Klarinet Archive - Posting 000585.txt from 1995/05

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Jim Grant's request for composition review
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 22:12:26 -0400

Hi Jim. I should not interfere but I don't know if Jim Gillespie is
on this list. I doubt it since I have not seen any notes or postings
from him ever. Dave Neithamer in Richmond, VA may be able to help you
and he is always very cooperative. David is sort of ex officio
temporary, part-time help for the Clarinet society all of which he
does at a terrific annual fee of $0.00.

I used to be a reviewer for the society and, when I was doing it, it
worked like this. There was a new music reviewer whose name and
address were given in each issue of the magazine (which appeared
quarterly). All new music was directed to that person and s/he would
send it out to a number of reviewers. It was the new music reviewer
who would coordinate the submissions so as to assure than no one was
overwhelmed with material for actual review.

Some works were never reviewed, not because they were poor, but because
there were always far more works to review than people to review them.
Furthermore, reviewing everything would have meant a 20 page new music
review section in every issue of the magazine, and that would have soon
led to a 20 page discography review section, a 20 page review of clarinet
player's concerts section, etc., etc., until, eventually, there would
have been no room for articles or advertisements.

The magazine is probably not a money maker. That is, it costs more to
put out than it takes in. To spend a lot of pages on music reviews
would only increase the cost without any compensatory increase in
revenues. Besides the annual fee for being a member of the society,
the only revenues are from advertisements. Personally I find this
unfortunate since it allows the potential environment where various
manufacturers could control the magazine's content. I believe that
this has happened from time to time.

It's cold. It's heartless. But it's the economics of magazine
publication.

====================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
(leeson@-----.edu)
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