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About Khach-22

Khach-22 would not have come into existence without the encouragement of Anthony J. Cirone, whose initial suggestion and subsequent advice was indispensible for the creation of this website and the self-publication of the arrangements therein.  Lauren Speeth was the source of endless good suggestions about developing a web presence. 

Curious about the name, Khach-22?  

Matt Springer explains:   The name Khach-22 is derived from its first publication, a re-release of my percussion ensemble arrangement, "Four Pieces from the Gayane Ballet Suite" by Aram Khachaturian.  When I first arranged that music in 1991-92, Khachaturian's music was in the public domain.  The music could thus be arranged and published without dealing with copyrights and permissions, and CPP/Belwin (which later became Warner Bros.) published the music in 1994.  When the initial print run was completed in 2001, and I started shopping it around for a publisher to pick it up for a second round, I received a rude shock. After the music had already been arranged and published, the US had signed an international treaty called the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which, in addition to many other features, restored the copyright on the music of Khachaturian and several other ex-Soviet composers. Consequently, before I could publish the music again, I had to track down the holder of the copyright and get permission to have already arranged the suite!  Fortunately, rather than being some hard-to-reach member of the Khachaturian family, the copyright holder turned out to be none other than the notable music publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc.  I obtained retroactive permission from them to arrange the music, and obtained further permission to publish it again, thus leading to its 2005 re-release by my own cottage publishing effort, which needed a name.  

Because of the Catch-22 situation in which I found myself with Khachaturian's music, Khach-22 was the obvious choice!