COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig

COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig

 

Welcome back to the Composition Spotlight.   Each week we look at a piece or 

two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on 

ChoralNet.  This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will 

love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.

 

Conductors, the Composition Showcase is an unique service we have created 

for you.  Members of the Composers of Choral music Community on ChoralNet 

are allowed to share only their three best works in any one voicing.   The more 

traditional sources of new repertoire like sampler packs, workshops or huge 

websites, don’t provide you with such a well honed tool to cut through the 

thousands of pieces you look at each year.  

 

By self-selecting only the best, we give you a window into each composer’s work.  If you like what you find you can 

click a link to that composer’s website for a more comprehensive look. 

Composers, join us! There are many benefits beyond the opportunity to 

display your works on ChoralNet!  Our community is more active than all other 

ChoralNet communities combined.  We regularly share ideas on marketing, 

contests, software use, the commission process, publishing and much more.  We 

are a community of professional friends.  We share our successes and support 

each other.  Many collaborations and commissions have come through our 

community and many composers have received performances of their works 

because of the relationships forged in our forum.  Critique, mentoring and 

opinions are available for the asking.  Check out the Community Home page 

for terms and conditions, goals etc.

 

This week a tutorial on how to use the Composition Showcase is in 

order.   The easiest way to get there is to click on the blue text link in this 

article but there are other easy paths.   Simply add /showcase after the 

www.choralnet.org  web address in your browser and hit return or enter.  You 

can also choose the lilac colored “Communities” tab at the top of most ChoralNet 

windows.  Then click on Composers of Choral Music.    Join the community by 

clicking on the Forum tab and then the “Join this community” button.   You can 

leave the community at anytime.

 

Once at the Composition Showcase you can navigate by clicking on the links 

to the voicing pages, composer  INDEX, SEASONAL works and the FEED (see 

below).  The FEED is particularly useful if you have already spent a lot of time 

browsing and just want to check back and see what is new.   Try it out.

SATB  SAB  SSAA  SSA  SA  TTBB  UNISON  INDEX  SEASONAL  FEED

Once you arrive on a voicing page you can search for works by scrolling or by 

clicking “command f” on a Mac or “control f” on a PC.   Be sure to click on the 

Virtual or Choir recordings of the works and view the PDFs provided.  

 

Depending on your browser settings, the PDF will either immediately download when 

clicked or open in your browser.  Please be respectful of copyright.  Contact the 

composer by clicking on their name in the work’s description.  Cost is frequently 

well below what you will pay from a music distributer and you don’t have to deal 

with the problems of Scorch or other proprietary e-print software.

If you like the works that have been featured in these articles you can click 

on the Silver Platter Award Recipients for links to all of the works and the 

Composition Spotlight articles.  We have also added a new page to display

recordings of members’ works and their choir performances.  That can be found 

on the Member Recordings page.

 

Feel free to scroll through the list of our community members and contact them 

with questions about their works or to discuss commissioning new works.   

Contact me by commenting below or send me a message on ChoralNet.

We hope you enjoy the works we offer to you on this our Silver Platter!