New from CPH: Completely Reproducible Choir Music

http://www.cph.org/cphstore/product.asp?part_no=977348&promo=WEB&CMID=1187 Composer: Schalk, Carl Instrumentation: various: organ and instruments Occasion: Church Year Product Description: 41 reproducible choral anthems for various vocal forces are included in this collection, released in honor of Carl Schalk's 80th birthday. A data CD containing PDF files of all of the music is also included.

This just landed in my mail box, with the subject line Completely Reproducible Choral Music. That is fantastic! Frankly, the fixation of CGM on copyright protected materials, and the threats of lawsuits from religious publishers resulting from use of these materials, represent a stifling and costly burden on regular congregations -- you know, the congregations without the thousands of dollars a year to spend on "OneLicense.net," for millions of songs they will never use (or, should never use...), or without the desire to permanently maintain a usage database so that they can report to copyright holders and pay, pay, pay. Of course they need to be mega-churches! How can simple congregations otherwise make use of broadcast technology, like the internet, without the resources of a mega-church?

Church isn't supposed to be a get-rich scheme, but religious publishers sure seem to create this opportunity, not only with the imposition of onerous copyright restrictions to extract revenue from congregations, partly for themselves and partly to provide residual income for composers-and-performers-for-hire, but also by creating markets for necessary copyright management software and services, to directly assist congregations in tracking usage and managing compliance issues, and in this way also by providing an avenue of directly marketing "contemporary worship" materials to congregations that would be otherwise inaccessible. The "Contemporary Worship" scene is a real racket, and CGM proponents are pushing it. I wonder if one could trace the financial stake of individuals and organizations pushing CGM to see who profits by it, and in what way? That would make for some interesting financial sleuthing -- you know, who owns, or owned, interest in what CGM services organizations when, how various financial connections may have been coincident with various CGM fads, and what financial benefit was derived. Hey, there might even be a book in it!

Lutherans in America really need more Public Domain worship materials. The publication of this collection is a wonderful step in the right direction, and provides an excellent example to other publishers. Thank you, Carl Schalk and CPH. Now, can hymnal publishers please work on opening up copyright restrictions (performance, archival, rebroadcast, etc.) on music in Hymnals, too -- for congregations that use the hymnals in the way that they were intended to be used, i.e., in the context of the Divine Service? I know, I know -- that would probably mean eliminating a lot of the new "Lutheranized" contemporary worship songs from new Hymnals that are composed by ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC artists, but it would go a long way toward altering today's repugnant reality: the Divine Service is functioning as someone's marketplace. Artists who serve the church ought to be working under her direct commission anyway, IMHO (i.e., specific artistic needs identified by the church, and specific artists with specific qualifications being chosen by the church to fill those artistic needs under the church's supervision...). It would also strike a blow for Christian Freedom, would it not? After all, there is freedom in the Public Domain... Until then, I think that the TLH is a wonderful, mostly Public Domain, alternative to the new hymnals.