composer's notebook

When I was in Austin a few weeks ago for a short residency at Southwestern University, I perused the office shelves of my my host and old school chum, composer Jason Hoogerhyde. Upon finding the beautifully bound vocal score to his new opera The Color of Dissonance, I gasped at the lovely paper, color cover, and professional book-binding. So then Jason showed me his other scores — all gorgeously printed and professionally bound like, y’know, actual books. Like real scores you’d buy at Patelson’s (oh, wait, I can’t buy anything at Patelson’s anymore — it CLOSED G-d save us all.) I want I want I want, I said. So he told me about Lulu, the print-on-demand service where he got them done. Upload a pdf and cover images at the size you’d like, and for some pretty fair prices, they will print lovely copies, even selling them for you from their site.

As an experiment in self-publishing-fetishim, I chose a score to throw at them. So now you can officially purchase a study score (sized the European A4–slightly skinnier and slightly longer than American 8.5×11) of Symphony No. 1, My Hands Are a City.

Since the 114-page conductors score is a monster–expensive to print and to purchase–and not so convenient, practical, or cost-efficient to hand to interested conductors, we’ll try this out as another option. My hope is that my own small order of them will arrive in time for my short junket at this year’s Midwest Clinic in Chicago, but it probably won’t. So demand-print your own copy and give the gift of Beat to the-one-you-love-who-loves-to-squint-at-study-scores.

Which describes me well, at least. ‘Tis the season. By the way, there’s a small hole on my shelf where the Dutilleux Cello Concerto should be…