On Feb 16, 2006, at 3:30 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
If Bach had written his "Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring" today, he would have been credited as "arranged by..." and been eligible for no royalties at all unless the tune (the part with the words) was in the public domain.
Everything he wrote - all the most interesting parts that make the piece good - are just the arrangement, by modern standards.
Not really true. He would have had to obtain permission from the copyright owner, but could then have copyrighted his own contribution as an original work. Form PA has a place for the creator to designate exactly what aspect of the work is claimed as copyrightable, and another where original and derived portions of the work are clearly distinguished. Berio's _Sinfonia_ is but one example of a work full of qotations of copyrighted material, but considered, both legally and artistically, to be a fully original composition in its own right. Similarly, any composer's "Variations on [X]" is not deemed an arrangement, whether [X] be copyrighted or not.
Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
