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  Selah helps successful church musicians
 
 

Selah Publishing Co., Inc., is one of the premier publishers of church music today, quite a feat considering Selah's tenth anniversary of its first publication will be in 1999 (watch for more on the festivities celebrating this).

Selah was started in Washington, D.C., in 1987, where David Schaap, founder of Selah, began work on our first publication, Songs of Rejoicing: Hymns for Worship, Meditation, & Praise. This highly acclaimed hymnal supplement was published in 1989. Selah moved to New Brunswick, N.J. in September, 1988; moved to Accord, N.Y., in June of 1990; and moved to our present two-story office building in Kingston, N.Y., in May of 1993.

Selah was incorporated in the state of New York in January of 1991. We are a privately held corporation, governed by a board of directors, and operated by the president and our hard-working staff, with the help of numerous consultants and printers.

Early on Selah made a commitment to the environment through the use of recycled paper (with post-consumer content) for our publications. It is an added expense that hardly any other publishers pay for, but we feel it is good stewardship of the renewable and non-renewable resources used in producing paper. And so all of our publications since 1990 use acid-free recycled papers (some covers are a rare exception, as are an occasional printer error of using the wrong paper).

Selah's first organ collection, "An Advent/Christmas Suite" by Al Fedak, was published in the fall of 1989. Various organ collections and solos have followed, including an ongoing series titled "Hymn intonations, preludes, and free harmonizations."

Our publishing of individual's hymns was begun in 1990 with the publication of Al Fedak's and Roy Hopp's hymnaries.

The choral catalog came into existence in 1992, though one title (William Rowan's setting of "When in our music") was published in 1991. Choral music is published in all levels of difficulty, different voicings (SATB, SAB, Two-part/mixed voices, unison), with various instrumental accompaniments, for children and adults, and in many different styles. A choral subscription program now lets hundreds of choir directors get the first look at all our new publications.

Selah's occasional newsletter, Music in Worship, started up in the fall of 1992. This newsletter is intended to provide interesting, helpful, and timely information to the customers of Selah Publishing Co. Interviews, how-to articles, editorials and various perspectives give readers inspiration and understanding, and new ways to understand and accomplish their work.

Selah receives and evaluates thousands of compositions each year. From these submissions, Selah's editorial committee selects the best pieces that we think will help church musicians in their work and allow choirs, church musicians, and congregations to give praise to God through their art. We only publish what we will want to stay in our catalog for a long, long time, so we do not publish for the sake of producing a certain number of new titles in a year. But we have averaged a publication schedule of 30-50 new anthems each year; 5-10 instrumental collections; several titles for handbells; recordings, videdos, books, and miscellaneous items on an as-developed basis. Much of our emphasis is on congregational song, and hymn-related material is always a part of each year's releases.

Our goal is to help church musicians by offering publications and services that can make a difference in your programs and in the lives of those you reach. Selah's publications are always of the highest quality, so that people are inspired to understand the Christain faith more deeply. We hope Selah will help you, our successful church musicians, for many years to come.

 

 

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome. Please e-mail us your thoughts.

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© 1998, Selah Publishing Co., Inc., Kingston, N.Y. 12401.