Klarinet Archive - Posting 000277.txt from 1997/02

From: Rick Sowash <73563.3161@-----.COM>
Subj: 600 Accept Composer's Offers
Date: Sun, 9 Feb 1997 11:46:26 -0500

I thought all you good Klarinet people might like to know the results of the
experiment I launched in your forum one year ago, offering computer-transcribed
scores (& parts) of my chamber music to anyone who wants them for just the cost
of the photocopying and postage.

In the past 12 months, I've mailed scores to over 600 people. About a third of
these came thru the Klarinet forum, about half thru the acmp (Amateur Chamber
Music Players) forum and the rest from the flute forum.

So far as I know, I am the only composer doing this.

I'm very pleased with the results. How else would I have gotten my music under
the noses of those 600 musicians and the ensembles in which they play?

People have responded mostly from the USA but also from Italy, England, Finland,
Belgium, Spain, Brazil, Austrailia, New Zealand, Canada, Bermuda, and Sweden.
Three world premieres of works of mine took place this year as a direct result
of these offers. Several musicians are laying plans to make recordings which
will include my works. Probably not all will come to fruition, but some will.

If my schedule permits, I may go to England to be present at a performance of my
music which a chamber ensemble there is planning for next year.

A year ago, those scores were yellowing on my shelf ... and now they're "out
there," thanks to this forum and a few others.

The experiment has also had a good effect on my music: It encourages me to
transcribe more of my handwritten manuscripts into computer notation, with the
sense that there is a "real" reason to do so, that someone is actually going to
use the score, etc. Also I do some editing and revising as I transcribe which
improves the pieces (hopefully)...

I'm an "outsider" composer, without academic, corporate or artistic connections
of any kind. Where would I be without the Klarinet forum and few others? I'd
be sitting here at home amidst stacks of my music that no one would ever play.

But thanks to the net and you folks, it's not that way anymore.

Thought you'd like to know.

Thanks!

Rick Sowash, "Outsider" Composer
Cincinnati, OH

P.S. I am slowly transcribing my massive "Anecdotes & Reflections" for
clarinet, violin, cello and piano, which Craig Olzenak and the Mirecourt Trio
beautifully recorded on the CD: Rick Sowash: Chamber Music with Clarinet. It's
my "magnum opus" for the clarinet, 41 minutes long, the most eclectic thing I've
done, all about "my" America's cultural diversity.... I won't have it completed
and available for another month or two, but when I do, you good Klarinet people
will be the first to know.