Essays
e relationship between ACA and The American Composers Alliance music SCPA is a unique one, encompassing the catalog and archives: A collaborative effort normal functions of a music publisher as well as a music archive. For a number between ACA, BMI, and the University of of years SCPA has acted as custodian for ACA scores and parts. Maryland SCPA makes ACA scores available ac cording to normal library policy, but it By Gina Genova also makes them available to ACA for In the first ACA Bulletin published in lection of scores and parts in collaboration digital scanning. 1938, the “Aims of the Alliance” were with the University of Maryland’s Special At ACA, we wish to preserve the ma stated as: “To encourage the inclusion of Collections in Performing Arts (SCPA). terials entrusted to us as part of our his American works in concerts.” In 2010, after an inventory of all scores tory for tomorrow’s generations. We e approach to fostering performan was completed, we turned our atten could not have moved forward in this ces of these American works over time has tion to processing the archival historical mission without the support of SCPA been to leverage ACA’s ability to provide files—the official records of ACA. is and the University of Maryland Libraries. access to its scores through publishing and ongoing project is now online at http:// When I first began working at ACA in distribution services. hdl.handle.net/1903.1/30672 the beginning of 2008, I knew about its Access to scores and performance mate e official papers of ACA include all historic publishing catalog, but I didn’t rials is fundamental. Musicians need per related materials that were produced in know what had happened to it. I learned formance materials quickly, and they need establishing, building, and running the that in early 2000, due to budget cuts, them in formats that are clean, ready to organization from the 1930s through the all of the scores had been moved from use, and economically priced. 1990s. ACA’s longtime New York offices to e American Composers Alliance Special Collections in Performing Arts at (ACA) was formed in 1937 by Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Marc Blitzstein, Colin McPhee, Douglas Moore, Marion Bauer, and others, and began collecting scores of its member composers in the early 1940s. e original mission was to make the music available to orchestras and per formers, and to be sure that composers were compensated fairly and credited for performances of their work Over the years, the collection has grown to more than 12,000 pieces, the earliest from 1905, and for every year thereafter to the present. ACA accepted music from composers under represented in the mainstream at that time. ACA also welcomed, and still does, un usual, and smaller or lesser known works by well known composers that were not considered lucrative enough for commer cial publication by other publishers. Since 2000, ACA has managed its col
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magazine NMC_Draft 4_Spring16.indd 24 8/16/16 9:13 AM Essays Music from the earliest days: Weigl–Five Songs from Phantasus (1905) and more current, Louis Karchin– Barcarole Variations (2015) build greater respect for the collection. ***** e birth of ACA marked a turbulent period in U.S. music history. e late 1930s to the early 40s is fascinating ly well documented in the letters of the ACA founders, the manuscripts of which are now at SCPA. ere is a great American story about business and creative enterprise waiting to be told about ACA and its history. Untapped primary sources of all kinds
the University of Maryland (SCPA). When I first arrived at the tiny ACA of My predecessors at ACA had made fice at 648 Broadway, I found a daunting the remarkable decision to partner with stack of unprocessed purchase orders that a library. ey transported ten thousand had been coming in— requests for scores, scores from New York to Maryland in var parts, and mechanical licenses from mu ious formats: single side printing masters sicians, record companies, stores and – the ozalid onionskins, copies, a collec re sellers around the world. tion of printed and bound scores for pe I imagined that if ACA had a better way rusal, super oversized scores, operas, reel to make the scores more widely available to reel tapes and many sets of printed and and to properly represent the rights it still bound “rental” orchestra parts. held, more people would discover and use Initially I discovered two incredible as the collection. We began by updating the sets to build on. ACA still held publish website and working together with SCPA ing rights for most of the scores through staff to create an inventory that listed ev its affiliation with Broadcast Music Inc. erything that had been shipped to Mary (BMI), and the physical scores and parts land. were still owned by ACA under an expired ACA needed access to the score and library deposit agreement. parts printing masters at SCPA, to scan Because the score collection had been and provide copies on demand for per sitting mostly unused in Maryland be formers, and to establish a digital distribu tween 2000 and 2008, my first goal was tion collection of scores for the future. It to create interest that would draw more also needed an expandable database where people to it – and encourage not only large amounts of information could be further study of this repertoire, but also stored, edited, and retrieved by ACA and performances and recordings. library staff. I wanted to convey to the university Creating an online listing and offering and SCPA the value of the collection that newly printed and digital editions made they had inherited, but in my role as ACA from the score masters seemed to me the Director, I also wanted to provide more best way to make direct connections with benefit – promotion and publicity – for performers and knowledgeable research lie within the official papers, correspon the American composers it represented. ers, to encourage performances, and to dence, archives and scores.
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magazine NMC_Draft 4_Spring16.indd 25 8/16/16 9:13 AM Essays BMI initially started its classical music di vision. With periodic renegotiations, this relationship between American Compos ers Alliance and BMI remains, more or less, in force today. From its inception, ACA seems to have
e original, lofty goal of Aaron Cop Since the early 1940’s ACA composers land was to establish the right for all com had been trying to join ASCAP, without posers to receive income when their music success. was performed. At the time these letters (pictured on Initially, ACA gave its attention to previous page) were written, ACA Direc American composers not otherwise pro tor Harrison Kerr was still hopeful that tected by the older performing rights soci ACA composers might be accepted under ety, ASCAP. In essence, ACA began as an the ASCAP umbrella. Up to this time, alternative rights society, but it would re ASCAP had offered its membership only quest and collect licensing fees from pre to a select few ACA composers, includ senters of concert music by living com ing Aaron Copland, Douglas Moore, and posers. is had never been done before. Marc Blitzstein. In 1940, ASCAP was collecting as ASCAP had said “maybe” to the idea much as four million dollars a year in rev of taking all ACA composers and kept enue for its songwriters and composers, ACA leaders on the hook for several years. but this was from radio station broadcast When the deal fell through decisively and had a bit of an identity crisis. I believe we ing fees (New York Times, Dec. 15, 1940; there was no chance for all ACA members are still very much working to clarify the T. R. Kennedy “Radio Revamping Old to join into ASCAP as a group, Copland image of what ACA is and does. ere Favorites”). Now, presenters would have was justifiably concerned, and letters were multiple, simultaneous missions to pay for the right to perform music in in the ACA collection at SCPA contain over the years. a symphony hall if the music was not in much information on thee the public domain. is was a hard sell in complexity of the issue of duall some circles (and still is). memberships in ACA and AS After much litigation and a stormy CAP. period of time, the radio broadcasters It was not until 1944 thatat organized themselves and set up BMI to Harrison Kerr established the license radio rights to their own catalog. agreement between ACA andd e problem was, they didn’t have one. BMI in which the broadcast ey had to build it from scratch. ey ers would collect performance began by buying broadcasting rights to royalties for concerts in ad music that was not registered to ASCAP, dition to the radio broadcastt which soon brought BMI together with rights for the music in thee ACA composers for like minded reasons. ACA catalog. is is howw
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In the 1940s and 50s, Aaron Copland to an individual or organization for their Oliver Daniel also revived the publica and other ACA composers worked with “distinguished service in fostering Ameri tion ACA Bulletin (see cover images on the US Information Agency and traveled can music.” (on bottom of previous page, next page) through the 1950s and 60s. to other countries in support of American 1969, from Within the ACA archives at SCPA, you music concerts and promoting American left ACA will find not only thousands of music culture. President score masters, but also files with text per In the 1950s, ACA leaders established JohnJo Les missions for lyrics, composers’ writings , a live concert series presented at the Mu and various photos of events, seum of Modern Art, curated by Leop correspondence and business of old Stokowski and broadcast on WNYC the founders and members of (see photo bottom right, from left: tenor ACA over the years. William Hess with ACA members Peggy What was an appropri Glanville Hicks, Jacob Avshalomov, and ately flexible rights agreement Henry Brant). In addition, the record between composer and pub company CRI was founded by ACA —as Text lisher in the middle 20th century has well as the American Composers Orches permission again become viable. letter from Langston Hughes for com tra in the 1970s. Each of these branched poser Hale Smith; Telegram from Deems In recent years, music publishers Taylor to Aaron Copland at the start of in the U.S. have been closing and/or ACA activities in 1938. reducing staff and services, or they’ve been absorbed by larger companies who pick sard, with award recipients Charles Wuo and choose the works they will continue rinen and Harvey Sollberger, on behalf of to support, especially for contempo the Group for Contemporary Music). rary music. Titles easily go out of print. Sharin g the award in 1959 were chore e task of disseminating and archiving ographer Martha Graham and comedian composers’ music has become ever more Jack Benny. (Photo middle of important. previous page, 1959, Martha Gra ham with ACA com poser Robert Ward) Jack Benny (top of pre vious page) was honored Lou Harrison’s Prospectus for by ACA for Musicians (1957) p.1, and a letter his fundraising from ACA member Henry Cowell, requesting a transfer of rights for three of his ACA works efforts for American orches over to Associated Music Publishers. tras through performing his comedy sketches and playing off and became separate successful enti the violin. He is pictured with ties. his piano accompanist Rich Oliver Daniel, an important and col ard Nixon (at left) who was orful character in music publishing, in Vice President of the United 1951, inaugurated for ACA the presti States at that time, and ACA gious Laurel Leaf Award. President Ben Weber (right) It was given by the ACA Board of Gov presenting him with the Laurel Leaf ernors in a ceremony almost every year award.
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magazine NMC_Draft 4_Spring16.indd 28 8/16/16 9:13 AM Essays . . .
What is ACA’s mission today? Is it a publisher? Yes, but composers do not assign their copyright – they merely grant certain ex clusive and nonexclusive rights to ACA for a period of time that can be forever, or they can revoke. Is it a licensing organization? Yes, but composers can, if they want, license their own recordings and dramatic perfor mances. Is it an arts organization? Not really. Image above: Tuba Tuba (1973) by Burr Van Nostrand – example of a composer whose work It’s an incorporated business that controls has enjoyed a substantial renaissance since 2012, largely due to the efforts between SCPA, legal limited rights of many individual New England Conservatory Library, and ACA, with his ACA scores now listed online and print on request services available to performers. works and has a fiduciary responsibility to its composers. vices for composers who have no leave ACA if they were signed to A nonprofit since 2009, ACA is not interest or skills to get their mu a commercial publisher, or if any owned by any one person or its Board of sic into mainstream markets. of their particular works were Governors– it’s owned collectively by its See excerpt below, from “Building Mu chosen for more mainstream members and any surplus of income needs sic Scores Collections in the World of publication by larger companies. to be recycled back into its programs and Web Based, Self Publishing Composers”, Examples of composers who joined mission. a paper by Kent Underwood (NYU) pre ACA and then moved on to bigger pub ACA’s 75 th anniversary in 2012 was sented at IAML Congress 2015: lishers include John Cage in the late celebrated with a concert at Symphony “Regardless of a composer’s rea 1940s, Henry Cowell and Elliott Carter Space, featuring the League of Composers sons for conducting [his or] her in the 50s. Leslie Bassett, Charles Wuo Orchestra. career outside the traditional chan rinen and Joan Tower in the late 60s. Will the ACA Archives at SCPA be the nels of commercial publishing and ese composers moved on from ACA, last stop for the music collection? distribution, the routines that librar but each left many early works to con How can a group like ACA stay relevant ies typically follow to identify and tinue being published and distributed by into the future? purchase new scores are clearly not ACA. Two thoughts: well connected to self publishing Other composers joined ACA perma 1. Even with social media and web individuals. e result is that a siz nently and established a custodial agree sites, there is still a huge body able quantity of significant contem ment for the continued distribution of of American composers’ work porary music is falling through the and access to their music after their death that isn’t likely to be found in cracks. And those cracks seem to be – Miriam Gideon, Ben Weber, Otto Lu music stores, libraries, stream widening. e danger, long term, is ening, Karl Weigl, Robert Helps, and ing or for sale online, or heard that libraries will miss the opportu nearly 100 others have many scores with in performances and recordings, nity to preserve and document the ACA, earning performance royalties for if representative advocates do musical culture of our time faithful the organization until it closes, or until not take responsibility and care ly for posterity.” the works are in the public domain. ACA for it. ACA provides publish 2. e original plan of ACA as a continues to print on request some of the ing services and score access for flexible rights organization that earliest works in the catalog that are likely composers who want more than handles some aspects of publish no longer in copyright. self publishing, but also to retain ing and shares other rights and e current business model of licensing a level of ownership and control chores with its composers seems – allocating bits and pieces of your copy over their music; as well as ser win win for both sides. is was right to different companies for specific set up so that composers could purposes is the foundation of how the
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music business benefits songwriters and welcomed more than 30 new or returning tal preservation program so that scores can composers. ACA, in licensing, but not member composers, expanding the collec remain widely available beyond our own own ing copyrights, has been ahead of oth tion considerably in the past 5 years. lives. er concert music publishers in this respect. In addition to establishing the status of ( is essay is an edited version of a paper presented at I see the potential of ACA as a valuable the physical ownership of all of the materi e International Association of Music Libraries and resource, a necessary extension of tradition als, ACA is currently working with SCPA Documentation Centres (IAML) and the International Musicological Society (IMS), June 2015). al publishing. Even though the composers on an agreement to make available a collec Correspondence of Aaron Copland used by permission may be prolific, writing in multiple genres, tion of more than 4,000 digital scores and of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. the requests coming in are for specific piec parts to students around the world. Our es, often ‘one off’ copies. Publishers with a PDF collection continues to grow by the ‘for profit’ structure have a difficult time day – as we scan more of the older score managing small requests on the one hand, masters at SCPA and also receive deposits and libraries don’t want to do the work of of new works from current composers in publishers, on the other. ACA can provide born digital format. these services with the support it receives In developing a process of electronic ac from BMI, from fundraising, and through cess to ACA scores, SCPA and ACA both licensing and selling music, if it is managed have acknowledged that the needs and in carefully. terests of an archive are not always congru e structure of ACA is a great oppor ent with the needs and interests of a pub tunity for music business students, archi lisher or performance library. vists, and music librarians in training. In We intend to continue our collaboration our “connected age” , composer members with SCPA, working together so that these around the country are helping to manage scores by American composers will remain aspects of their ACA collective together. available in a shared database with access What does the future hold? to materials for researchers and also per Managing more and more members re formers. quires an administrative infrastructure that We keep moving forward with our digi siphons funding away from creative proj ects. is is an ongoing problem for many smaller nonprofits. Celebrating 80 years of service is is where SCPA has been so valuable. ACA could not have shouldered the costs on its own for the storage of score masters Music in quality print and the professional care they have re and digital download. ceived for the past 15 years. e support from SCPA and BMI has absolutely saved ACA—it’s that simple. Mention this ad for 15% ACA is now fully functioning to distribute works from its vast music catalog on re discount on music by quest to individual performers and ensem bles, and also to specialty re sellers such Leslie Bassett, Robert Ceely, as eodore Front Musical Literature and John Eaton, Brian Fennelly, Harrassowitz Booksellers, among others. ACA score sales have increased exponen Miriam Gideon, William Hibbard, tially as have performance royalties earned Hall Overton, and Vally Weigl from our catalog at BMI since 2009, but also important to note is that making the collection more visible has resurrected works otherwise forgotten. ACA has also www.composers.com
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