New PML Revision Committee Takes Shape
By Richard Floyd, director of music | Thursday, August 26, 2010 8:42 PM
In January of 2010 I wrote about a vision to modify the process that we use to review and amend the Prescribed Music List. It started out like this.
The long standing procedure for revising the Prescribed Music List has consisted of appointing a committee of five to seven people in band, choir and orchestra, who have four years to study the PML, consider additions and deletions and make recommendations that are incorporated into the list for the next four years. Then the cycle begins anew. This process has remained basically unchanged since at least the 1960s when I served on the PML Revision Committee.
Yet, over the past decade technology has dramatically changed virtually every aspect of how we deal with print music and audio recordings. And, at the same time everything I hear and read suggests that there are many more changes to come. In addition, our Prescribed Music List is now maintained in an electronic database online so there is no need to wait four years to complete a revision in order to print a new book. We can amend the list immediately with just a few keystrokes.
The combination of these two realities led me to believe it was time for us to step back and take an careful look at the process. We need to move towards a system that would allow us to take advantage of current and emerging technology while creating a system that provides for annual additions to the list and a system by which any individual can submit a work to be considered by the committees. The charge to develop such a system was debated at length during an all day meeting of the existing band, choir and orchestra committees in January. Ideas and recommendations formulated that day have now been refined and a totally new system is in place.
The new system consists of the following fundamental components:
(1) A committee of seven has been appointed in all three areas of band, choir and orchestra. Once the system is totally in place committee members will serve a three-year appointment. The chair will be selected from one of the two senior members just completing their three-year term. This person will then serve for a fourth year. This structure will give the committees a high degree of continuity while bringing two “new faces” to the table each year.
The inaugural committees have been appointed, and they had their first meeting on Aug. 14. A roster of committee members appears on the UIL Music webpage. The “first edition” of the committee includes three members from the previous committee plus four new members who will serve two and three year terms respectively. The sequence of the committee membership will then be established.
(2) Publishers will no long submit printed music and CD recordings of works they wish the committee to consider. Instead a portal has been established on the UIL music page where publishers can submit a pdf of the score and a link to an available recording. If no such recording is available the option exists to attach an mp3 to the submission.
In multiple conversations with leaders in the print music industry, I have been assured that the vast majority of publishers will embrace this new procedure and will welcome the convenience of submitting electronically.
(3) Each submission will then be retained in a format that will allow members of the PML committees to access the submissions through a password-protected Web portal. They can pursue the scores, print them if they wish and listen to the available recordings. Each submitted work will have its own unique page that will include a dialogue box for committee member comments and a voting option that allows a committee member to recommend adding the piece to the list, reject the work or recommend that the decision be tabled until the committee as a whole can discuss the piece.
Thus, it is now possible for publishers to submit new issues each year and for the committee to conveniently review submissions annually. Each summer, works can be added to the PML and then will be available for performance the following school year.
In addition, the submission portal referenced above will also be available to band, choir and orchestra directors. Anyone wishing to recommend a piece of music to the committee can do so by means of the same procedures used by publishers.
Will the new system unfold problem free? It’s unlikely. We are in uncharted waters and developing a system that is totally new in concept. While talking about this reality with Paul Lavender at Hal Leonard Music he said his mother always said that in order to bake a cake you had to break a few eggs. As we move forward with this process we will probably “break a few eggs” but it is my belief that the “cake” is going to be delicious.