Music Submissions
The C. L. Barnhouse Co. welcomes and encourages music submissions from individuals of all backgrounds and beliefs, and is fully committed to ending discrimination against any individual on the basis of gender, gender identity, ethnicity, age, physical ability, level of education, background, faith, class, or any other factor.
How to submit music to C. L. Barnhouse Co. for publication consideration
PLEASE READ THIS PAGE CAREFULLY.
We accept unsolicited music submissions from composers who are seeking a publisher.
If you are a composer and would like to submit music to us for publication consideration, please review the following editorial policies and guidelines.
- We publish instrumental music intended primarily for the educational market. We are primarily interested in submissions for concert band and jazz ensembles. As such, we are most interested in works similar in style, content, difficulty, duration, and instrumentation to new publications currently being produced at the C. L. Barnhouse Co. If you are unfamiliar with our products, please acquaint yourself with them to help determine if your music might be of interest to us.
- Your instrumentation should conform to that of current Barnhouse publications, in one of our established series: “Concert Band” for high school and above, “Command” series for middle school/junior high band, “Sound Foundations” and “Rising Band” series, or jazz ensemble series and string orchestra. If you are unsure as to these established instrumentations, please review scores posted on our website.
- Difficulty levels for concert band series:
- “Concert Band” series submissions should be in the Grade 3 to Grade 4 area. While we do occasionally publish works harder than this, we are mostly interested in concert band works of “medium” to “medium-difficult” levels,
- “Command” series submissions should be in the Grade 2 to Grade 3 area.
- “Sound Foundations” and “Rising Band” series submissions should be in the Grade ½ to Grade 2 area.
- Keep in mind the difficulty level should be balanced throughout the instrumentation; that is, works with Grade 5 clarinet parts and Grade 2 brass parts are not publishable.
- Difficulty levels for jazz series:
- “Jazz Starters!” series is intended for first time jazz ensemble experience. “Very Easy” area Grade 1 ½.
- “Jazz Ensemble” series should be in the Grade 2 to Grade 3 area.
- “Jazz Festival” series should be Grade 3+
- Charts that sound great played with both full and/or limited instrumentation are of special interest.
- Duration of submissions must be reasonable to the grade level and programming uses of that piece. A seven-minute grade 2 piece or a 1 ½ minute grade 4 contest piece would eliminate most sales of those numbers; therefore, we would probably not be interested in them.
- Style of music should approximate works similar to our current new releases. We are not interested in atonal, experimental, or non-melodic/harmonic music. While works in less-traditional styles may have merit, it is usually not of interest to our customers. We are interested in publishing music that directors will find useful as teaching material, students will enjoy learning from and performing, and to which audiences will enjoy listening.
- We are NOT interested in arrangements of copyrighted works owned by others. Please do not send music of this nature to us.
Please understand that our decision to accept or decline a work for publication is based upon many factors, of which musical value is only one. Because the educational band marketplace is a very crowded one, with many publishing companies producing many new products each year; and because the number of potential customers is limited, the number of works that we accept for publication is restricted. In addition to musical value and content, and also potential usefulness to educators as teaching material, we can only publish works which we feel have the sales potential to recover and surpass our expenses of production and publication. If you submit music to us which we do not accept for publication, please understand that our decision is based upon all of these factors. There are many works that could be published; however, we must limit ourselves to those works with which we feel as though we might be successful.
If you have music that you feel might fit our needs, please send the following via the linked form below. If you are submitting more than one work for consideration you will need to fill out one form per title.
- A cover letter with your name, address, phone, and email address, also listing the title of the music you are submitting.
- Full score file, in Finale or Sibelius format and PDF of full score. Please do not send any parts.
- Recording. A “live” performance in MP3 format is preferable; synthesized renditions created from Finale or Sibelius are also acceptable.
By submitting a work for consideration you are indicating that it is not under review with another publisher and has not been previously published in whole or in part.
Do not submit materials via any other delivery method. “Hardcopy” materials sent by postal mail or other delivery services will not be considered, returned, or acknowledged.
IMPORTANT: We do not review submissions between January and August. Please be patient if you submit music, as we receive many submissions, and the review process is time-consuming. Be assured, however, that we do review all submissions received, and that we will eventually respond whether or not we are interested in publishing your music.
DO NOT SEND:
- Marching Band music
- Choral music
- Piano music
- Songs with lyrics intended for the commercial “pop” music market.
- Arrangements of any copyrighted works, for which you do not own the copyright. We cannot review unauthorized arrangements of copyrighted works.
Further questions about the submission process may be sent to [email protected].
Thank you for your interest in publishing with the C.L. Barnhouse Company.