At 04:19 PM 5/28/03 -0400, Andrew Stiller wrote: >I doubt it. Not unless history is also prepared to grant co-composer >credit to an awful lot of violinists for an awful lot of violin >concertos.
I don't think it's analogous. Berberian was responsible for creating (originating) a considerable amount of material from Berio's instructions. Violinists might make a substantial contribution to a concerto (including material composers steal), but sometimes a violin is just a violin. Without Berberian, there *are* no compositions such as "Visage" as we know them. Berio didn't get this stuff from his voice, did he? >As with that copyright case which was discussed on this list a week >or so ago, the key question is (or should be) whether the work(s) in >question show distinctive stylistic touches not to be found in other >works by the composer-of-record, and it seems to me that the answer >here is most emphatically "no." It might be like domestic partnership. Because one spouse does not generate monetary income during a relationship does not mean their contributions were not equivalent in different ways; they both own the relationship. In the case of Berberian, she invented Berio's voice, and he made frames for it. The pieces could not have arisen at all without her. This is a substantial issue today. Performers, especially women, have not received their authorship recognition because they have often been used as performers. In some ways, it is why there has been a rise in the number of co-creators discarding the composers they have been the tools of, and taken on the mantle of composer themselves. One who comes to mind in recent years is Frances-Marie Uitti, whose inventions and expansions of cello technique were incorporated by many composers; the last time I spoke with her, she was also creating her own works, so as to reinforce her ownership of those inventions. If the year were 1960 and the awareness of intellectual property were as high as it is today, I think all those pieces would be hyphenated Berio-Berberian compositions. (Programmers and hardware-tinkerers get co-credit on compositions today!) >And after all, the credit that history has already granted Berberian >for her performances is itself hardly to be sneezed at. But not enough. It's the question of authorship, not presentation. The Bosma writings on the topic are good reading; I heartily recommend them -- and also the archive of our K&D interview with her, which should be available a few days after this coming Saturday's broadcast. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
