ENGRAVING SERVICES
CREDENTIALS AND EXPLANATION OF SERVICES
Over the course of my career, I have been an engraver for NEUMA Records and Publications, was the lead graphical artist for the theory textbook Contemporary Musicianship: Analysis and the Artist (written by Jennifer Snodgrass, published by Oxford University Press), and have completed many notation projects for various independent professionals. As such, I am equally comfortable with both 21st century and traditional notational practices, and will strive to produce professional and clean scores on any project for which I work.
This service includes, but is not limited to: Engraving written manuscripts into computer generated scores, creating music charts/diagrams for use in papers/websites/video/etc., copying excerpts from larger works, creating conductor's scores or vocal scores, creating score reductions, creating worksheets/tests for educational purposes, cleaning up/formatting already existing notation files, etc.
NOTE: If the pieces in the proposed project are currently under copyright by a publisher or an individual (i.e. the piece or pieces are not currently in the public domain), the client must supply written proof that the publisher or individual has allowed the reproduction or alteration of the published work before the start of a project.
If there are any questions about this service, please feel free to email me anytime at the address listed below (under "Contact Guidelines")
CONTACT GUIDELINES
To request a quote for engraving/copying services, please fill out the form on the Contact and Links page, or send an email to bradleygreencomposer@gmail.com. Please include in the email:
1) A detailed description of the project.
2) Any score excerpts/examples relevant to the project. If filling out the form on the "Contact and Links" page, please include a link to a Dropbox Folder/Google Drive Folder/etc that contains the files.
3) A deadline for the completed project (if there is not a hard deadline, please give an estimation of when the project needs to be completed). Projects that need to be completed quickly may be subject to a higher hourly rate than listed below.
PRICING*
The standard hourly rate for engraving/copying work is $40 per hour.
When a project description is submitted to me via email, I will look over the description and estimate the amount of time I believe it will take to complete the project. As soon as I am able, I will respond with a quote based on my hourly estimation (though I may respond with follow-up questions prior to giving a quote). Some things that can increase the amount of estimated hours the project will take to complete include the length of the piece(s) to be engraved, the density of the score, the complexity of the notation, and the number of instruments.
The quoted price is the maximum amount that the project will cost to complete, and if the project takes less time than estimated, the final cost will reflect the change in hours. However, though it is possible that the final cost may be less than quoted, please expect to pay the full quoted price since it is rare that projects take less time than quoted. Also, with exception to a change in project parameters, the quoted price will not be higher than what is initially quoted if it takes longer than estimated.**
Half of the quoted price will be due at the start of the project via PayPal or check, and the other half will be due when the project is completed (if the project takes less time than estimated, the change will be reflected in the cost of the second payment).
NOTATION SOFTWARE USED
The main two notation software programs that I use are Finale and Sibelius.
If there is a preference for which program is used in the project, please include that information in our initial discussions. If the project requires the editing of existing Finale or Sibelius files, please also include the program version in which each file was created (i.e. Sibelius 7, Sibelius 6, Finale 2014, Finale 2012, etc.).
*If you are considering contacting me about a potential project, please read through the entire pricing explanation. If there are any questions about the pricing, please include the questions in the initial email.
**There is not a fool-proof way to give an exact quote prior to the start of a project that will be fair to both the client and the engraver, which is why I have opted to employ a system that includes some amount of flexibility. Some engravers have a price-per-page model, while some employ complex systems that consider the number of measures multiplied by the number of instruments; but I have found that the best system is to use my experience to tell the client how long I believe a project will take. The aforementioned systems do not take into account the fact that different types of scores take different amounts of time to copy. For instance, pages of Bach tend to take longer than pages of Mozart or Haydn, both of which take much less time than a page of most 20th and 21st century composers; and creating a diagram or graphic may take much longer than copying a single page of a score. Put simply, there are too many variables for there to be a set, unwavering system in place.