Ethos Publications Inc., publisher of specialty music and teaching materials for the single-reed instrument families, is greeting the 2017-18 academic year with a fully redesigned web site to better serve customers with fast, efficient, and secure direct sales of its editions of music for clarinet and saxophone. The academic market represents a substantial percentage of Ethos' sales every year, and the company's web site was upgraded preemptively prior to the fall semester in order to assure customers of a safe and positive Internet buying experience when purchasing from the Ethos on-line catalog using the web site's secure shopping cart.
Staying ahead of the fast-paced changes in e-commerce has been an ongoing challenge since ethospublications.com first went on-line ten years ago. Plans for an update began to take shape several months ago and shifted into high gear after a strong recommendation was received from another area business professional for a cutting-edge web-design vendor in central New York where Ethos Publications is based.
The vendor is QC Communications, a company advanced in e-commerce solutions for smaller "niche" companies, such as Ethos Publications, as well as catering to larger firms. Two of QC Communications' stated commitments were also priorities for Ethos Publications during the planning stages for the site upgrade—minimizing recurrence of web-site obsolescence and maximizing e-commerce security for both the company and its customers.
QC Communications principal John Grala notes, "By centralizing all of the tools, technologies, and techniques in one place, design limits are erased. Marketing, media, and search optimization are integrated. An authenticated always-on security blanket encapsulates each digital on-ramp to the superhighway we call the internet."
"Seamless e-commerce provides the keys to unlock the digital economy. Unique specialty brands of any type can emerge from all corners of the internet without having to worry about their masterpiece working on the the next device, screen size, or simply being trusted."
"The greatest pleasure always comes from serving Digital Deli B4B customers who handcraft their works with pride, intellect and unwavering precision and dedication—like Ethos Publications. Our job is merely making sure their vision renders on a world-class stage that enriches our world with the fruits of their labor."
Well–known American composer Walter S. Hartley died at the age of 89 June 30, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina where he and his wife Sandra had moved in 2004 a few years after his retirement as Professor of Music at the State University of New York at Fredonia, where he taught from 1969 until 1991. Regarded as the most widely recognized composer in the Ethos catalog of music for the single–reed instruments, his soprano–saxophone piece “Diversions” was among a small group of pieces published in 1979 when Ethos was launched. In the ensuing years, 34 more of his compositions were added to the catalog, including 16 solo pieces for clarinet or saxophones (including duo works with piano), 14 pieces using clarinet or saxophones in chamber groupings, and 5 works for large saxophone ensembles.
Born February 21, 1927 in Washington, D.C., his early accomplishments in piano studies revealed special talents for music. He undertook collegiate studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY where he studied composition with some of that institution’s most highly regarded composers, including Burrill Phillips, Bernard Rogers, Howard Hanson, and Dante Fiorillo. He earned the PhD in composition from Eastman in 1953 and went on to teach at the National Music Camp at Interlochen, Michigan and Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. In 1969, he accepted the faculty position at SUNY Fredonia, and there he was exposed to a highly developed saxophone studio and ensemble program, under the direction of Dr. Laurence Wyman, that provided some of the impetus for his interest in composing for larger groupings of saxophones.
Shortly after he began teaching at the Fredonia School of Music, he began a lifelong musical relationship with legendary saxophonist Sigurd M. Rascher, for whom several of his saxophone works were composed. Rascher’s influence led directly or indirectly to such large saxophone ensemble pieces as the Sinfonias No. 6 and No. 15, as well as “Music for 12 Saxophones,” three of the pieces in the extensive Ethos Saxophone Ensemble Series.
In 2014, the CD “Walter S. Hartley – Music for Saxophones” was issued by Mark Records, on which the Syracuse University Saxophone Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Ronald Caravan, is heard performing 9 of Walter Hartley’s pieces for multiple saxophones, ranging from duets to large ensembles. Six Hartley compositions on that CD are part of the Ethos catalog. (CD available at Mark Custom Music Store)
Dr. Hartley’s compositional output includes over 300 works, dating from 1949 to 2010, most of which are published. During his lifetime he was the recipient of numerous awards for his music, and his works have been performed by such ensembles as the National Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma City Symphony, Eastman–Rochester Orchestra, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble. His Chamber Symphony of 1954 was commissioned by the Koussevitsky Foundation, his Concert Overture for orchestra received a prize from the National Symphony Orchestra in 1955, and his Sinfonia No. 3 for brass choir won for him the 1964 Conn Award. He received many commissions from college and high school musical organizations and from U.S. service bands.
After several months in development and some unanticipated delays, Ethos Publications, Inc. launched its new web site two weeks into the year 2015. The new site is a completely new design built using a more modern shopping-cart software that also integrates well with informational pages that have been part of the Ethos web site since the first site was launched over seven years ago. The company had begun to experience functionality problems with the retail shopping cart as far back as late–2013, and repeated efforts to repair the site eventually proved unfruitful.
Along with the newly designed web site, Ethos Publications will no longer be using the web address (URL) ethosmusiconline.com, the company’s original address. The web address ethospublications.com becomes the primary URL and the company’s primary e-mail address becomes customerservice@ethospublications.com (easily accessed on the site’s Contact Us page). The new site also features higher level search functions and provides for featured product advertising.
Ethos Publications, Inc. has added the web address ethospublications.com for accessing its web site and shopping cart for single–reed music sales. When the web site was first launched in late 2007, the web address (URL) was established as ethosmusiconline.com. This address will continue to function for access to the web site, but the name ethospublications.com was acquired and incorporated into the company’s web-site structure because of the easy and obvious connection for customers and others accessing the site. In addition to the shopping cart for sales of its publications, the Ethos web site includes a page featuring biographical sketches and photos of composers represented in the Ethos catalog, a contact-information page, and this News & Information page.
Ethos Publications, operated as a proprietorship business within a larger periodicals publishing company from its inception in 1979 through 2010, was transferred to Ethos Publications, Inc. as of Jan. 1, 2011. All assets of the business were acquired by Ethos Publications, Inc., including the name, publication rights, inventory, and the ethospublications.com web site.
Since the publisher’s web site was launched in the fall of 2007, internet sales have become an increasingly larger percentage of total sales of the company's highly specialized niche—solo and chamber music for the single–reed woodwind instruments (clarinet and saxophone). Under its new ownership structure, Ethos Publications, Inc. will place primary focus on marketing and promoting its published music via the internet.
The Ethos catalog is highlighted by renowned American composer Walter S. Hartley, whose Ethos music includes large ensembles in the Ethos Saxophone Ensemble Series as well as smaller chamber and solo works for clarinet as well as saxophone.
Ethos Publications has announced the release of a new Sonata for Tenor Saxophone & Piano by Ronald L. Caravan, professor of clarinet and saxophone at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y., U.S.A. Composed in the summer of 2007, this sonata is a companion to the composer’s previous sonatas for members of the saxophone family: soprano (1982), baritone (1989), and alto (2004). Reflecting a marked departure from the composer’s more dissonant chromatic style (often employing unconventional sound resources), these sonatas are melodically and harmonically conservative pieces based entirely on traditional modes. While appropriate for professional use in formal recital settings, all four of the sonatas are of only moderate technical difficulty and have been adopted in various states for public–school solo–festival and all–state lists. Dr. Caravan has inscribed all four of his saxophone sonatas “For my students,” but has dedicated the slow inner movement of each one to a particular individual he wished to honor. The second (middle) movement of the new tenor saxophone sonata is dedicated to American composer Walter S. Hartley, whose music for saxophone and clarinet highlight the Ethos Publications catalog.
In cooperation with Carina Raschèr, daughter of the great saxophone virtuoso and pioneer of “classical” saxophone performance Sigurd M. Raschèr (1907-2001), Ethos Publications has completed scholarly editions of two pieces for alto saxophone and piano from the year 1932 that were in Mr. Raschèr’s archives upon his death and had never reached publication, despite his efforts to interest publishers over the years. The pieces are the Sonata by Hans Brehme (1904-1957) and the Suite “From the Mountains” by Hugo Kaun (1863-1932). Brehme’s Sonata is a demanding work of major proportions (22 min.), while Kaun’s Suite is shorter (13–3/4 min.) and of only moderate difficulty (no “altissimo” register required). Both editions feature biographical and musicological notes contributed by Prof. Wildy Zumwalt (S.U.N.Y Fredonia) and Prof. Ronald Caravan (Syracuse University). The pieces were composed for Mr. Raschèr during the earliest years of his performing career, and are finally available in beautifully prepared scholarly editions for the first time—75 years after they were composed.
Ethos Publications, publishers of sheet music for single–reed instruments since 1979, introduced its Web Site in August of 2007, just prior to the start of the 2007–08 collegiate academic year. The site, found at ethosmusiconline.com, features descriptions and cover facsimiles of the music published by Ethos for both clarinet and saxophone, solo through mixed chamber music, as well as the entire Saxophone Ensemble Series listing for saxophone quintet through full saxophone choir. The ethosmusiconline.com web site also provides customers the option for purchasing music directly from Ethos Publications using the site’s shopping-cart feature and secure server for credit–card or PayPal processing. The catalog of publications is conveniently organized on the site by instrumentation and provides for easy navigation. The site also offers biographical sketches and photos of composers represented in the Ethos catalog, as well as a section for occasional news postings as circumstances warrant.
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