I had my talk with the lady and her husband. The husband, once he
understood that I was not making a CD, that I am writing a piece that
will, ideally, preserve and pay tribute to the heritage of the area in
which his wife grew up, etc., was happy with it. I explained about the
profit possibilities (or lack thereof) and they were fine with that,
also. I promised them a percentage of any that I do turn out to make.
So, verbally, I'm fine. (Famous last words.)
Maybe I should draw something up and have them sign. Really I should
have a lawyer do it, but that would negate any profits I would ever make
form this thing...
RBH
dhbailey wrote:
Raymond Horton wrote:
Another thought:
For another way of thinking of these yodels, compare them to theme
and variations, like "Carnival of Venice." For each of these tunes,
everybody (Amish) in Adams County sings the tune, then does
variations (the yodels). Everybody knows "Carnival of Venice, "
nobody owns it, but Arbans wrote the best set of variations, but his
might have been based on earlier ones. Fannie K. (the woman on the
recordings) is the Arban of the yodels, but her versions only exist
on records. Even if she owns her set of variations, which she might,
does she own "Carnival of Venice?"
Carnival of Venice is public domain, nobody owns it, many other
composers have written their own sets of variations on it with no fear
of breaking Arban's long-expired copyright.
So as long as you can discern the original "theme" and can sort out
any "variations" you are free to use the themes as you see fit without
paying any royalties.
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