Klarinet Archive - Posting 000031.txt from 1998/04

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Two copying questions
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 14:48:34 -0500

On Wed, 1 Apr 1998, Lee Hickling wrote:
> Besides clarinet and sax, I play the piano and the organ, the latter in two
> different churches. Turning pages is the most difficult part of playing a
> keyboard instrument, particularly the organ, which fully involves both
> hands and both feet. Big-time organists sometimes have two assistants, one
> to turn pages and one to change the registration. I work alone, and I
> oftenphotocopy music and tape the sheets together end to end.
>
> Now, in some cases I know the music is currently copyrighted. I don't
> re-sell the copies I make, or even pass them around, and I need them to do
> my job. I know what I'm doing is a violation of the law. So okay, put the
> cuffs on and I'll go quietly. (And let the one among you who has never
> committed this sin, cast the first stone.)

If you personally own copies of these works that you copy a page from for
page turning, it is not in the die-hard/iron-clad domain of copyright
infringement that you think it is. This is a good example how the Patent
Laws are different from the Copyright Laws. In the case of the patent,
you are licensed to buy and use the item but can be libel for Patent
infringement if you copy or use any part of what makes that item unique
and sell it. This is a different issue than Copyright which does not
necessarily license you when you purchase the work. You now own the book
and may do with it what you like as you own it....you just can't give away
copies or sell copies or portions of copies. There is a word for
this....archival copies. You play off the archival copy (original) and
use selected copied sheets from that copy.....perfectly legal.

> J.S. Bach, who died in 1750, wrote a four-part harmonization of a hymn tune
> by Hans Leo Hasler, who died in 1512. It has had various texts set to it,
> but the commonest is O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded. That text was translated
> from the Latin Salve Caput Cruentarum, by Henry Baker, who died in 1877,
> The original Latin text is ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux, who died in 1153.
> At last we get to the first question: Is the arrangement securely in the
> public domain, and can I copy it, even for a paying gig, without looking
> over my shoulder for the intellectual property police?

It depends on if the edition you are using is also in the public domain.
If it is a recent edition, still covered by copyright, you may not copy
someone else's or a library copy for performances. If you own your own
copy and just want to copy select pages.....see above. If however, it is
an edition out of copyright and in the public domain, you may copy it and
use it freely.

> And the second question: I don't like to try to transpose at sight in front
> of an audience, or a congregation. So I frequently transpose hymns, because
> they are usually written from a second to a minor third too high for
> untrained voices to manage the top notes.
> When I'm transposing, I usually make major changes in the
> voicing, and often simplify the harmony, because the organ does not always
> like the full, close voicing found in piano arrangements. The church has
> bought the hymnals, and is entitled to use them. Am I violating any
> copyright law with what I do?

Again, it depends on the edition. But, quite frankly, if you are editing
and transposing hymns which were in the public domain, you are not
performing what is in front of you, rather, you are performing your own,
copyrighted version of the original hymn. This could be supported by the
changed key and voicing. If someone were to record you, they would have
to prove that you were transposing that exact version of the hymn that
they published and is covered under copyright.....something that would be
hard to do if you changed the key and the voicing.

Roger Garrett
IWU

   
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