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are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 07 Dec 2009 17:32
by ebykm
I have scores of the following, I would like to upload these if in Public Domain. Can someone tell me if these are still copyrighted ?.

1, The Hallowed Season - Hubert Bird.

2, Ring, silver bells - Ukrainian Carol - M.E. Bovee and M. Leontovich.

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 07 Dec 2009 22:55
by pml
1= Copyright, the composer is still alive! You should purchase this from Theodore Presser: http://www.presser.com/

2=The original choral work in Ukrainian by Leontovich (†1921) is in the public domain ("Schedryk", 1916), but the best known arrangement has words by Peter Wilhousky © 1936 ("Hark how the bells"), which are *not* in the public domain. Likewise the version with words by Bovee is © 1951 ("Ring silver bells") and is also not in the public domain in CPDL's jurisdiction (USA). Both music and lyrics have to be PD to qualify to be included at CPDL. There are however alternate texts that are PD (for example the version included on CPDL).

http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Ring ... ntovich%29

Regards, Philip

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 08 Dec 2009 19:01
by ebykm
1, Many thanks, I couldn't find it on Theodore's website, seems out of print or Dr. Bird made it PD or free to perform. And an exact keyword matching search returns less than 5 results, last updated 2002, very strange.

2, I think the Bovee version is much easier to sing.

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 09 Dec 2009 08:35
by pml
Re: 1. Probably the Bird piece is out of print, however as Presser published it as recently as 1981 I very much doubt they have relinquished all rights to it! The piece doesn't appear to have had the rights transferred to any other publisher, and the copyright claim for the work clearly states Theodore Presser Company as the claimant.

Very probably you will have to specially request new copies printed if the publisher is completely out of stock.

Regards, Philip

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 11 Jan 2010 16:48
by EricLongley
peml wrote:Re: 1. Probably the Bird piece is out of print, however as Presser published it as recently as 1981 I very much doubt they have relinquished all rights to it! This zcode review makes a lot of sense and it's a piece that doesn't appear to have had the rights transferred to any other publisher, and the copyright claim for the work clearly states Theodore Presser Company as the claimant.

Very probably you will have to specially request new copies printed if the publisher is completely out of stock.

Regards, Philip
Ebykm I wouldn't expect much out of this as pml said it was published in 1981 or something and the author is still alive so I'm sure they still have full rights to it. I've also tried contacting the presser company about 5 times with no reply so I'd move on if I were you.

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 16:14
by ebykm
Many thanks Eric, the trouble is, If I share the score in here the publisher might respond and CPDL could be in trouble. On the other hand, those who want to purchase the score would have no option to buy it from a lousy publisher who don't respond. :x

Re: are these in public domain ?.

Posted: 25 Jan 2010 21:19
by vaarky
You are right that a work under copyright should not be posted on CPDL without the copyright holder's permission. It's unfortunate when a publisher who holds the rights to a particular edition does not respond. Sometimes, if they are out of printed editions, publishers have been willing to license (for a fee) permission to copy the work for a particular purpose. I wish publishers would escrow their arrangements with a neutral third party repository who would be authorized to release the works into the public domain or even to sell copies of the editions if the organization holding the copyright goes defunct...