About one year ago, we decided to publish a new series of books which would satisfy a need for collections of simplified themes of great composers, at different levels, including music appreciation stories and composer portraits.  Together with others on our staff, we considered several different titles, but ultimately preferred Easy Master Themes because it most concisely portrays the contents and purpose of the series. 

Once the title was finalized, we conferred with a free lance artist about the cover design, explaining our plans for the contents and making a few suggestions. Typically, the artist submits several preliminary designs.  Our final choice is often a composite of several different ideas.  The process of design from preliminary sketches to final artwork often takes several weeks. 

The most difficult part of compiling a collection is selecting the composers and music to be included.  An essential part of the selection process is governed by the limitations imposed by the musical level, in this case, Primer Level.  Jeff and I reviewed the contents of primer/beginner books of various Schaum methods -- 
Making Music at the Piano, Piano for Adults and the Schaum Piano Course.  We considered the reading range of notes, rhythms, hand positions, accompaniment styles, key signatures and time signatures appropriate for Primer Level.  These had to be kept in mind when screening possible music choices. 

For this book, we needed eleven themes.  Since there were relatively few pieces, we decided to use only one theme per composer.  As a starting point, Jeff began by exploring what had been used previously in other collections.  He also examined a thematic dictionary for possibilities.  Each melodic candidate was examined in view of the limitations imposed by Primer Level. 

Most melodies had to be transposed to fit the middle-C five-finger hand position and also to minimize the use of black keys.  Many rhythms had to be modified by augmentation.  In this process, 16th notes became 8ths, 8th notes became quarter notes, etc.  Augmentation also affected the time signature, for example 6/8 became 3/4. 

As soon as the musical contents were finalized, the list was given to our computer graphics specialist who designed a page layout for the composer portraits and space for the text.  She also determined where the two colors would be used on each page.  Previously digitized portraits were resized and touched up at the computer for the new page layouts. 

After the melodies were selected, duet accompaniment parts were written.  Jeff tried to respect the original harmonies as much as possible.  Also, at Primer Level, we did not want the duet part to overwhelm or confuse the student.  For variety, Jeff wrote several of the accompaniments in treble clef.  These required shifting the page spread so that the duet part appeared on the right side instead of the left. 

Jeff did all of the music notation using his own computer, enabling him to control the spacing of notes and quickly visualize how a piece would appear in final form.  Music printouts from Jeff's computer became the first proof.  Copies of the proof were given to two teacher consultants who carefully played through each solo and duet accompaniment and submitted critical Suggestions for changes and improvements. 

To save time, our teacher consultants worked on the book in segments.  the music was done first, followed by the text for the biographies.  As the consultants finished, Jeff and I studied their recommendations.  Necessary changes were easily made on the computer.  Our graphics specialist then merged the computer files for text and music with the computerized page layouts and portraits.  As the merging process was finished, a semi-final proof was made of each page. 

During this procedure, we realized that the title page had not yet been completed.  In addition, a last minute idea was to include a brief dictionary on page 24.  Fortunately, the computer made all of this quite easy.  The foreword, index and dictionary were prepared in a short time. 

The semi-final proof was examined very carefully.  all of the hand position diagrams were compared to the solo music for correctness.  The solo and duet parts were compared and played together.  As the duet was played, the notes were rechecked for stem direction.  All text was reexamined.  The index was compared with the actual page sequence. 

This proof reading revealed a few things to be changed, but nothing major.  For example, one measure in a duet needed the stem direction changed.  The text for Wagner was crowded and required editing to better fit the allotted space. 

To prepare a final proof, the computer printouts of each page were photographed in our darkroom and the negatives precisely mounted on a masking sheet.  The final proof, a replica of the finished copy, was made from the negatives. 

Even in the final proof we found two spelling inconsistencies:  Tchaikowsky/Tchaikovsky and Marche Militaire/March Militaire.  Although these were not serious errors, we wanted the book to be as perfect as possible.  Making these two corrections involved going back to the computer, making new computer printouts, and then new negatives of the two pages. When these corrections were made, the next step was to make plates for our printing press.  Part II of this article will describe the printing and bindery process.