Dear Bear, all what you said seems true to me, but do you really have connections to the real concert world & do you know the situation there ? I doubt that, sorry. How often is a horn concerto on a regular concert program throughout the world ? How many traveling soloists do we have ? What do they have in their repertory ? The classic horn concertos ? Surely. They are the Mozarts & the Strausses, perhaps the Britten Serenade, the Gliere and a few "exotics". All other concertos remain back in the home personal library as they cannot "sell" them. The local soloists ? Well, they might get a chance to premiere or to play a piece by a local composer, if at all. There are so many pianists & fiddlers out there, who are the first choice in a program. It was so in the past & it will be in the future.
What to do ? Well, there are community, university orchestras, who might be willing to rehears & play an unknown concerto. But as soon as income is involved, - a community orchestra or an university orchestra has a very low budget & must make a bit of income. But how to do with unknown pieces on the program. It is the general musical education to be blamed. The general audience has extreme low level musical education if music exceeds pop & entertainment music. This is reality not only in your country but also here in Europe more & more. This does not depend upon tonal or atonal or twelve tone. If there is a world famous or regional very famous soloist, he can play the unknown concerto like shit & will receive his applause, so will the composer. But you have to find the man, the orchestras main sponsor, the conductor & persuade them to program your "baby". That´s it. Hindemith wrote a most serious but still very accessible concerto, but it is nearly impossible to get it on the program - because of his fame. Yes, there is a chance. Try to get it recorded & performed by one of the more or less exotic orchestras in the Caribic or in Middle America. Some say the State Philharmonic in Cuba be very progressive. You might have a chance there. Try to get contact to horn players there, also in Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Sofia or Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Odessa, Kiev, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Kattovice (Poland - Radio), etc. A biography or dissertation written about oneself, who is interested ? Yes, that is reality. And, dear Bear, all this happen in the past also. Tons of good music composed, published by the help of a sponsor to whom the piece was dedicated, performed just perhaps, back in the box to sleep until some scholar finds it & brings it back to life, ----- perhaps. Fiddle, Cello or piano concertos, yes, they will remain in the programs, but horn concertos will remain rare gems. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++ Am 30.09.2009 um 15:04 schrieb Bear Woodson: > With all this altruism floating around why can't I get an > Orchestral Recording made of my Horn Concerto? If it > weren't a good piece of music, then WHY is it probably the > first time in history, when an ENTIRE DISSERTATION was > written about a person (in this case, myself as a composer), > under the conditions of: > > 1) before I had been famous (I'm still an "unknown > composer"), > > 2) before I had been a college professor for 20 years (I've > been a Graduate Assistant Teacher for one semester, but > I've never been an official 'professor' for one day), and > > 3) while I'm still alive (usually after fulfilling the 2 above- > named criteria, the person is already dead for 10 years). > > Not to mention that the respected Classical and Jazz Tuba > Virtuoso Sam Pilafian, who is notorious for hating Non- > Functional, Dissonant Music (for example, 12-Tone Formula > Music, John Cage 'Aleatoric' ['Random'] music, and other > "Non-Functional Harmony"), was one of the 6 professors on > the Doctoral Committee. By the way, I don't like, nor use, > that kind of unmusical harmony either! All of my music uses > Chromatic Modality (which means it sounds like a blend of > Hindemith, Shostakovich, Bartok, Prokofieff, etc.). > > Sam Pilafian personally oversaw each recording session, > by hornist Karen McGale when she recorded 4 of my Horn > Works as her Doctoral Dissertation. That included the > sessions where Karen McGale masterfully recorded the > Piano Reduction Version of my Horn Concerto with the > talented pianist Ms. Gail Novak. A few members of these > Horn Lists have those scores and the CD of it. > > Bear Woodson Horn Concerto > I Energico 5' 59" > II Leggiero Passacaglia 4' 14" > III Hunting Rondo 6' 22" > Total Time: 16' 35" > > Composed from May 31 to Dec. 27, 1999. > The Dissertation was accepted at Arizona State University > on December 3, 2001. > > Here are some websites about this Dissertation: > http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50122306&referer=brief_results > http://library.lib.asu.edu/search/q?author=McGale%2C+Karen&title=Woodson > or go to: > http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/ddm/DN20th_century.html > Once it downloads, do a Search for "McGale" or "Woodson". > > Since all this documentation proves the merits of my > work and Dr. McGale's fine playing, WHY can't I get > funding for an Orchestral Recording of this New, but > neglected Horn Concerto?!? > > > Bear Woodson, Composer > > Home: 520 - 881 - 2558 > "Bear Woodson" <[email protected]> > > "It's bad enough that I have an outdated > computer, but now I may need to upgrade > my toaster, as well. It seems to object > violently, whenever I put already-buttered > bread into it." - Bear Woodson (2007) > > > _______________________________________________ > post: [email protected] > unsubscribe or set options at > https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/hpizka%40me.com _______________________________________________ post: [email protected] unsubscribe or set options at https://pegasus.memphis.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
