Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Digital Downloads and Engaging Art

Hello everyone. This week's installment is care of two emails in the inbox. Nothing like electronic inspiration!

DIGITAL DOWNLOADS
QUADRE's music from its latest CD, Citrus can now be downloaded electronically from PayPlay.fm - an MP3 download store that is selling our music as part of CD Baby's Digital Distribution.

They work kind of like Apple's iTunes except that there is no software that needs to be installed. As CD Baby's CEO, Derek Sivers says, "They've got a nice easy-to-use website that is a great no-nonsense place to send fans that want to buy your MP3s. And since they're regular MP3 files, they'll work in every computer, and any portable player."

So if you know anyone that loves to download MP3 files, point them to PayPlay. They have a huge selection.

ENGAGING ART
Douglas McLennan has written a new book titled, Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of America's Cultural Life. View abstracts of the book by clicking here. I especially found chapter 4 to be compelling as it discussed how the culture of the arts has changed into passive and active models of participation. I feel strongly that the more one engages with the audience through the given art form, the more connected and satisifed the patrons are. Rather than watch the canvas come alive before my eyes, I'd rather be the canvas.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Music in the Schools and Publishing

This week's tidbits are inspired by the emails I've received in the last 48 hours. Now how did we get on before email came along? I wonder.

MUSIC IN THE SCHOOLS
Melissa Hendrickson, a former member of QUADRE from 1998-2001, sent me this wonderful link for a blog she frequents. The author who goes by tristero makes reference to an individual who believes schools should do away completely with all fictional content. Tristero's response, I believe, is completely inspired! :-) Another blog that also offers a response is written by Chad Orzel. His blog is here.

PUBLISHING
You may wonder how the music that gets played in our concerts gets in the hands of the artists. Well, for music that has been written and performed before, much of it is available to purchase from a music store. Like a bookstore, the music store buys their music from publishers. In the case of a lot of the music QUADRE plays though, it is unpublished. We have to call up friends of friends to get music that some woman who plays the horn in Canada has written. Or it is a piece that one of us in the group composed. In the case of the latter, I am starting to get each of them published with Emerson Horn Editions in Colorado.

The first work to be published is Reason to Rhyme by yours truly. It will be available to purchase for the first time at the International Horn Symposium in Switzerland mid-July. After almost ten years, it is nice to see our music make its way into the hands of horn enthusiasts.