Christopher wrote: > >One exception I heard about is the estate of Jerome Kern, who blocked >an entire album of Maynard Ferguson's because he had included an >arrangement of "Old Man River" that the family considered to be so >utterly tasteless, that they were able to have the whole album run >recalled on the premise that he hadn't asked for permission to >arrange it. Almost nobody DOES ask permission, because I don't think >permission has EVER been refused for a recording, but it was a >"gotcha".
I note that you're in Canada, Christopher, and things may be different there. But in the U.S. once a piece of music has first been recorded, with the permission of the copyright owner, anyone else may record it by paying a "mechanical" (it goes back to piano rolls!) license fee set in the copyright law itself and adjusted (read "raised") by a special tribunal from time to time. AND PERMISSION TO MAKE A SUITABLE ARRANGEMENT IS INCLUDED IN THE LICENSE! (No, I don't recall whether the word "suitable" or anything similar is actually written in the law, but in practice it means the copyright owner can NOT do what you describe.) In other words, in the U.S. everybody asks permission, receives it upon payment of the statutory fee, and CANNOT be refused that license. My quartet at one time did a very upbeat arrangement of songs from Meredith Wilson's "Music Man," including "Trouble in River City." (This was back in the 60s; not everyone was switiching to Rock!!) When we applied for the proper license to record our medley, we were told that Wilson only permitted "Trouble in River City" to be recorded as an instrumental. (It is, for those who are not familiar with it, a patter song in which the rapid-fire words are the whole point of the song.) In other words, he was trying to prevent anyone from recording it. He couldn't. We won, and we recorded it. John John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
