News & Views Thursday, May 17, 2012

Category: Vocal Music

Esperanza Spalding 10 May, 2012

Esperanza Spalding is an exciting, up-and-coming  jazz artist whose debut album, “Esperanza” has just come into print. She won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards in 2011,  making her the first jazz artist to win that award.   Her skills as an instrumentalist and vocalist make her shine in this album, in which she sings in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.   This collection is worth a good look!  Please contact us at 1-800-42-MUSIC or at keyboard@stantons.com to inquire about this collection or other Stanton’s products.

Essential Songs Wedding 12 April, 2012

This collection of 83 wedding song favorites will keep a wedding vocalist well supplied throughout the year.  There are piano solos for wedding as well, including: Canon in D, Wagner’s The Bridal Chorus and Handel’s Largo from Xerxes.  Popular wedding songs include Endless Love, Bless the Broken Road, You Raise Me Up, and A Time for Us.

Essential Songs Wedding is a great blend of current songs and wedding standards–a portable song library in one volume! Please contact us to inquire about this or any other of our sheet music products that may interest you.

Ben Folds, The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective 06 March, 2012

Over the past seventeen years, Ben Folds has been distinguishing himself as a different flavor of singer/songwriter.  This book, The Best Imitation of  Myself, which matches the recording of the same title, includes an overview of his works so far.  There are songs  from his 1990s indie rock recordings, from live performances of  Ben Folds Five, some of  his solo work and three new Ben Folds Five songs.  This book of sheet music includes 22 songs arranged with guitar chords and piano accompaniments for the solo vocal lines. The  piano solo interludes are included in these songs, which is refreshing, since it is a rarity to find piano solos included like this.

For more information on this or other Ben Folds collections, contact our keyboard department!

World Music Songbook 05 March, 2012

This new release from Hal Leonard contains over one hundred folk songs from around the world.  If you teach general music, you will find that the “World Music Songbook” is a valuable resource. Some songs have the words in the original language, enhancing the world music experience.  The melody is in the right hand for the pianist, so it’s easy to lead the song if you are playing for a music class.  Whether you are a teacher, or simply love world music, this book of international sheet music will catch your attention!

Digitally Download Sheet Music 01 March, 2012

Do you ever need sheet music in a big hurry?  Check out Stanton’s Digital Delivery to browse our digital sheet music library. There are pop songs, Broadway songs, sacred songs, guitar tabs, and much more!

You’ll need to download a free Scorch program that allows you to see the first page of each song you look up, and it allows you to print on your own printer.  Many songs can also be transposed to whatever key you need! Just pay with a credit card, download and print.

This service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Happy browsing!

Today’s Hits for Weddings 24 February, 2012

If you don’t want the same old standards for your special day,  Today’s Hits for Weddings is the book for you!  ”God Gave Me You” by Blake Shelton, “Lucky” by Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz, “Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts, “Love Story” by Taylor Swift, plus 21 more currrent songs are in this collection.

The songs may be sung with the piano part, or played as piano solos. Are you ready for an update in your wedding music? At  Stanton’s Sheet Music, we are ready to help you find “something old” or “something new.”  Give us a call at1-800-42-MUSIC, or email us for more details.

Copyright Resources for Musicians and Educators 22 February, 2012

Copyright law and its implications affect musicians and educators every day, yet most of us have little to no understanding of it.  Whether majoring in performance or education, undergraduate courses of study rarely present an introduction to the subject, let alone offer any courses that study it in detail.  It is challenging to know what is permissible under the law, and what exactly is allowed under the doctrine of ‘fair use.’  Violations of copyright occur frequently in our schools mostly due to the lack of education on the subject, and, like it or not, use in an educational setting alone does not necessarily constitute compliance with the ‘fair use’ provision of the law.  With increased scrutiny and debate over copyright infringement on the internet, the staff at Stanton’s would like to recommend the following resources to shed light on the subject for musicians and educators alike.  They are presented in order of increasing detail, and we highly recommend The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law for music educators.  In addition, YouTube in Music Education is a great resource for those looking to use this technology to enhance their programs, but have concerns about how to do so appropriately.

Music Copyright Basics – Joel Leach
What is copyright?  This seemingly simple question often causes confusion with its complex answers.  In Music Copyright Basics, professor and expert copyright witness Joel Leach answers frequent questions in a straightforward, easy-to-use format.  Whether you are searching for a simple answer to a common question or want a general knowledge of the copyright procedure, this book will quickly provide you with the information you want.  Music Copyright Basics features: a convenient question-and-answer format; easy-to-understand answers to all your copyright questions; coverage of copyright basics, copyright submission process, copyright ownership, copyright and earnings potential, and international copyright; and a compact, portable design that keeps information easily at hand. (2003)

The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law – James Frankel
The easy-to-understand guide for teachers using copyrighted music and media in the classroom.  In this era of unprecedented access to information, teachers have a wealth of readily available resources for lesson planning, but determining what you can and can’t use legally in the classroom is a difficult task.  Written by a 15-year veteran of the New Jerseypublic schools, The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law helps explain just how information, images, video, and music can be incorporated into any kind of lesson plan without running afoul of copyright laws.  This resource includes: what resources you can use without obtaining permission, how to obtain and license the works you need permission to use, how to check the copyright status of any media item, and how to apply copyright legality examples to real classroom situations. (2009)

Music Copyright Law – Moser & Slay
Music Copyright Law will help you gain an in-depth understanding of a topic that is vital to the success of anyone in or entering the music industry.  From songwriters and performers to managers, producers, and agents, everyone is affected by the issues covered in this book.  Avoiding the technical jargon and “legalese” that bogs down other books on the subject, this book explores the world of copyright law and homes in on how it applies to music.  It begins by building a foundational knowledge of the fundamentals of copyright law – what it protects, the benefits of registering a copyright, and what to do when copyright has been infringed.  Once the fundamentals are established, coverage expands to include controversies involving copyright and music in the digital age and the debates over online music.  Packed with practical examples that bring complex concepts to life, this book is a must-have for any professional in or entering the music business. (2012)

When the Sun Goes Down, Selena Gomez and the Scene 21 February, 2012

At last, here is the sheet music book to match Selena Gomez & The Scene’s third album, When the Sun Goes Down. The recording was released June 28, 2011, and debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200.  The following week, it had risen to #3.

The album’s lead single, “Who Says” was certified Platinum by RIAA on June 23, 2011. “Love You Like a Love Song” and many of the other titles in the collection are available for instant download and print through Stanton’s Digital Delivery.  It is a delightful electro-dance pop album, and this collection has all eleven titles from the recording!

The Book of Mormon 03 February, 2012

Since The Book of Mormon opened on Broadway in March of 2011,  this award winning musical has been a best seller.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone of  South Park, and Robert Lopez of Avenue Q fame, have teamed up to produce a religious satire musical that is fun, funny and irreverent.

Here at Stanton’s Sheet Music, we waited anxiously until November of 2011 when The Book of Mormon vocal selections finally arrived  in the store. Customers were calling to order this sheet music book before it was even off the press! This collection of all 16 songs and photos from the Broadway musical is a great companion to the cast recording which was released in June of 2011.  All of the sheet music from this collection is also available for immediate dowload through Stanton’s Digital Delivery!

For more information, email or call us at 1-800-426-8742.

Get a real, LIVE person on the phone! 30 January, 2012

We’re always talking about our knowledgeable staff—you’ll find that very phrase on much of our printed advertising, as well as on our website. Stanton’s sales staff is separated into departments to ensure that each staff member is well informed about a specific area of the wide variety of music that we carry. So when you call and ask about music for trumpet, you’ll be speaking with someone who has first-hand knowledge of repertoire, not just a phone operator with no musical experience. Here’s what you’ll find in each department:

CHORAL DEPARTMENT (ex. 1)
Church Choral Music
School Choral Music
Elementary Classroom Music
Classical Solo Vocal
Handbell

BAND DEPARTMENT (ex. 2)
Concert Band
Marching Band
Jazz Ensemble
Orchestra
Solos for all concert instruments
Instrumental Method Books
Music Software/Technology

POP/KEYBOARD (ex. 3)
Sacred & Secular Piano
Organ
Piano Method Books
Popular/Broadway Solo Vocal
Contemporary Christian Vocal
Guitar Solos and Methods
Music for Folk Instruments

BILLING AND ACCOUNTS (ex. 4)

You can direct emails to the exact department you need by clicking the links above, or press the appropriate extension when you call 1-800-42-MUSIC (1-800-426-8742). If you’re unsure of which department to choose, we’re always happy to direct you to whoever can best address your needs; press “0″ to have your call directed, or send a general email. At Stanton’s, it is important to us that you receive the most educated answers to your questions and the finest music recommendations.

Stanton’s “21-Day Trial” Program 27 December, 2011

Did you know that you can preview music from Stanton’s before you decide to buy? We know that it’s difficult to tell if a particular piece of music will fit your needs without actually reading it through, so similar to checking things out from a library, you can “borrow” resources from our store using the “21 Day Trial” program!

Each of Stanton’s departments has slightly different guidelines about what/how many items can be sent on “21 Day Trial,” but in general we can send printed sheet music that is currently in stock. You can request items for trial by phone, email, fax, online or in person—any of the ways that you can place a regular order—but make sure that you specify “21 Day Trial.” You can list the music you’d like to peruse, or you can give us some specifications (like “Christmas piano solos,” “SSA choral music on the theme of friendship,” or “new publications for 8th grade jazz band”) and Stanton’s knowledgeable staff will find some suggestions for you!

Sacred product 14We require account or credit card information so that if you choose to keep the music we can charge you accordingly, or return the music within 21 days of your invoice date and you’ll never be charged! (You’ll just have to pay return shipping to get the music back to us.)

As you return from Winter break and begin programming the rest of your school or church year, remember that Stanton’s Sheet Music is here to help!

WOW Hits 2011 19 December, 2011

Here is a songbook of thirty hits from 2011, hot off the press.  From “Beautiful Beautiful”  by Francesca Battistelli to “Your Love is a Song”  by Switchfoot WOW Hits 2011 contains the best of today’s Christian artists.  Written in medium ranges with intermediate to advanced piano accompaniments, these songs are sure to please whether you sing at home for fun, or in church.  For more information about this book or other sacred/praise songbooks, call us at 1-800-42-MUSIC, email us or check out our website.

Glee: The 3D Concert Movie 14 December, 2011

Glee’s popularity continues!  This song book includes two dozen tunes from Glee’s first two seasons as performed in “Glee, The 3D Concert Movie”.  If you loved the movie, you will love to own the book and sing the songs.  For this book or other Glee songbooks, call us at 1-800-72-MUSIC or 224-4257, extension 3, locally.  You may also check out our website, www.stantons.com.

Anthology of Children's Songs 05 December, 2011

Anthology of Children’s Songs is a collection of 100 children’s songs to delight children, parents and elementary music teachers!  There are folk songs including  ”Buffalo Gals” ,  Disney tunes including “Whistle While You Work” and “Be Our Guest”, children’s songs including “Oh Where, Oh Where Has My Little Dog Gone?”,  TV songs including “The Addams Family Theme”, Broadway songs including “Edelweiss” and pop songs including “Purple People Eater”. Â You can view the complete table of contents on our website. You may also call us at 1-800-426-8742 for more information about this collection. If you have children or teach young children, this is a great book to have at hand!

Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan 02 December, 2011

In 1950, Leonard Bernstein wrote songs and incidental music for J M Barrie’s play “Peter Pan”, which opened on Broadway on April 24, 1950. There had been six previous Broadway productions of this popular story between 1905 and 1928, so this was the seventh and newest telling of the story.  The tour was cancelled mid-run, and Bernstein’s music for it was largely forgotten, overshadowed by the  1954 “Peter Pan”, the music for which was written by Mark Charlap and Jule Styne, and  starred Mary Martin as Peter Pan.  In 2001, the conductor Alexander Frey approached the Leonard Bernstein Office with the proposal to record Bernstein’s score for the 1950 “Peter Pan”.  The recording proved to be a success.  Here is the collection of vocal selections for Bernstein’s “Peter Pan”, available for the first time in recent memory.  If you have heard the recording, you will be delighted with these vocal selections.  If you have not, it will be worth giving  the recording a listen!  For the table of contents, see our website at stantons.com, or call us at 1-800-42- MUSIC  for more information.

Stanton's Staff Favorites: Christmas Albums 30 November, 2011

Christmas time is here, or so the song goes, and now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, a few of the Stanton's staff would like to share some of our favorite Christmas albums with you.  Hopefully you'll find something new and different to add to your holiday playlist.  Feel free to share your favorites in the comments section below - we're always looking for something new to listen to, and Merry Christmas!


Caryn - Pop & Keyboard Dept.
A Charlie Brown Christmas - Vince Guaraldi Trio
Christmas Collection - Michael W. Smith
Christmas Night: Carols of the Nativity and Christmas with the Cambridge Singers - The Cambridge Singers; London Sinfonia; John Rutter
O Holy Night - Jackie Evancho
December Piano Solos: 20th Anniversary Edition - George Winston
Indigo Christmas: Retro Jazz Swing – (no specific artist)
Carol - The American Boychoir
And Winter Came - Enya

Jen - Choral Music Specialist
Angels on High - Robert Shaw Singers
Holiday Spirits - Straight No Chaser
Elf Movie Soundtrack
Christmas Together - John Denver and The Muppets

Ken - Band/Instrumental Dept.
A Charlie Brown Christmas – Vince Guaraldi Trio
Christmas Songs – Diana Krall & the Clayton/Hamilton Jazz Orchestra
Jingle All the Way – Bela Fleck & the Flecktones
The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole
Christmas Jazz Jam – Wynton Marsalis
Christmas in the Morning: A Celebration in Brass – Canadian Brass; Michael Laird & Philip Jones Brass Ensembles
A Night Before Christmas – Spyro Gyra
Christmas Greetings – The Festival Chorale, conducted by H. Royce Saltzman
White Christmas – Bing Crosby

Christmas Countdown-Music Check! 25 November, 2011

Are you singing for your church's Christmas Eve or Christmas Day services this December? Every year, we get panicked phone calls and visits from customers around the 23rd of December, desperately in need of a piece IMMEDIATELY! Don't let that be you! Now is a good time to double-check your music files and make sure that you have all the pieces you need in the appropriate key. Some of the most popular pieces sung at Christmas Eve services are Gesu Bambino, Mary, Did You Know? and Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night). We're happy to help you find less common or hard-to-find repertoire for your Christmas services, and we can also give you some suggestions if you're just not sure what to sing! Just give us a call at 1-800-426-8742, or drop us an email.

And for all you procrastinators out there, Stanton's will be open on Christmas Eve!

“Evenings at the Opera” 22 August, 2011

Evenings at the Opera: An Exploration of the Basic Repertoire is a collection of essays based on Jeffrey Langford‘s lectures at the Manhattan School of Music and inspired by his pre-performance talks at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. It presents a unique view of the stylistic development of nearly 200 years of opera history (from Mozart to Britten), with special attention to the question of how the genre’s competing components of action, music, and text combine to make effective music drama. Taking a thematic (rather than a purely historical) approach to this exploration of selected works from the standard repertoire, Langford engages the reader in the fundamental question of how the shifting aesthetics of opera from one composer to another, one country to another, and one era to another have resulted in vastly different solutions to the problem of how to make a dramma per musica (drama in music), as the Italian inventors of opera first called it. Going beyond mere plot synopsis, he guides the reader through analysis of specific issues of musical form, style, and technique to shed new light on the perennial question of “how opera (sometimes) works.”

For more opera and classical vocal resources, please contact Stanton's!

Happy Birthday, Irving Berlin! 11 May, 2011

 Israel Isadore Baline was born on May 11, 1888 in Russia. Â  In 1893 his family  immigrated to the United States  and settled in New York City.  Due to a misprint on the cover of “Marie from Sunny Italy” , which he co-wrote with a friend, Mike Nicholson, he became known as “I. Berlin”, and the “I” somehow became “Irving”. Â  In 1911, he made his first big hit with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”.  From then until the end of his career, he wrote about 1,500 songs.  Irving Berlin is one of the best known and among the most prolific songwriters our country has ever known.  “God Bless America“  is a Fourth of July standard.  The musical, “Annie Get Your Gun” is still performed in community theaters.  “Easter Parade” and “White Christmas“  are perennial favorites.  When he died on September 22, 1989, America lost a living musical treasure.  From choral to ukulele, Stanton’s has, or can order, music by Irving Berlin.  Happy Birthday, Irving Berlin!

“Finding Ophelia's Voice” 08 March, 2011

Young girls in modern society are bombarded by the media and, ultimately, by their peers with expectations of how they should look, walk, talk - really, how they should be. Before they truly begin to know and appreciate the uniqueness of themselves, they are asked to be something or someone that is only a facade - a passing frame on a screen or a still image in print.

Finding ways to help adolescent girls gain self approval, encourage self-esteem, and begin to reconnect with themselves as talented, worthy, and special human beings has never been more important. Lynne Gackle, Associate Professor of Ensembles and Assistant Choral Director at Baylor University, has long been an advocate for the power of singing as a catalyst for this positive change and self-actualization in the adolescent girl. Her landmark text, Finding Ophelia's Voice, Opening Ophelia's Heart, is a synthesis of these ideas, reflecting her unmatched expertise on the workings of the female voice and a lifetime of experience and research.

Serving to enlighten and encourage teachers and choral directors of these students, readers of Finding Ophelia’s Voice, Opening Ophelia’s Heart will learn the symptoms of vocal change in the female voice, along with physiological factors that affect it. Appropriate choral literature, recordings, and other educational materials to be used with the singers are also presented. The included DVD, which may be used in the classroom as a teaching tool, provides demonstrations of the phases of vocal maturation, voice classification, vocal techniques, and other pedagogical strategies, all with the help of an all-girl choir (ages 12-16) under the direction of Dr. Gackle.

For more resources for developing singers, please contact Stanton’s at 1.800.426.8742.