UNITY BRASS FESTIVAL
July, 2018 Winston-Salem, NC, USA
“Call For Arrangements”
Many of you have arranged and composed and could contribute a piece for the Massed Brass to play at Festival.
It will be really special to highlight the musical talent and skill of Moravians in this publication. It will also publicize the composer/arranger’s talent to other musical groups.
We are not asking anyone to give up their copyright to their work, but rather to grant limited copyright to Moravian Music Foundation Inc. to produce the book for Festival participants.
A book of sheet music parts/scores will be produced, for all participants, for each instrument part, containing all the music for the Festival. There has to be a European version produced, since most of the Europeans read in concert pitch. This booklet will not be sold beyond the Festival participants. There may be additional “loose” sheet music, but we would like to limit this occurrence.
General Guidelines:
- This is not a competition, no awards will be made.
- There is no guarantee that, even if selected, the work will be printed, distributed, rehearsed or performed.
- The work must be original and unpublished.
- The work must not be under copyright with, or being considered by, any other publisher.
- The work may have been performed prior to the Festival, but we encourage you to consider new work.
- Selection of works to be printed, distributed, rehearsed and/or performed will be determined by a panel of Moravian brass musicians, composers, arrangers, directors, and MMF staff, as determined by the Festival Planning Committee.
- The work should be sacred in nature.
- Length = 1 ½ minutes, up to 4 or 5 minutes.
- The work is due to MMF, 457 S. Church St. Winston-Salem, NC 27101 by October 31, 2017. The works will go to the review panel by Nov. 10 and final decisions will be made by Dec. 8. The goal will be to have music and parts printed by Feb. 28, 2018.
- The work (preferably) should be submitted in a Finale or Sibelius file; manuscripts will be accepted, and will be transcribed to digital format. Please submit manuscripts well before the due date. Thank you.
- The work may be through-composed, or a setting of a public domain hymn tune or public domain sacred song, or an arrangement of your own instrumental piece arranged for brass choir, or arrangement of public domain instrumental, and there may be other situations or opportunities, as well. Works in the MMF Archives may offer some ideas; please call to set up a time for researching.
- The work must accommodate all the instruments in the brass choir, including Eb, Bb, F instruments, to be considered for the Massed Brass.
- Alternatively, a smaller work, may be considered for smaller ensembles, playing on Saturday.
- The work must include all parts in concert pitch (Europeans), as well as appropriate transposed parts for Bb, Eb, F, and other transposing instruments (American).
- The work should offer some challenges for the first part (or first chair) players, while providing more straightforward writing for third (fourth) part players. This should be considered even with instruments that don’t have multiple parts, normally (euphonium, tuba); if a difficult (upper level) section is desired, provide a second part for those who would not feel comfortable. The goal of the Unity Brass Festival is to include everyone and encourage participation and maximize enjoyment.
- The European model for Brass Festivals divides players into four parts, SATB, for seating; and then the divided parts would be within that structure. There is also an acoustic division between “horns” (conical F horns, euphoniums) and the directional brass (trumpets, trombones), i.e., you might play a hymn with the second verse just on horns, or just horns on the repeat. So that is important to keep in mind.
- The work may include one or more solo parts (optional) or the opportunity for voices or congregational singing (optional).
Erik J Salzwedel
Moravian Music Foundation
336-725-0651
