Klarinet Archive - Posting 001019.txt from 1999/11

From: "Jim O'Briant" <jobriant@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Asking for Help from the list
Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 10:12:42 -0500

I wrote:

>>There's a Vaughn Williams piece that I'd love to arrange. It was
copyrighted in England in 1919. If that were an American copyright, the
piece would be in the public domain. But in England, copyrights of that era
extend 50 years (or is it 75 years?) after the composer's death -- and
Vaughn Williams died in the 1950's. I have to wait. <<

David Blumberg

> No Jim, you don't have to wait. Just send a letter to the publisher with
your idea, and ask them for permission. There usually is a cost involved (%
of sales, or a fee, etc.), but it can, and has been done. <

I understand, David. My own published arrangements of "Frosty, The Snow
Man" for Brass Quintet and a Shostakovich piece for Trombone Choir are both
done with the proper permissions granted and royalties being paid.

Instead of saying "I have to wait," I should have said, "If I want to write
this arrangement without getting permissions and paying royalties, I have
to wait." I have checked, and the high royalty requirements would force me
to price my arrangement so high that it wouldn't sell.

Jim O'Briant
Bayside Music Press
Gilroy, CA

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