Franklin Stöver (1953-)

Biography

Words by Miroslav Hlaváč taken from a recommendation to a composers' society:       Franklin Stöver (1953-), composer, clarinetist, content writer on music and owner of Edition Hohenstaufen. A former long-time student of clarinetist Frealon C. Bibbins, he mentored by lengthy correspondence with me (Miroslav Hlaváč - Prague) for over 20 years and with university composers who were his advisors. Honors include grants from the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation for a work for tárogató, an honorable mention from the National Music Theatre Network for a comic opera Ketchup, recordings by the Slovak Radio Orchestra, performances at Foerstrova Společnost (Prague), Vay Ádám Kastélymúzeum (Hungary), and use of his Hymn of Memnon for the 3rd Annual Vahtang Jordania International Conducting Symposium (2003) in Kharkov, Ukraine. Commissions include several film scores, notably The Cat and the Canary (DVD-1929, silent), featuring the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra. [This can be viewed at https://archive.org/details/TheCatAndTheCanary1927DVDRipSiRiUsSHaRe/    He is a contributor to The All Music Guide: Classical and has written program notes for orchestras worldwide. Stöver lives in northern California. Early influences include Milhaud, Hindemith, Honneger, Guy Duijck, Friedrich Wildgans, Teo Macero, Miroslav Hlaváč, William Bergsma, Alban Berg, Martinů, Kubik, et cetera. He describes his genre as 'neoclassical, omnitonic.' A current project is his orchestration of Sigfrid Karg-Elert's large Symphonie in F# minor, op. 143 (1930). In addition, Stöver has a special interest in creating a repertoire for the maligned octavin and is the author of The Octavin "das deutsche Saxofon" (in preparation for a German publisher) and is translating the writings of Albert Freiherr von Thimus.

This site carries two types of scores: Completed scores/parts with prices, and excerpts of Works in Progress which are free to download. 

About pricing for digital downloads of sheet music. This medium favors simple music that's under 5 pages, is cheap, and makes the customer feel in control of the purchase because it is a small order. Large scale works (like mine) are difficult to market because downloading many pages (as opposed to just a few pages) takes longer and uses up more resources while customer's personal information is being shared. Logically, these larger works should be marked with higher prices, but they will be ignored and fail to sell. Realizing the fact that most composers don't depend on sheet music sales for a living, prices on digital downloads are kept at a minimum to get the music out to as many musicians who may perform and record what they buy here.

Highlights of my work can be heard at: https://soundcloud.com/f-st-ver

Links to a few of my articles on music

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/choral-improvisations-66-in-6-volumes-for-organ-op-65-mc0002374053

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/string-quartet-no-7-concerto-da-camera-h-314-mc0002363581

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/symphony-no-1-h-289-mc0002366536

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/concerto-for-clarinet-orchestra-or-piano-op-230-mc0002403380

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/adolphe-sax-mn0001661571/biography

https://www.allmusic.com/composition/suite-for-string-orchestra-jw-6-2-mc0002373528


     
  Franklin Stöver