On 15.02.2006 John Howell wrote:
The point is that a critical edition can receive royalties.
Actually that isn't quite true under U.S. law, and I suspect (but certainly do
not know) that the same might hold true for EU law.
I thought we had already agreed that European law is not the same as US
law in this respect.
A *copyrighted* edition can receive royalties. It does not have to be critical (i.e. a complete scholarly
study). It can simply be a performing edition. (That is happening yearly in the U.S. as the marches and other
works by John Phillip Sousa come into the public domain, and some idiot obtained a new copyright on Gershwin's
"Rhapsody in Blue" simply by putting back in the measures that Gershwin himself had cut out! I can't
wait for the fights to break out over the "new edition" of "Porgy & Bess" that
incorporates the changes Gershwin made AFTER the score had been published.)
The situation is definitely more complicated than that in Germany. A
performing edition can only receive royalties, if it is more than just
fingerings, ie if it qualifies as an arrangement of some sort, or if it
is the very first edition of the work (including any print in the pieces
history, even a printed edition from 1500, or in special cases a widely
available manuscript will count as the first edition). A critical
edition _can_ receive royalties anyway, as there are _special_
regulations. However, in practice I believe this is rarely the case,
because for most pieces where the critical edition qualification has any
impact there exist older editions, which are not even under normal
copyright any longer.
Why do you think Gardiner made his own "performing edition" for the Bach
cantatas? I am convinced the reason was _not_ that NBA was not accurate
enough (this may perhaps be the case for some cantatas, but is complete
nonsense for others), but that the recording company would have had to
pay a substancial amount in royalties to NBA. It worked out cheaper to
get some cheap musicologists hired and prepare a "performing edition".
And for the uninformed it added some marketing hype, as well. "Gardiner
is such a responsible scholar, he even had his own edition prepared for
the cantatas, correcting all the mistakes in the existing editions".
Bach like he has never been performed before. Not.
I have taken part in many recordings where either we had to play from
ancient, out-of-copyright parts, or where a performing edition was
especially prepared. All because of royalties to the publishers/editors.
It is also true that sometimes recordings are not being made, when the
company finds out how much the royalties would be to the editor. I
certainly know of one particular instance where this happened (in the
UK, btw), and it is a sad case. But such is the law.
Johannes
--
http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
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