CD sheet-music - a question

Hello everyone,

I recently stumbled on this new thing (new to me and perhaps old to some of you) - sheet music on CD, which allows one, for a ridiculously low price (typical price is about $15), to own the complete organ works by Bach, or Schubert's complete lieder, or Schumann piano works, or whatever is already there on the list of existing titles. I tried my luck with one - complete Haydn and Scarlatti keyboard sonatas. One the one hand I'm very pleased - hey, complete Scarlatti, whether it's Ricordi or Le Pupitre costs a fortune, and here with 15 bucks and a printer one is quite all set. I have a question, though. Just by looking at it (I didn't do any thorough research) it is obviously scanned from some existing edition. I tried to ask the person at the local distributor of Theodore Presser (who markets these CDs) what editions are used on these CDs, and on this one in particular. The only answer I got was a replica of what appears on the FAQ of the website www.cdsheetmusic.com , something elusive such as: we use such public domain editions such as B&H., Peters, Schirmer etc., and in the abscence of an existing edition - we make our own. I couldn't get any detailed info about the CD I bought - and there is no such info on the CD itself. How does that work, copyright-wise? The Scarlatti, if I have to guess, is Ricordi (the numbering is Longo, and I think that Ricordi is the only complete edition using Longo numbering, although I may be wrong, forgive me), so what's the catch? Since when is Ricordi, or Peters, or Schirmer 'public domain'? If this is all kosher-legal, then where is the information about the publisher of the hard-copy version? I would appreciate if someone would shed some light on this baffling matter.

Thanks very much -

If the edition was made long enough ago (and that number seems to keep changing), it's out of copyright. The Scarlatti edition may even still be in print, but if it's old enough, anyone can reproduce it for profit.

Peter is quite correct here. In general if a piece of music is published then it remains in copyright until 70 years after the composers' death over here in Europe. American law is different and has a different duration depending when the piece in question is published. The only European exceptions to this are for composers who died between 1931-1944 because the European Comission in Brussels brought in a new ruling in 1993 that extended copyright to 70 years from its original 50. That meant certain composers works returned to copyright control even if they had been published elsewhere in the interim.

In the case of Scarlatti many if not all his keyboard works were published during his lifetime or before copyright law existed, so they are automatically public domain and can never enter copyright. The only part of a publication that is copyright if you have a book of Scarlatti keyboard sonatas is the graphic copyright. That is the print on the page and the layout. This is copyright for 25 years after publication. It may vary in different territories however. It is also possible that the Ricordi edition is out of copyright in the US, although don't expect the publisher to tell you one way or the other!

The only case where a long dead composer can be in copyright is where a work is discovered. Upon publication, the copyright lasts for 70 years in Europe and 55(?) in the US. I am not certain about this and would appreciate some info. For example the Berlioz mass found a few years or the Mozart symphony that was found in the 1980s. These will come out of European copyright in the middle of the 21st century.

As I mentioned earlier American copyright laws are different to Europe. This is why publishers such as Dover and Far East publishers for tha matter can acquire material out of copyright in their own countires and republish it. For example Richard Strauss Salome. The full score is published by Dover for something like $18 (£13) Boosey and Hawkes publish exactly the same thing over in England under Euroepan copyright law sell it for well over £60 ($100) quite a difference is it not?

Of course, most music publishing houses would rather the music buying public remain in ignorance of these laws and accept their inaccurate dribble that ALL music is copyright and must not be photocopied (xeroxed) under any circumstances. It sort of justifys their exhorbitant prices. Of course new editions of old composers become copyright and if it carried out by a living editor, beocomes copyright for longer than merely doing an unidentified correction of the text since a name can carry the copyright. Otherwise the graphic rule applies. Of course when a work comes out of copyright many publishers have adopted the idea say nothing and the buyers will not notice, so we will keep the prices up. For example Janacek is out of copyright and ALL the old editions can be reproduced without restriction. So what have UE done? Reproduced the first page with a no photocopying sign on the top and merely reissued it, bumped up the price as if it was a REAL new edition, and withdrawn whatever they had left of their old stock. The new edition with the no photocopying sign is copyright for 25 years, BUT the old editions residing in libraries and private collections are public domain.

My advice is get wise on copyright laws as much as possible and then shop around to see what you find. There are many thousands of things out there that in reality are public domain, which are slowly finding their way on to the market. Unfortunately their biggest enemy is ignorance. Don't get me wrong. I am all in favour of publishers getting a fair deal, but when a publisher misuses copyright and keeps a copyright composers work out of print for decades on end just so they can promote something else that brings them more money quickly, then my patience with them runs out very quickly.

Composers are the ones who SHOULD benefit from copyright but in so many cases fail to do so for awide a variety of reason. Benjamin Frankel is just one example. Died 1973, largely put out of print since then by Novello and no one can take his works and publish them or try and raise money for the composer's widow until 2044, by which time she will probably be long dead. Because of this, Frankel's works remained out of the public eye for decades and the symphonies have only just recieved their first modern recording. Quite shamful. That is just one case, there are hundreds more. Doubtless you in the US will be able to tell of many other such cases as well.

Being something of a 'pirate' at heart (after my experiences with trying to obtain non-existent commercial videos of my favorite opera singer), I'd say profit from it while you can! If it's copyright infringement, they'll disappear soon enough - in the meantime, you'll already HAVE all that repertoire. (And, if you perform from memory, who's to know how you obtained the sheet music?)

I also bought the Scarlatti CD rom and also own several of the Riccordi volumes and the layouts are virtually identical. The only drawback of the CD that I have found is the absence of a thematic index. Regards, Josh Gendel

Why aren´t there places on the net that has everything by composers who published their works more than 70 years ago?

Jonas

There are some places, http://sheetmusicarchive.com/ is one of the places whith a lot of sheet music. BTW, they have put a lot (900) of the sheet music .pdf files on a $15 CD.

Chel van Gennip Listen to http://www.mp3.com/SergvanGennip

This might help:

I have just spent the last three hours printing sheet music from http://sheetmusicarchive.com. What a find! Thank you for sending me there!

Not if the graphic copyright has expired. Once that has expired you can make photocopies or reprints which is what Dover do.