Swirling together

All morning, I have been diving through websites, listening to music, making notes, ordering perusal copies........I feel like the surface has been skimmed. Barely. There is SO MUCH MORE to listen to, but it is all starting to run together.

I have dived through the following websites
www.earthsongschoralmusic.com
www.alliancemusic.com
www.waltonmusic.com
www.carlfischer.com
www.jwpepper.com
I have not even ventured into Santa Barbara & Colla Voce yet. Or National Music Publishers. There are so many choral music publishers, I can't keep up. And now, most of them are subsidiaries of bigger corporations. It's just money.

Perusal Frustration - music publishers need to spend a little more time, money, & effort on websites. They have NO IDEA how difficult their websites are to navigate, let alone listen or view music. Why would I only want to listen to a excerpt of the music? Why would I want to only listen to the music and not see the copy? Listening to music reveals very little about range, tessitura, and key signature. So, I end ordering about $100 worth of perusal music (single copy octavos) from a variety of websites just to see the printed copy that they won't reveal online. I'll be honest and say that Carl Fischer is winning this game hands down. Although I care nothing about practice recordings, Carl Fischer/BriLee allows me to view and listen to the full piece of music. Somehow, they have managed to secure their property so that you can't print or download the files from the website. The website is easy to navigate. I don't say all of this because I know Rae or Denise, who are associated with the company. I say this because the company is providing a valuable resource to me, the consumer. I wish more music publishers would figure out how to solve this problem.

Somewhere in the midst of this perusing, I need to clean my office, reorganize my choral library, and choose music for the other choirs. Oh, yeh......them. It's only the 2nd week of June and I feel like time is running away from me.