[HANASHIR:10630] Re: Creating a songbook

[Marsha Fensin <mfsings...>]

I did a High Holiday songbook for our congregation last year and this year I am
in the middle of preparing the Shabbat component for it.  My songbook was the
simple melody line of the song as well as chords in a singable key for the
congregation.  I needed to get copyright permission from whichever organization
had published each piece.  That took the longest, besides inputting each song by
computer.  It took me about a year to do the High Holiday section.  I simply 
used
the music that my congregation uses and loves. It does contain universal
favorites like Richards' Rtsei, Steinberg's Shalom Rav, Friedman's Mi 
Shebeirach,
etc.  The composers and publishers were wonderful to work with, I might say.
Anyway, it was received wonderfully by the congregation and I'm happy that I did
it.
    I am in the process of getting in touch with Transcontinental or Soundswrite
to see if anyone would be interested in marketing  this format because I already
have so many congregational favorites in my computer, even choral pieces, which 
I
have reduced to the simple melody line. I can see this as a way for a
congregation to have custom made a songbook for their congregation.  My thoughts
were to make available to any congregation a master copy, which they then could
reproduce for their congregants.  Of course, if we are talking money, the
copyright stuff would work in a different way from what I did.  I did not charge
for these books and absorbed the cost of production through an anonymous gift to
the congregation.
    I would be interested in hearing from you as to whether you think a project
like this would fly, especially folks from Soundswrite and Transcontinental.(
Joel)  I've already heard interest from Jonathan Miller who owns Max Janowski's
copyrights.
Marsha Fensin

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