On Jan 11, 2010, at 6:39 PM, Robert Patterson wrote:
I'm not sure there is "standard practice". The two std. rep. pieces
for orchestra with narration that come to mind are Peter and the Wolf
and Mendelssohn's MIdsummer Night's Dream. The Prokofiev includes the
entire narration in the score, as I believe also does the Mendelssohn.
(The parts for both only have excerpts of the narration as needed.)
If it were me, I would include the entire narration in the score in
the pauses where they are to be delivered. At the very least I would
look at both those scores before making a final decision. Fortunately,
both are available from Dover and hence in the public domain.
What's the story on Russian copyrights? I remember that a lot of 20th
century Russian works were in the public domain long before they
otherwise would have been, on account of the fact that the United
States did not recognize Soviet copyrights.
I also remember that some time in the mid-1990s, after the Soviet
Union had ceased to exist, the United States began to recognize
Russian copyrights again, as a result of some trade agreement, and a
whole lot of Russian works that had been available were pulled from
the shelves and went out of print.
So what does that mean for something like Peter and the Wolf? Is it
truly in the public domain? Or is it just easily available but
technically under protection now?
As an American, I'm mostly interested in U.S. law but presumably the
same questions apply to Europe and elsewhere. Peter and the Wolf was
published in 1936 and Prokofiev died in 1953, so it seems to me that
the work ought to be protected under either the American or European
rules. (But I hope I'm wrong, because there's a certain Shostakovich
prelude I'd love to arrange....)
mdl
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