Editing

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

For those of you who are publishing music, I am curious how far you go in playing pieces before publishing. Do you perform them, or is it enough to be able to read through it and feel that it works? Do you write in lever changes or leave it up to the individual (as there are different lever systems)? Do you read each other’s pieces for editorial review? I would like your thoughts on this.

[cynthy-johnson]

1. I always perform my own compositions or arrangements prior to publishing

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I have playback also, but it can be misleading. I definitely play works on the harp, but my abilities may not be the same as those who are buying, that is another consideration.

[carl-swanson]

Not only do you have to perform the music you want to publish. But you also have to be sure that what is written down is what you are actually doing. Often I edit a piece of music at the beginning of the learning process, and then, as I’m learning it, make changes here and there and don’t bother to write down the changes. I’m much more careful about that now. But for years when I’d go back to a piece I had played years before, I had to figure out what I had actually done, since what was written (pedal changes, fingerings) did not always match the final product.

[cynthy-johnson]

Yes, playback can be very misleading!

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

I always perform my pieces before publishing, to make sure that they are indeed playable and also to see how the audience responds. Then I usually sit on the piece a while longer in case I want to tweak it some more.

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