I don't know anything about the Hyperion case, but as a matter of fact,
there is something similar to royalties for editors in Germany, too,
which includes performance rights of all sorts. The best example I can
think of is the recently (well several years ago) found fragment of
Offenbach's "Hoffmann's Tales" (or was it something else?) which two
European Publisher's fought over the publication _and_ performance rights.
But this does not only extend to previously unpublished music, although
the situation does get a little nebulous. Critical Editions have some
special protection, and that includes basically all complete editions.
If you record a Bach cantata, and use the text of NBA, then you would
have to pay royalties to NBA. However, in reality this hardly ever
happens, I guess, since you can always use the old Bach edition, and
correct it yourself from the manuscripts. Even if in reality hardly
anyone will do this in any detail, they can always claim to do so, and
Bärenreiter would have a very hard case to fight.
The idea behind this is that critical editions involve a lot of work
which can not usually be paid for with the income from selling the music
itself (especially with critical editions of large orchestral works,
which has a very small market).
Did you know that Schott still owns the copyright, publication and
performing rights for Carmina Burana (at least they did a few years
back)? I know first hand from a friend, that not only does the royalty
fee depend on whether you simply perform in concert of record a CD (in
this case done by a school, with sales only to people in the close
circle of the school itself), but it also depends on whether you do the
orchestral version, or version with piano accompaniment. In the end they
had to do the piano version for the CD, simply because they couldn't
afford the orchestral version.
At least a few years ago Schott made a substancial part of their
turnover only with Carmina Burana.
I am not taking sides on this, but I do actually see some justification
for editor's royalties. Whether the Hyperion case is somewhat more
complicated is another matter (and I don't know enough about it).
Johannes
--
http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
