On 3 Sep 2005 at 23:34, John Howell wrote: > At 10:57 PM -0400 9/3/05, Raymond Horton wrote: > >David W. Fenton wrote: > > > >>The quality of some Kalmus editions is quite > >>high, because until the last decade or so, they > >>were all reprints of someone else's edition, > >>most public domain, but sometimes including > >>foreign editions that are arguably still > >>copyrighted. ... > > That is actually not surprising at all. Because > U.S. copyright law was based on date of first > publication, and most European law was based on > the lifetime of the composer, a great many works > were in copyright in Europe but in the public > domain in the U.S. Not a grey area at all, just > a matter of geography.
When the US joined the Berne convention, several Dover editions had to be discontinued. > And their new series of piano-vocal scores of > Bach Cantatas is superbly done, beautiful > illustration of good modern engraving, with > updated and very fine English translations. > Don't know whether they offer newly engraved > orchestral parts, though. The friend of mine was engraving piano music for them, so I don't know about orchestral music. [] > >> My guess it that Kalmus probably reprinted a > >>Soviet edition, because for years Soviet > >>copyrights were not respected in the West... > > ... which, as I understand it, was because the > Soviet Union did not recognize or respect the > copyright protection of other countries. > Actually I don't think there were such things as > Soviet copyrights, since nothing belonged to > individuals but to "the people" (but were, of > course, administered by party members > representing "the people"!). But I seem to remember that this changed in the early 70s or 80s, did it not? Because a lot of stuff that had previously been available suddenly became unavailable. Hmm, that time frame would suggest a connection to the US joining of the Berne Convention, which was 1978. I just know that there were things that had been available in inexpensive American editions that ended up being withdrawn and went out of print. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
