Klarinet Archive - Posting 000082.txt from 1998/08

From: Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.Net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Copywrite Question for "Experts"!
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 15:44:57 -0400

Mark,

You wrote
>>>There's yet another twist in the law ... you cannot create an
arrangement of
>>>a copyrighted work without permission of the copyright owner,l for either
>>>private or public performance.
I wrote back
>>This is interesting:
>>Then if I re-harmonize and interpret a song ad-lib, improvising, say
>>playing the piano in a lounge gig, not writing down the notes in a score,
>>am I technically in violation of the copyright?
To which you replied
>Yes. It's gone to court many times, especially in the advertising business
>("If I change enough notes, it's not the same song, so I don't have to pay
>royalties"). The law makes no distinction on size of audience. When was the
>last time you paid royalties on a public performance of copyrighted music,
>too? (that's _music_ under copyright, not the printed music) You're
>_supposed_ to :^)

It sounds as though you're saying that any musician on a paying gig is
violating a copyright every time he improvises from a score, or a fake book
- or even if he is playing by ear. What if he's playing for kicks, and not
getting paid? And are all fake books violations of the copyright laws? If
so, would the kind that only give you the changes - no melody line - also
be in violation?

Or how about this: Every week I play the organ for services in two
different churches. Both of them have hymnals that they bought, and I
assume satisfied the copyright holders that way. Thanks to a jazz
background, I'm able to adlib transpositions to make a singer more
comfortable, or adapt a piano arrangement for organ as I play it, or fake
different voicings and bass lines so every verse of a hymn doesn't sound
the same as the one before. Church organists do those things routinely.
Being able to do them is expected. It's one of the qualifications for the job.

The foregoing questions just about cover everything I do as a performer.
Should I be constantly looking over my shoulder for the copyright cops? If
you carry your interpretation to a reductio ad absurdum, I'd be in
violation when I play a passage marked forte as pianissimo. Are you sure
you have this right?

I'd be interested in Kevin Fay's reaction, too.

Lee Hickling <hickling@-----.net>

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