wanted, the length, standard, instrumentation, optional instruments, release date for sale, permission to sell the work and the recommended sale cost. Beautiful. Thank you Jeff Markam and Co.
With a commission for a band or ensemble (as opposed to a commission like that of the NSW Band Assoc), once the details of what is wanted, who for, etc has been determined I ask the ‘requestee’ to check out my compositions (via my website or any other source) so they can be clear in their minds the type of music I write and whether that is in-keeping with their expectations. I then tell them that they will have exclusive use of the work for 12 months which allows them Premier Performance and first recording opportunities. After that, I have the option to see if I can get the work published. If I am successful, sale/performance royalties, etc come to me. The ‘carrot’ for me is to write a work that I think may be considered worthwhile for others to buy in an attempt to make additional $s for my composing time–given most commissions only cover the smallest percentage of that time.
For each composition that is commissioned, I write a ‘dedication’ stating the ensemble/person who commissioned the work, and, if agreed, the reason for the commission. This information is placed on every part and score just below the title of the work.
After all this has been ascertained we discuss price. I am not at liberty to tell you what I have charged in the past but, to give an idea of what the Music Arranger’s Guild of Australia recommended in 2006–eight years ago remember, my recent work for the NSW 2015 Nationals would have attracted an asking price tag of $16,000. The orchestration of the music only comes to $14,000, to which is to be added (quoting from the 2006 document):
Where a commissioned work includes arranging and orchestration, the Arranger’s creative contribution shall attract an additional agreed amount over and above the orchestrating fee.
For these musings, I have added a $2,000 creative fee hence the $16,000 price tag. Remember, that’s a $16,000 recommended price tag for eight years ago.
I’ve been around concert bands long enough to know that not many organisations can afford this type of price tag today let alone eight years ago so, for me, negotiations get to a point where both the requesting organisation/band and myself are in agreement on an acceptable price.
From what I can ascertain (mainly from hearsay), compositions for Concert Band in Australia can sit between the $500-$3,000+ mark dependant on length, standard of ensemble, etc. Interestingly, I know of two ‘big name’ band composers from overseas who, for a Level 6 work, give you their fixed fee which is around the $25,000 figure for a work of about 10 mins duration. In 1984 the standard commissioning fee for a work for the USAAF Band was $10,000 for a commission at level 6 standard with a duration of at least 10 minutes.
I personally don’t request a 50% down payment myself but I know a few composers in this country stipulate a down payment, for various reasons. Why the down payment/deposit? Well, what if the requesting body doesn’t like the music you write for them? Where do you stand? This is one of the pitfalls of which a commissioning body must be cognisant and why they must do their homework on the composer beforehand. This point alone raises a number of important issues. What are you paying for with a commission? I would suggest you’re paying for the composer’s time, experience and ability for starters followed by your considered opinion as to whether you like their style of writing, whether you find them easy enough to work with, whether they follow your requirements or instructions for the writing of the music, etc, etc.
Here then is the first tricky question, if a commissioning body/person doesn’t like the resultant work do they base their like/dislike on the age old ‘personal taste’ and nothing else? Which leads to another probing question: should the decision on the worth of a work be based on technical issues, compositional techniques used, instrumentation craftsmanship (or lack thereof) or a simple like/don’t like? If the decision is based on technical issues the next obvious question is: does the commissioning body have the knowledge and experience to make informed decisions about the composer’s technical abilities? Sadly, personal taste only seems to be the basis of most people’s like or dislike of a commissioned work and this leaves composers with nowhere to go. If a composer writes a work following all the conventional rules/guidelines of music structure, correct/accurate harmonic technique, firm melodic structure and development, highly developed arranging/ instrumentation craftsmanship, intelligent writing of the instrumental parts, etc then the like or dislike is purely down to personal taste and nothing else–as I said, leaving the composer nowhere to go. How can you possibly write to personal taste? Whose personal taste? What, specifically, does personal taste mean? So, the composer, who may have spent some weeks or months writing a work potentially misses out on any payment at all simply because the requesting body/ensemble/person may not like the finished work (and it’s happened where some composers have not received any money for their efforts and why some composers stipulate an up-front payment before they commence work).
One work I was commissioned to write some 10 years ago had a $1,000 commissioning fee–it was all the money the ‘commissionee’ could afford and I knew that. It was an A Grade work for brass band (and my first commission to write a work at this level) with an expected duration of some 15 minutes. I was getting a weekly wage in the Military so I was not trying to survive on the commissioning money so I decided to take it as the experience for me would be worth it. If I wrote a suitable work maybe a publishing house would publish it and I could get some sales royalties or performance royalties that would make up the difference. One of the conditions was that an Australian publisher would publish the work so at least it would be published. How many copies would it sell?...at the time who knew!
It took me six months to write it (off and on over the six months–not eight hours a day in front of the computer for five days a week for six months altho there were a number of days where I sat at the computer for up to 10 hours at a time…when inspiration flows you go with that flow no matter how long the flow lasts). I entitled the work, Through a Soldier’s Eyes.
The work was subsequently published. The agreement was that I would receive 50% of sales–following the recoup of publishing/printing costs, plus any performance royalties. Given nearly all publishing houses in the US and UK, as the composer, you receive just 10% of each sale and any Performing Rights payments, 50% of sales seemed reasonable. The selling price of this work, I think, was around $100–maybe a bit more, I can’t remember.
This work was set as the test piece for 2004 Victorian State Brass Band Championships. It saw two bands participate in the contest which equals a grand total of two sales. After publishing/printing costs were removed, I made about $50 in sales after which I then had to pay the mandatory Aust tax requirements. The end of that year saw a performance royalty payment of $0.75–not for this work, however. I still don’t know what happened to the two performances of this work in the Ballarat Theatre from a performance royalties perspective. Perhaps the two performances weren’t reported to APRA?
A comment by one of the members of one of the bands at that time (and to my face, in fairness to this person) was ‘…that’s the biggest load of sh** I’ve ever heard’. Interesting…there was no input as to why this person disliked the music–perhaps their part was too hard or their band came 2nd? I know this person had no training themselves in music theory, arranging, harmony, orchestration or compositional techniques. I know they’d never arranged, composed or even conducted a work in their lives at that time however, they were very vocal in their opinion which they freely passed on to others. Herein lays an interesting point, as a composer you bare your soul to everyone with the music you write. Whilst you like feedback, I for one would prefer feedback which is more helpful than simply ‘I don’t like it.’
For interest, if you click on this link (www.grahamlloydmusic.com/sheet-music) you’ll hear a computer generated recording of both the brass band AND concert band versions of Through a Soldier’s Eyes and you can even download a sample score. I encourage you to have a listen to it and follow the score through. As you do, check the music for melodic structure, harmonic progression and structure, its form, orchestration techniques used, compositional techniques used, the specific placements of the various climax points and how those climax points were approached and left, the specific writing for each and every instrument (including the percussion section), correctness of accidentals (should it be an F# or Gb?), etc, etc. Then make your own mind up if you like the work. If you don’t like the work then see if you can ascertain why. If it’s because you simply really don’t like the music I’m OK with that but that will give me nowhere to go to improve because, as a composer, I can never meet everyone’s specific likes of dislikes in one work. It’s simply impossible.
I personally think it’s a great work but the point I make here is that, as a composer, whether a work is worthy or not is often down to the personal opinion of those who choose to buy it or not to buy it and their own knowledge, experience or lack of...which begs the question yet again, how can you write to personal opinion? You can’t so I simply write to my opinion as a composer which, in my case, is based on 40 years as a professional clarinettist, professional conductor, professional arranger and teacher (for those who don’t know, I was the Director of Music of the RAAF for some 15-odd years and Officer Commanding of the Defence Force School of Music for some 7 years, I completed 3 years full time at the British Army School of Music in London [topping that course] and 3 years completing a Masters in music composition at Melbourne University). I draw on all that training and experience whenever I write a note and I believe that’s what should be considered in payment for my services.
My own approach to composing a work for Concert Band is: a) I consider the audience first and write my music to what I think the average ‘non-music trained’ audience member would enjoy; b) I then overlay music difficulty, structure, orchestration, etc to suit the standard of the band/level of music that’s been requested. In the end I simply hope it meets everyone’s requirements.
I don’t know if it is generally known but the bigger publishing houses in America stipulate very strict guidelines for composing works for Concert Bands. You cannot go outside those guidelines. For example, if you’re composing a work at Level 2 then you are given the range of all the instruments and you must keep within these given ranges, there are strict guidelines on acceptable keys and time signatures that you can use, strict limits to the amount of chromaticism (at the lower levels it’s virtually none!), strict limits to rhythms used, etc. I think it’s a great idea personally as you, the ‘chooser’ of the music, know that if you have a level 2 band then the level 2 printed music you look at meets the standards of a level 2 band. However, as a composer, you’re naturally limited in what you can write hence you hear comments about the ‘sameness’ of sound (with US music in particular) specifically at the lower levels.
As an aside, and my last point on commissioning, one ‘requestee’ about 5 years ago considered the $1,000 I quoted for a level 3 work of eight minutes duration a bit exorbitant claiming they couldn’t afford that amount, ‘…our budget is only…’ (etc, etc, the recent Facebook posts on the issue of $ cost are exactly the same or very similar today as they were back then). I suggested they call a plumber and have that plumber work exclusively for them for just two weeks (8 hours a day, 5 days a week). I told them that whatever the plumber charges them, I’d charge half (at today’s rates: $80 per hour, eight hours a day for 10 days you’d be looking at an all-up amount of around $6,400 for a plumber).
Composing for Personal Wish
I have composed a couple of works for no other reason than wanting to. Nearly all have been written for some purpose or occasion but not requested/commissioned as such. With a work such as this there is no initial $ injection and the potential only for some sort of $ recoup at the other end via sales–assuming you can interest a publisher. You spend the same amount of time writing it and put the same amount of skill, knowledge, experience, heart and soul into every note however, when it comes to any income you rely completely on a publisher taking a chance on your music. Given most publishers avoid level 4 works and higher, and most of my works are around Level 3-5, I’m up against anyone publishing a lot of my stuff before I start.
How did I go about publishing Fanfare for Freedom? (feel free to have a listen to the Chinese Liberation Army Band combined with the Australian Army band performing this work recently in Australia (link: http://www.grahamlloydmusic.com/sheet-music) –a sample score is there, too…both the recording and the score are at the bottom of the page). Well, I found the address of a few of the ‘bigger’ US publishing houses and sent one of them a recording of the work along with a score. I received a letter a week later that thanked me for sending the music and stated:
1. We will look at it as a possible addition to our catalogue. This could take up to six months
2. We will not consider it if any other publishing house is also considering it
3. We will let you know as soon as we have come to a decision
I sat and waited for a reply, and waited, and waited. After six months I received a letter stating they felt it was too difficult for their catalogue and that they will not be publishing it.
I’m back at the start now having lost 6 months.
So, I sent it to a 2nd publishing house, Barnhouse. They accepted it after perusing it for a short period but warned me that they didn’t expect it to sell well due to its difficulty reminding me that they really concentrated (at that time) on the Beginner - Level 2 area of Concert Band music. But they said they’d take a chance on it.
Here, the learning is that the Publishing Houses have to make money to survive, too. Someone within their organisation has to make a judgement call as to whether a work is going to sell or not and I’m assuming that call is not simply based on whether they like it or not–altho I also assume that a simple like or dislike would be a part of that decision.
I do know that Robert Sheldon is the editor for one of the biggest Concert Band publishing firms in America. His opinions of a chart would be based on his consummate knowledge of Concert Band music and composing in general but specifically for Concert Bands. He would, no doubt, peruse the work for its musical structure and orchestration techniques along with everything else before making a recommendation. I hope publishers in this country do a similar thing with the music they publish as a ‘sound writing technique’ must be a prime consideration apart from just ‘it sounds good’, and someone who actually knows what sound technique is must surely give that input. I do know publishers do get it so wrong from time to time. For example, a few years back a big name publisher published a work written in 3/2 that was grouped on the score and parts (and in sound) in 6/4. Clearly the composer and editor either had no idea that 3/2 and 6/4 are as different as 3/4 and 6/8. A simple mistake? Maybe, but a huge mistake all the same. Another publication (different company) saw a very simple work where some of the basic harmony was incorrect (doubled major 3rds in first inversion chords, the incorrect use of a Passing 6/4 and one or two other things)…at least the composer thanked me for pointing out the errors saying the company’s editor and himself had not spotted them. An arrangement of an Aussie song was published (some 15 years ago) that was so pathetic in its writing and scoring that no band could play it. I was called in by a band’s director to see if I could get it his band to ‘sound right’ with this iconic Australian song. After getting the score I informed him that the music was so poorly written NO band could play it to make it sound right. This Director had wasted $120 of his music purchasing budget for that year.
This direction of my thoughts leads nicely into Publisher Considerations. Remember, I’m only writing about my own experiences with publishers. There are publishers in Australia and overseas with far more information about the issues they face in trying to publish music than I.
Publisher Considerations
Can I say up front that publishers are in an extremely challenging position. They wish to publish music that people will buy so they can keep their businesses afloat however they need to sell the music at a price that is both competitive and one that covers their costs. They are in the unenviable position of trying to print music that is ‘liked’ and often cop the brunt from conductors who think a particular chart is ‘not good’ (back to my question of what are opinions such as these based upon).
I know, from having a work or two published by Queenwood and Barnhouse, that their running costs include:
1. Printing costs
2. Advertising costs
3. Payment to the professional band that records all of their new music for CD (in the US, most often it’s the Washington Winds which is made up of many professionals from the Washington Military Bands and which performs most of the music on the recordings provided with almost any new music purchased from the US–the band is about 30 or so strong and each musician receives professional pay for their services. Each year they record for about a week non-stop doing these recordings for the various publishing houses in the US. Add onto that costs for the recording engineer, the studio, recording equipment, production of the CDs, etc, etc and you can see that this cost is not cheap. However, by having a number of publishers use this band in this way the overall cost is spread out and kept far lower than each individual publisher hiring a separate band).
4. Payment for the actual CDs to accompany advertising material
5. Distribution costs of the above, along with the actual sheet music, to outlets the world over
Barnhouse needed to sell something like 15 copies of Fanfare for Freedom to reach ‘break-even point’. I believe they have sold 30 copies over the past 8 or so years. Not good for them or me!
Once a work has been accepted for publication, for me Barnhouse, Queenwood, De Haaske and a small publisher in the UK sent me a contract in which I basically signed the music over to them. This gives them the right to, if they feel it’s necessary, change it a bit for whatever reason, in their efforts to make the music more saleable from their perspective. You, in effect, give them the complete rights to that version of your work. You no longer own it in its current format…it’s theirs. You still own copyright of the music and can, say, arrange a version for brass band or orchestra but that particular Concert Band version is now theirs…you can’t sell it to anyone unless it’s their printed music version (and you have the rights to sell their printed music).
A work of mine was entitled, Visions of Geelong, and was commissioned by the Geelong Concert Band. Barnhouse said the name wouldn’t sell in the US so changed its name, with my concurrence (I didn’t really have a choice if I wanted it published by them), to Visions of Australia. In fairness to them, the name change made sense…most importantly, they kept the dedication to the Geelong Concert Band on each page.
Queenwood publications actually contacted me with a suggestion to change two bars of my work, Prelude for a Festival. John Edmondson wrote the adjustment and asked if I’d mind changing the music in this way. I had no problem at all as his suggestion and his reason for the change made perfect sense (I wish I’d thought of it myself)…what a muso he is. He also suggested I change the last few trumpet notes by adding an alternative note as my high D’s made this 5-minute work suddenly become a Level 4 work instead of a Level 3 work and there’s more opportunity to sell a Level 3 work. Easy, the added A below the top D (making the top D an optional note) brought the work back to Level 3 standard and more saleable from their perspective as it could now be advertised as a true level 3 work.
As part of the contracts I signed, which I believe is the same for nearly all publishers the world over, you receive 10% of sales. The sale price for Fanfare for Freedom is around $150. So, on sales alone I made around $450 US all up (over eight years, remember). Take into consideration the exchange rate at the time the royalty cheques arrived along with the Aussie banks’ fee for handling overseas cheques ($10 per cheque) and my payment barely reached Aus$400…then I had Aussie tax to pay on that $400. Worldwide performance royalties for this work have amounted to around $22 all up–that’s the total world-wide performance royalties over a 10-year period, remember. So, for a work that took me some two months to write (I wrote it initially as the opening number for the 2001 Melbourne Festival at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl where I conducted the Bells and Brass concert with 4 brass bands and over 1000 bell ringers featuring a huge symphony for this specific group written by my dear mate, Brenton Broadstock), by adjusting it a bit (I added a slow section) I handed it to Barnhouse for publishing and I made a grand total of about $400–before tax over a 10-year period. Not bad! Barnhouse, thankfully, covered their costs and made a bit more but not much more.
In fairness to publishing houses the world over, the majority of bands fall into the Beginner to Level 2.5 to 3 area so, writing works at the Level 4 and above standard will never make them much money. I get that but that’s the standard I’m generally writing for either in commissions or for personal enjoyment. Obviously it’s my choice, of course, to write at this level.
So, money wise, for me, I’m better off selling my music through my website. Sure, I don’t get the possible exposure the larger publishing houses can offer however if I get only a handful of sales then any $s go to me in total. Had I been able to sell Fanfare for Freedom from my website which, of course, didn’t exist 10 years ago, it would have sold for around $90 (digital copy), so those potential 30 copies would have netted me $2700 instead. Would I have gotten the ‘global’ coverage that Barnhouse gave me, probably not. So, what do you do? It’s a bit like ‘pulling the pokies’ forever hoping the next pull will win the Jackpot!
On a slightly different tack, The Loaded Dog in its first year sold some 10 copies for brass band. Around the same time I arranged Jonny O’Keefe’s, Shout, for brass band. Shout sold over 40 copies. Even after paying the copyright fee for Shout I made three times as much for Shout than The Loaded Dog. Guess what…The Loaded Dog took me some 4 months to write whereas Shout took me two days to arrange!
There’s no money in composing unless you manage to get to the standing of people like Philip Sparke, Robert W Smith, Robert Sheldon and the like or write a Top 40 pop song that reaches No 1.
This background will, hopefully, explain why I do not agree with Loaning out my music and why it’s a ‘red rag to a bull’. One Facebook comment suggested any music loaning be done like a library, after all you can borrow books from a library without paying. I think you’ll find that libraries come under strict government guidelines as to how they are to operate, purchase and then loan out the material. As for music libraries, those in existence have very strict guidelines on how their music is to be used. You’ll need to check the individual library’s websites for specifics.
Regarding the loaning of my music, legally, lending your own original copy of printed music that you have purchased is fine so long as during the period of the loan YOU have no access to it. However, you cannot lend a ‘digital’ copy because a digital copy is always going to be a copy. This also means that if you print off a digital copy you cannot loan the printed-off music either because it’s also a copy…unless the copyright holder has stated the contrary.
For me, I feel an obligation to the purchaser to do the right thing here. So, I sell my music at a very low price and give them the right to print off as many parts as they need for their own use. Unlike printed music, where you have to purchase extra copies for lost/damaged parts, with my stuff you can print off 10 parts per instrument if you want…just don’t give them to another ensemble. For this, a Level 5-6 work will cost you well under $200. Try buying a printed chart at that level for under $200. Also, with the music there will, more often than not, be an MP3 rendition of the music that you can listen to along with a sample score so, there’s no need to ‘waste’ your money buying something you may not like…you can make that decision with all the factors there in front of you…a recording (albeit a computer rendition for my stuff) and a score. What more do you need?
Sure, by self-publishing I don’t get the exposure of a large publishing house and my works won’t be recommended at various festivals across this country or overseas (often, but not always, the suggested music list for festivals means income for the music businesses supporting the festivals in music sales through their businesses…I get that, too) but, as I said before, even if I sold just two copies of The Loaded Dog from my website in digital form, I will make more money than I received from 30 printed sales to brass and concert bands over the previous eight or so years. AND, the purchaser gets all the advantages of low cost and freedom to print off as many parts as their ensemble requires. Another related benefit is if I notice any mistakes in my music, a simple email to the purchasers with the adjustments is all that’s needed.
As for taking legal action against someone who does the wrong thing, well, I’ve not needed to at this stage and I hope I will never need to. My experience has been that nearly all in our business are aware of copyright requirements in a general sense and most band libraries are no longer full of photocopied music. Regarding my digital music, as I’ve said, every part has the words: This copy is for the sole use of the ***** band and may not be loaned, copied, hired or sold. If I ever go to a performance and hear a work of mine played that I know was not purchased from me then we’ll cross that bridge, from a legal standpoint, at that time.
If a ‘hire’ system was to be set up I would be very interested in how it would work. Another post questioned the possibility of having a hire fee which would go to the composer. On the surface this could work well. Hiring is a different kettle of fish to loaning. I can only say that there are very strict guidelines around how libraries work that hire out music. I don’t know what they are but I understand that those rules are strict because of the need to ensure the IP of the writers is fairly taken care of. Before going down the road of setting up a music hiring library I’d suggest some proper legal advice be sought.
For me, hiring my music at a fee to see if you like it or not doesn’t make sense given you can already download both a sample score and listen to an MP3 rendition of the music. If you can’t decide from that whether you want to buy it then seeing an original score or playing it through probably wouldn’t assist you either. Also, given my level 2 works go for around $40 (digital) and nothing on my website at the Level 5 standard costs more than about $190, why would you pay a hire fee when you can buy it so cheaply? Again, proper legal advice would need to be sought before setting up a hiring library.
One post suggested that, with a hired music system the composer would, at least, receive performance royalties $s. As I’ve pointed out, an $8 cheque at the end of a year for performance royalties during that year which includes your works being played in the US, UK and Australia and on ABC FM Radio (a 15-minute ‘live to air’ broadcast) is clear proof that performance royalties are not some magical bucket of gold that every composer can simply retire on. 2% of bugger all is very much bugger all. My average royalty cheque each year is around $15. I once received a one-off $800 cheque…of all the others, one or two have barely reached $20 whereas the majority seldom reach $10 a year. So, let’s put the performance royalty payments argument to rest. Unless you’re a world-renowned established composer or the composer of an Elton John hit, annual performance royalties are hardly biscuit crumbs for many Concert Band composers.
A last and contentious final perspective. Over the years I’ve heard many conductors give opinions of compositions, composers, the high cost of music, and yet there seems to be an apparent overlooking of the ‘other side’ of the argument. For example, there are a couple of conductors who I wish I could ban from performing my music due to the botched mess they’ve made of it…and others’ music, too. So, the conductors and band musicians are as much an integral part of all this as are the composers and publishers. I have heard my music performed so badly on occasions that not even I would buy it on the performance rendition presented.
As an adjudicator, just two examples of many for you to consider: Air For Band by Frank Erickson has a marked tempo indication of around 80 or so beats per minute. Over 80% of performances I’ve adjudicated (which would number above 50 to date) see it taken closer to 50 beats per minute. Another performance I adjudicated said a particular work had an approx. duration of 6 minutes. This particular performance ran for 12 minutes. You don’t need to be a Rhodes Scholar to work out what the problem was. So, here we have an interesting situation, Air For Band, taken at 50 beats per minute presents issues for the players–and particularly young players, including:
a. phrasing cannot be sustained as the breath required to play the phrases at this slow speed is simply not possible. It’s not possible with professionals either! The composer wrote the phrasing to match his suggested tempo and, if the music is taken at the suggested tempo it all ‘miraculously’ works well. 30% slower and all turns to the proverbial…
b. intonation suffers
c. balance cannot be maintained,
d. style is completely lost,
e. dynamics are difficult,
The list goes on…and all because the conductor takes the music too slow. I’ve heard more music crucified by conductors who don’t understand tempo alone than anything else. What kind of damaging experience is this for the kids? What kind of damaging experience is this for the audience? What kind of damaging experience is this for the composer? Who, on hearing a work performed so badly, would then line up at the music store to purchase the music?
I’ve had conductors tell me that it’s their right to choose the speed or ‘my band can’t play it at the marked tempo so I slow it down to a tempo they can play it.’ What a load of nonsense. If an ensemble can’t play the music at least close to the marked tempo (+/-10% of marked tempo is a perfectly reasonable error factor) then DON’T PLAY IT. Find something that’s written at a tempo that the ensemble can play whilst retaining the integrity of the music.
An analogy, our National Anthem and Glenn Miller’s, In the Mood. A band, for whatever reason can’t play our Anthem at the indicated tempo (the official speed is 110 beats per minute for our Anthem), so, let’s slow it down to 80 beats per minute. In the Mood can’t be played by a band at the swing tempo of 140 so, let’s slow it down to 108–have a listen to these two charts at these slower tempi. Our Anthem suddenly becomes so much more difficult to sing due to the now longer phrase lengths and In the Mood cannot be danced to because the tempo is now too slow to dance a swing. Apart from these basic issues, I’m sure you will instantly hear how ridiculous they now sound. Be clear in your minds that band conductors are wrecking ‘unknown’ Concert Band music in this way on a daily basis (and all over the world, too–You Tube is full of 3rd rate performances from across the globe which are then, sadly, downloaded and copied by other conductors).
Don’t get me started on pauses! Too late! Most conductors these days ignore pauses to the point that I avoid writing them into my music. My 25 April 1915 has most of what should have been pauses written out in full because most conductors ignore pauses. Why? One reason is because I’ve seen too many so-called conducting teachers say, ‘don’t conduct a pause…simply stop beating.’ This alone is a primary reason why pauses are ignored these days and why those particular conducting teaches should be prevented from teaching conducting–at least teaching how to conduct pauses.
I will say there are few shining lights in the community Concert Band/school Concert Band conducting arena who are doing marvellous things. I won’t mention any names here, but I make it a point to personally tell them how impressed I am with their abilities and encourage them to continue doing what they’re doing whenever I can. Interestingly, their bands are all at the top end of their respective state contest/festival levels…funny that!
So, it’s a four-way street in our business. Conductors are just as responsible to ensure Concert Band music is played with integrity as the composers are in composing with integrity, the publishers in selling the music with integrity and the performers in performing it with integrity.
To finish, I hope these words give you something to consider above and beyond many of the comments in the Facebook posts of recent times. I hope that you can understand why people like me become quickly agitated by some of the views and opinions that have been written.
I’m not going to make any more comments on this matter as I have a commission to finish by the end of January next year!
P.S. I’ve just received my Performance Royalty Payment for this year: 3 cents (for one Loaded Dog performance in the US–my thanks go to the conductor of that performance for both performing it and, I’m assuming, registering that performance).
Graham Lloyd–Dec 2014
Who Is Graham Lloyd?
Graham Lloyd, MMus (Melb), ARCM, LTCL, AMus A
Graham Lloyd’s early music interests saw him learning violin and cello at Secondary School after which he enlisted into the Australian Regular Army in 1972 as an Apprentice Musician studying the clarinet. Graduating from the Army Apprentices School in 1973 he received the Boosey and Hawkes prize for instrumental proficiency. In 1976 he was detached to the Army School of Music, as a clarinet and theory instructor. The same year, he was posted to the Band of the First Recruit Training Battalion at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, followed in 1977 by a further posting to the Army School of Music as an instructor where he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and later Staff Sergeant.
In 1982, he began his Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music Kneller Hall, London. Among the prizes he received on completion of the course were: the Besson Cup and Medal for gaining the highest marks in the Ministry of Defence Examinations; the Somerville Prize for best concert band arrangement and the coveted Worshipful Company of Musicians Trophy and Silver Medal for the best overall student of the course. He returned to Australia late in 1985 and was promoted to Lieutenant and appointed as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the Band of the 5th Military District, Perth, Western Australia.
In September 1987, he was posted to the now Defence Force School of Music in Macleod, Victoria, and was subsequently promoted to Captain. In this position he was responsible for the training and instruction of all Army and Navy musician enlistees.
Additional duties included the teaching of advanced arranging techniques and harmony to the various promotion courses, in particular, the Band Officers Course.
In 1989, Graham was posted as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the 3rd Military District Band in Melbourne, Victoria. Later that same year he accepted the position of Director of Music, Royal Australian Air Force and Commanding Officer of the then RAAF Central Band and, soon after, was promoted to Squadron Leader. In 1997, he was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the Air Force Bands. In 2000, he was posted to RAAF Training Command, in charge of Air Force music policy and the future direction of Air Force bands.
Feb 2004, Graham accepted the position of Officer Commanding/Chief Instructor at the Defence Force School of Music and transferred back to the Army with the rank of Major.
Graham’s main music interests are composing, arranging, teaching and conducting. His Concert Band work, Prelude for a Festival, won the 1988 Yamaha Composer of the Year award. Additionally, he has arranged and composed over 500 works for Concert Bands, Brass Bands and orchestras for every possible occasion from major concerts in the Opera House to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney in 2005. He completed his Masters in music composition at Melbourne University in 1999. Graham has been published by Barnhouse Publications in the US, De Haske in Europe and Muso’s Media in Australia. In 2009 Graham completed his long awaited book "Understanding Intonation for Musicians not Mathematicians"
As a conductor, major highlights include: Guest Conductor of the 70 piece United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C. in 1993; conducting the RAAF Band at the 1995 Royal Tournament in London; and conductor of the Federation Bells and Brass Concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne in Nov, 2001. The Bells and Brass concert featured over 500 performers including the four top A-Grade Brass Bands in Victoria and was the final concert for the Melbourne International Music Festival celebrating 100 years since Federation.
Graham is regularly called upon to adjudicate state and National community band festivals, eisteddfods, solo and small group contests and to lecture on various music subjects including arranging, composition and conducting. He lectures at various music institutions including Melbourne University’s Music Faculty. Graham is now concentrating on advancing music knowledge by presenting training seminars and workshops across Australia and overseas for music educators and ensemble directors.
In his spare time he arranges for bands and orchestras and even finds time to write compositions for concert bands
Graham Lloyd’s early music interests saw him learning violin and cello at Secondary School after which he enlisted into the Australian Regular Army in 1972 as an Apprentice Musician studying the clarinet. Graduating from the Army Apprentices School in 1973 he received the Boosey and Hawkes prize for instrumental proficiency. In 1976 he was detached to the Army School of Music, as a clarinet and theory instructor. The same year, he was posted to the Band of the First Recruit Training Battalion at Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, followed in 1977 by a further posting to the Army School of Music as an instructor where he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant and later Staff Sergeant.
In 1982, he began his Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music Kneller Hall, London. Among the prizes he received on completion of the course were: the Besson Cup and Medal for gaining the highest marks in the Ministry of Defence Examinations; the Somerville Prize for best concert band arrangement and the coveted Worshipful Company of Musicians Trophy and Silver Medal for the best overall student of the course. He returned to Australia late in 1985 and was promoted to Lieutenant and appointed as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the Band of the 5th Military District, Perth, Western Australia.
In September 1987, he was posted to the now Defence Force School of Music in Macleod, Victoria, and was subsequently promoted to Captain. In this position he was responsible for the training and instruction of all Army and Navy musician enlistees.
Additional duties included the teaching of advanced arranging techniques and harmony to the various promotion courses, in particular, the Band Officers Course.
In 1989, Graham was posted as the Second in Command/Deputy Music Director of the 3rd Military District Band in Melbourne, Victoria. Later that same year he accepted the position of Director of Music, Royal Australian Air Force and Commanding Officer of the then RAAF Central Band and, soon after, was promoted to Squadron Leader. In 1997, he was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the Air Force Bands. In 2000, he was posted to RAAF Training Command, in charge of Air Force music policy and the future direction of Air Force bands.
Feb 2004, Graham accepted the position of Officer Commanding/Chief Instructor at the Defence Force School of Music and transferred back to the Army with the rank of Major.
Graham’s main music interests are composing, arranging, teaching and conducting. His Concert Band work, Prelude for a Festival, won the 1988 Yamaha Composer of the Year award. Additionally, he has arranged and composed over 500 works for Concert Bands, Brass Bands and orchestras for every possible occasion from major concerts in the Opera House to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Sydney in 2005. He completed his Masters in music composition at Melbourne University in 1999. Graham has been published by Barnhouse Publications in the US, De Haske in Europe and Muso’s Media in Australia. In 2009 Graham completed his long awaited book "Understanding Intonation for Musicians not Mathematicians"
As a conductor, major highlights include: Guest Conductor of the 70 piece United States Air Force Band in Washington D.C. in 1993; conducting the RAAF Band at the 1995 Royal Tournament in London; and conductor of the Federation Bells and Brass Concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne in Nov, 2001. The Bells and Brass concert featured over 500 performers including the four top A-Grade Brass Bands in Victoria and was the final concert for the Melbourne International Music Festival celebrating 100 years since Federation.
Graham is regularly called upon to adjudicate state and National community band festivals, eisteddfods, solo and small group contests and to lecture on various music subjects including arranging, composition and conducting. He lectures at various music institutions including Melbourne University’s Music Faculty. Graham is now concentrating on advancing music knowledge by presenting training seminars and workshops across Australia and overseas for music educators and ensemble directors.
In his spare time he arranges for bands and orchestras and even finds time to write compositions for concert bands
Listen to Graham's recently Composed Work commissioned by the Australian Navy Band
the video shows the work in it's first performance "Live to air" at the ABC Studios Sydney