Bolcom, Harbison, Ives & Zappa Top 2012 Paul Revere Awards

Bolcom, Harbison, Ives & Zappa Top 2012 Paul Revere Awards

A total of 49 publications, including scores of compositions by William Bolcom, Chen Yi, Valerie Coleman, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, John Harbison, Charles Ives, Vijay Iyer, Robert Kyr, Paul Moravec, Steve Reich, David Evan Thomas, Maury Yeston, Neil Young, and Frank Zappa, were honored in the 2012 Paul Revere Awards for Graphic Excellence announced during the annual meeting of the Music Publishers Association.

Written By

Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri is an ASCAP-award winning composer and music journalist. Among his compositions are Already Yesterday or Still Tomorrow for orchestra, the "performance oratorio" MACHUNAS, the 1/4-tone sax quartet Fair and Balanced?, and the 1/6-tone rock band suite Imagined Overtures. His compositions are represented by Black Tea Music. Oteri is the Vice President of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) and is Composer Advocate at New Music USA where he has been the Editor of its web magazine, NewMusicBox.org, since its founding in 1999.

2012 Revere Award Winners

One of the tables stock full of 2012 Paul Revere award-winning publications which were rummaged over throughout the course of day by the attendees of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Music Publishers Association

New sheet music publications featuring compositions by William Bolcom, John Harbison, Charles Ives, and Frank Zappa are among the first prize winners in the 2012 Paul Revere Awards for Graphic Excellence, which are named in honor of the American Revolutionary War hero, who owned a printing press, and are given annually by the Music Publishers Association (MPA). The awards are open to retail print music publications in all genres published over the course of the past year, as well as scores that are digitally distributed online. Other award winners among the 49 publications in 13 categories include scores by Chen Yi, Valerie Coleman, John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, Vijay Iyer, Robert Kyr, Paul Moravec, Steve Reich, David Evan Thomas, Maury Yeston, and Neil Young. Of particular significance is the newly published critical edition of Charles Ives’s Symphony No. 4, a vast improvement over the previously available published edition which had included a confusing page of score printed horizontally to accommodate all of the separate simultaneous parts occurring during that passage. Below is a complete list of all the 2012 Paul Revere award-winning publications.

Full Score Notesetting
1st Prize
Charles Ives: Symphony No. 4 – Critical Edition (Associated Music Publishers/Schirmer)
2nd Prize (tie)
David Del Tredici: Magyar Madness (Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.)
Steve Reich: Sextet (Hendon Music/Boosey & Hawkes)
3rd Prize (tie)
Kurt Weill: Music with Solo Violin (European American Music Corp.)
John Corigliano: The Mannheim Rocket (G. Schirmer, Inc.)

Choral Music Notesetting
1st Prize
William Bolcom: A Song for St. Cecilia’s Day (Edward B. Marks Company)
Joel Raney: Let The Whole World Sing (Hope Publishing Company)
2nd Prize (3-way tie)
Chen Yi: Distance Can’t Keep us Two Apart (Theodore Presser Company)
Robert Kyr: Freedom Song (ECS Publishing Corp.)
David Evan Thomas: The Digital Wonder Watch (ECS Publishing Corp.)

Chamber Music Notesetting
1st Prize
Mozart: Three Arias from The Abduction from the Seraglio (International Music Company)
2nd Prize (3-way tie)
Joseph Schwantner: Percussion Concerto (Schott Music Corp.)
Claude Debussy: Sonata No. 4 (International Music Company)
Domenico Scarlatti: Two Sonatas, K. 87 and 455 (International Music Company)

Solos Music Notesetting
1st Prize
John Harbison: Abu Ghraib (Associated Music Publishers/Schirmer)
2nd Prize (tie)
Valerie Coleman: Danza de la Mariposa (Theodore Presser Company)
Saint-Saëns: Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso (Theodore Presser Company)
3rd Prize
Foundation Studies for the Violin, Book I (Carl Fischer)

Piano-Vocal Music Notesetting
1st Prize
Artur Schnabel: Notturno (Peermusic Classical)
2nd Prize (3-way tie)
Audition Musical Theatre Anthology (Alfred Music Publishing)
Paul Moravec: Danse Russe (Subito Music Publishing)
Maury Yeston: Death Takes a Holiday (Cherry Lane)

Keyboard Music Notesetting
1st Prize (tie)
Enrique Granados: 12 Spanish Dances (Alfred Music Publishing)
Howard Hanson: Sonata in A Minor (Carl Fischer)
2nd Prize (tie)
John Corigliano: Chiaroscuro for two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart (G. Schirmer, Inc.)
Chopin: Three New Etudes, Op. Posth. (International Music Company)
3rd Prize
Chen Yi: Variations on “Awariguli” (Theodore Presser Company)

Guitar Music Notesetting
1st Prize
Frank Zappa: One Size Fits All (Hal Leonard)
2nd Prize (tie)
Joe Satriani: Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards (Cherry Lane)
Jeff Beck: Truth (Hal Leonard)
3rd Prize
70 Bach Chorales (Cherry Lane)

Collated Music Notesetting
1st Prize
Franz Schubert: Arpeggione Sonata (Theodore Presser Company)
2nd Prize
G. F. Telemann: Viola Concerto in A Major (Gems Music Publications)

Cover Design Featuring Photography
1st Prize
Sing It First (Kendor Music)
2nd Prize
Matteo Carcassi Classical Guitar Method (Carl Fischer)
3rd Prize
Vijay Iyer: Selected Compositions 1999-2008 (Mel Bay Publications)

Cover Design Featuring Graphic Elements
1st Prize
William Bolcom: Bird Spirits (Edward B. Marks Company)
2nd Prize
Steven C. Warner and Karen Schnieder Kirner: Mass for Our Lady (World Library Publications)
3rd Prize
20 Pieces from Briggs’ Banjo Instructor for Ukelele (Mel Bay Publications)

Book Design in Folios
1st Prize (tie)
Kurt Weill: Music with Solo Violin (European American Music Corp.)
2nd Prize (tie)
William Bolcom: Bird Spirits (Edward B. Marks Company)
Neil Young: Harvest (Hal Leonard)

Book Design in Educational Folios
1st Prize (tie)
101 Harmonica Tips (Hal Leonard)
Method of Movement for Marimba (Marimba Percussion, Inc.)
2nd Prize
No Brainer: Play Drumset (Alfred Music Publishing)
3rd Prize
I Used to Play Drums (Carl Fischer)

Publications for Electronic Distribution
1st Prize
Claude Debussy: Premiere Rhapsodie (Musicnotes, Inc.)
2nd Prize
Carl Maria von Weber: Invitation to the Waltz (Musicnotes, Inc.)

Over the course of the 2012-13 academic year, there will be a touring exhibition of the 2012 Paul Revere award-winning publications to music libraries at colleges and universities through the United States. In previous years, participating libraries have included the Columbia University Music Library in New York City, the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library at Tulane University in New Orleans, the Belmont University Music Library in Nashville, the Fine Arts Library at Michigan State University in East Lansing, the Albert Seay Library of Music and Art at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and the Odegaard Ungergraduate Library at the University of Washington in Seattle.

The 2012 awards were adjudicated by a panel of four judges: The primary engraving judge was composer Bruce Taub, a freelance consultant and engraver who formerly served as the head of publishing for C.F. Peters Corporation, Music Publishers (from 1978-2000). Composer George Boziwick, chief of the music division for the The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts served as utility judge. Visual artist Maria Reidelbach served as the design judge. The panel was chaired by Paul Sadowski of McGinnis and Marx Music Publishers, who also served as a second engraving judge.

The 2012 Paul Revere Awards were announced by Sadowski during the Annual Meeting of the Music Publishers Association at the Harvard Club in New York City on June 1. During the annual meeting, the MPA also honored Frank J. Hackinson, who has had a seven-decade career in the music publishing business, with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Other events during the 2012 MPA Annual Meeting included panels on the external drivers effecting print music and protecting intellectual property in a digital environment. A highlight of the day was a screening of five video submissions which are finalists in the MPA’s Copyright Awareness Scholarship competition, a program created with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME, formerly MENC). The program, now in its third year, is open to students between the ages of 13 and 25 currently enrolled in high school or university. There were a total of 300 submissions for 2012. The winner, who will be announced at a later date, will receive a $10,000 cash prize.