Composition Readings

Reading Schedules 2008-2009

Please note that all of the deadlines will be strictly adhered to. All scores and parts must be received on time, in final form, or the piece will not receive a reading. Scores, in final form, must be approved by the composition faculty (Composition Faculty Score Deadline)before they can be submitted for a reading. All scores approved for a reading will be collected at the composition department seminar and delivered to the Ensemble Office by the Composition TA. Parts must be delivered directly to the Ensemble Office by the deadline specified.

 

Please make sure that all scores and parts conform to the guidelines which have been handed out. If you haven’t received a set of guidelines, please either see the Compostion TA or come by the Ensemble Office, and we will be glad to give you a copy. dowload the PDF version / online version

 

Ensemble Office Score Deadline is for Composition TA and Faculty only.

 

If you have any questions at all regarding deadlines, requirements, or any other aspect of these readings, please feel free to come see me in the Ensemble Office. I can also be reached by e-mail at pfaatz1@peabody.jhu.edu or by phone at 410-659-8100, ext. 1220.

Peabody Symphony Orchestra Composition Reading #1	Date
Composition Faculty Score Deadline:	Thursday, 10/16/08, following seminar
Ensemble Office Score Deadline:	Thursday, 10/23/08, following seminar
Parts Deadline:	Wednesday, 11/19/08, by 12:00 noon in the Ensemble Office
Reading:	Friday, 12/5/08 from 2:30-4:30 PM in the Concert Hall

Peabody Symphony Orchestra Composition Reading #2	Date
Composition Faculty Score Deadline:	Thursday, 1/15/09, following seminar
Ensemble Office Score Deadline:	Thursday, 1/22/09, following seminar
Parts Deadline:	Wednesday, 2/11/09, by 12:00 noon in the Ensemble Office
Reading:	Wednesday, 2/25/09, from 2:30-4:30 PM in the Concert Hall

Peabody Symphony Orchestra Composition Reading #3	Date
Composition Faculty Score Deadline:	Thursday, 2/12/09, following seminar
Ensemble Office Score Deadline:	Thursday, 2/19/09, following seminar
Parts Deadline:	Wednesday, 3/11/09, by 12:00 noon in the Ensemble Office
Reading:	Monday, 3/30/09, from 2:30-4:30 PM in the Concert Hall

Peabody Wind Ensemble Composition Reading	Date
Composition Faculty Score Deadline:	Thursday, 11/20/08, following seminar
Ensemble Office Score Deadline:	Thursday, 12/4/08, following seminar
Parts Deadline:	Monday, 1/12/09, by 12:00 noon in the Ensemble Office
Reading:	Tuesday, 1/27/09, from 3:30-5:30 PM in East Hall

Peabody Singers Composition Reading	Date
Composition Faculty Score Deadline:	Thursday, 1/29/09, following seminar
Ensemble Office Score Deadline:	Thursday, 2/5/09, following seminar
Parts Deadline:	Wednesday, 2/25/09, by 12:00 noon in the Ensemble Office
Rehearsal #1:	Wednesday, 3/25/09, from 2:30-4:00 PM in Griswold Hall
Rehearsal #2:	Monday, 3/30/09, from 2:30-4:00 PM in Griswold Hall
Reading:	Wednesday, 4/1/09, from 2:30-4:00 in Griswold Hall

Guideline for Large Ensemble Composition Readings 2008-2009

REQUIREMENTS: All scores and parts submitted must adhere to the following guidelines. Any scores or parts which fail to meet these guidelines will be returned to the composer for correction. If there is not sufficient time to make the necessary corrections, the piece will not receive a reading.

1)Duration:
All works must be of 10 minutes or less in duration. Movements of longer works can be read provided they are not longer than 10 minutes.

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2) Instrumentation:
Only works which can be performed by the current membership of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra will be read.

Following is the maximum instrumentation allowed:

4flutes (1 may play piccolo; 1 may play alto flute)
3 oboes (1 may play English horn)
4 clarinets (1 may play e-flat clarinet; 1 may play bass clarinet)
3 bassoons (1 may play contrabassoon)
4 horns
4 trumpets
3 tenor trombones
1 bass trombone
1 tuba
2 harps
1 keyboard (piano and/or celeste, but only one player)
1 timpani
6 percussion
strings - violin 1, violin 2, viola, cello, bass

If your piece calls for a vocal or instrumental soloist, it is YOUR responsibility to procure the soloist, do all advance preparatory work with the soloist, and let the Ensemble Office and Maestro Murai know far in advance precisely who that soloist is.

3) Score:

a) Two copies of the score will need to be submitted at the time of the deadline.

b) Before the first page of music, each score must include a separate instrumentation sheet which lists every instrument called for in the score, as well as the duration of the work.

c) The score must be double-sided, bound, completely legible, and the music must be large enough for the conductor to read. 10” x 13” is the smallest acceptable size, and somewhere between 11" x 14" and 11" x 17" is generally best. Scores must not be printed on 8 ½” x 11" paper. Any score which is not legible or large enough will be returned to the composer for reformatting.

d) Make sure to indicate in the upper left hand corner of the first page whether the score is transposed or in concert pitch.

e) All scores submitted should be in final form, not works in progress. Errata discovered while formatting parts may be fixed (and if this happens, you will need to supply 2 copies of the revised score immediately upon completion), but no further work should be done on the composition itself.

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4) Parts:

a) A complete set of parts must be submitted to the Ensemble Office by no later than noon on the specified date. If your parts are not turned in on time, your piece will not receive a reading.

b) All parts, unless consisting of only one page, must be either taped together or bound.  Your name and the title of the work must appear on the first page.  Please do not use any presentation binding systems that do not allow parts to stay open!! Binding combs or spiral binding systems work best.

c) You must supply us with a complete set of parts.  This means a separate part
for every woodwind, brass, and percussion player, and a part for every stand of strings.  For this year, you should supply us with a total string count of 9/9/8/9/4.  You are required to provide a separate part for every single brass and woodwind player. Players are used to seeing just their own part; any time they have to spend figuring out which notes they’re supposed to play will take away from valuable rehearsal time. Do not submit parts which have more than one instrumental part on them (such as Clarinet 1 and 2, for instance), as any such parts will be rejected.

d) For woodwind and brass instruments which are available in a variety of keys, such as trumpets, horns, and clarinets, make sure that the transposition of the instrument is clearly indicated in the score and parts.

SUGGESTIONS: The following guidelines, while not requirements, are, for the most part, standard practice, and adhering to them will greatly improve the chances that you will get a good reading of your piece in the very limited time available.  Remember that each piece will receive, on average, about 40 minutes of the ensemble’s time, and any time which is wasted answering questions which result from unclear parts and the like will detract from the actual time spent rehearsing each piece.

1. All parts should be as legible and clear as possible; sloppy parts are not only difficult to read, but they also undermine the musicians’ confidence in the composer, which may affect their performance.  The parts must also be large enough for the players to read from.  The standard size of orchestral parts is 10" x 13".  Parts printed on 8 1/2" by 11" paper are only acceptable if the print is large enough to be easily read by the performers.  Your parts should make it absolutely clear to the players what is expected from them; if they have to ask questions, then your parts have not been properly prepared and precious rehearsal time will be wasted.  If you have any questions about how instrumental parts should be prepared or laid out, please feel free to stop by the Ensemble Office and we would be glad to offer advice or show you some typical parts.



2. Divisi string parts which are contrapuntal in nature or which involve double-, triple-, or quadruple-stops should be expanded to more than one staff to minimize confusion on the part of the players (but see also no. 11, below). 


3. It would be best if you do not use your orchestral reading as an opportunity to explore non-standard notational practices, microtonal writing, or extended instrumental techniques such as multiphonics.  If there is something unusual which you would like to try, please make sure that you consult with the conductor and/or the Ensemble Office before submitting your score.


4. Make sure that all fermatas are notated with rhythmic precision in all parts. If a certain instrument isn't playing in a measure where a fermata is located, don't just put a whole rest with a fermata over it. If the fermata happens to fall on, say, the "end of 2," it should be located on the "end of 2" every part. This make it much easier for the players to follow the conductor.

   MAKE SURE THAT THE SCORE AND ALL OF THE PARTS HAVE THE SAME REHEARSAL NUMBERS.  If you use a program such as Finale which can easily place measure numbers at the beginning of each line of music, that’s fine, but you should also use specific rehearsal numbers (or letters) at key points which will be consistent from part to part.  It’s very important that the rehearsal numbers be included in parts where the instruments have lengthy sections of rests.  You should never have parts where there will be extremely long multi-measure rests which are not broken up by rehearsal numbers. Rehearsal numbers should be enclosed in a box or circle.



5. Make sure that all fermatas are notated with rhythmic precision in all parts. If a certain instrument isn’t playing in a measure where a fermata is located, don’t just put a whole rest with a fermata over it. If the fermata happens to fall on, say, the “and of 2,” it should be located on the “and of 2" in every part. This makes it much easier for the players to follow the conductor.


6. Use great care in laying out your parts to ensure that every right-hand page ends with a period of rest so that the players have a place to turn the page. This may occasionally mean that you will put less than a full page of music on the right-hand page to facilitate the page turn. If a player will need to start playing again immediately upon turning the page, this should be indicated at the bottom of the preceding page with a V.S. (volti subito). On a related note, in sections of music which fall between repeat marks, it is best if your parts are laid out so that a player will not have to turn back a page to get to the start of a repeated section.


7. It is almost invariably better to format your parts in booklet rather than in accordion form. Parts which are laid out in accordion form are cumbersome, noisy, and much more likely to slide off the end of a music stand.


8. Make liberal use of “courtesy accidentals” at points where it may be unclear or confusing as to whether or not an accidental or natural from the preceding note or measure carries over. But don’t overdo it - overuse of courtesy accidentals can really clutter up the part and make it more difficult, not easier, to read. Remember, you should strive to make every facet of your piece as clear as possible to the musicians playing it.
   
   
9. It is extremely helpful, and is standard practice, to provide players with several measures of cued notes preceding entrances which follow lengthy sections of rest or sections which might be difficult to count. This will help them if they’ve lost count of how many measures of rest have elapsed, and they will also come in more confidently if they’re sure that they’re in the right place. Make sure to select prominently audible passages for your cued notes. Cued notes must always indicate by what instrument they are being played. Make sure that your cued notes are distinctly discernible from the real notes! Cued notes should generally be about 60% of the size of regular notes, with their stems going in the opposite direction from which is normal, and a floating whole rest should be included above every measure of cued notes.


10. When a player is resting for more than a measure or two, group the rests together into multi-measure rests. Players should never have to count long chains of single-measure rests. But again, remember to break the multi-measure rests up with frequent use of rehearsal numbers. Multimeasure rests must, of course, only include measures all in the same meter.



11. When writing for in the strings, do not split the string section into more than the standard 5 subdivisions, but rather expand the number of staves on the part as necessary to show all parts as a divisi. In other words, don't write parts for Cello I, Cello II, and Cello III, for instrance, but rather create a 3-way divisi in the one cello part.  It is helpful for the players to see what the rest of the people in their sections are playing, and having the entire divisi in each part allows the conductor to balance the various parts by reassigning individual players as necessary. This is also standard orchestral notation practice.



12. TAKE THE TIME TO PROOF YOUR PARTS !! If your parts are full of mistakes, a great deal of valuable rehearsal time will be wasted, and the musicians will be less inclined to give the piece their best efforts.
    
    
13. You are encouraged to come listen to rehearsals of the orchestras so that you may become familiar with the forces at your disposal, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses of the performers.



14. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to bring them to the Ensemble Office.  We will do whatever we can to help you !

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Guidelines for the Choral Composition Readings

A total of two piece will be read. Each should be 8 minutes or less in duration.

1. Please limit your writing to a standard SATB configuration.


2. Language must be either English, Latin, German or Italian.


3. Pieces can be either a cappella or with piano accompaniment. If your piece is a cappella, you MUST include a piano reduction in the choral score for rehearsal purposes.


4. If you wish, you may include organ in your piece; no other instruments should be utilized.


5. A total of 48 scores must be supplied by the date of the parts deadline.


6. All parts must be double-sided and either taped or bound in booklet form. Stapled parts are not acceptable.


7. Composers who are having their pieces read should plan to attend one or both of the working rehearsals as requested (we’ll get back to you on this) as well as the reading itself.
   

After the scores have been received by the Ensemble Office, the conductor will spend time with the scores and get back to each composer with any feedback regarding writing for the voice, notation, and other things which could be improved to get a better reading. Please hold off on mass-producing the scores until you have received this feedback.

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Wind Ensemble Composition Reading

Coming Soon

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