Klarinet Archive - Posting 000287.txt from 2000/07

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Re: Original scores for festival judges.
Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 22:04:47 -0400

At 07:35 AM 7/6/2000 -0500, Oliver Seely wrote:
>It just seems to me that we're going to have to move in the direction of
>forcing the issue.
>Again I make the point that if I create a personal, original, modern
>edition of Johannes Brahms Opus 120, #2 Sonata for Clarinet and Piano,
>taking all of the notes and dynamics from a copyrighted edition which is
>faithful to all of the composer's original intentions of dynamics and
>articulation, OR if I take those notes and dynamics and articulation and
>change a few to my liking so that my personal copy really DOES become a NEW
>edition, and if I sequence it using Finale, or Music Time or Encore and
>print out the score and parts, I'm not violating anyone's copyright because
>Brahms died in 1897 and his notes, articulation and dynamics long ago
>passed into the public domain. The copyright on such a work extends only
>to the PRESENTATION (the placement of the notes, the number of measures per
>staff, the graphic design of the cover, etc.) of that work. It doesn't
>cover the notes, articulation and dynamics if they are faithful to the
>composer's intention.
>
>There is no reason that our music festivals or the Michigan State Band and
>Orchestra Association ought to operate as fronts for the commercial
>publishing industry and in the process lock out budding young publishers
>who want to do their own thing. That is after all how copyright got
>started. The printing guilds paid Queen Anne a thousand pounds to assure
>their exclusive right to publish and to lock out all of the wildcat
>publishers of the time. Copyright in England started as a protection
>racket, pure and simple.
>
>I have already offered a young man (possibly on this list) to make for him
>and his accompanist an articulated score and parts for some upcoming
>festival, just to make a test case of this point.
>
>My score and parts will contain the notation, as do all of the offerings on
>my Web page,
>Copyright =A92000 by Oliver Seely and assigned to the public domain,=20
>so that he can make as many photocopies as he wishes for the judges without
>violating anyone's copyright.
>
I would think that music so marked would be entirely acceptable to them.
They are merely following the copyright rules as interpreted for them by
their lawyers.

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://homepages.go.com/~zoot14/zoot14.html
Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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