IMSLP Forums

Hello.
I am a newcomer here and I have a question regarding arrangements. If someone makes an arrangement of a PD work (e.g. Bach, Brahms) but uses a critical/urtext edition by Barenreiter, Henle, Breitkopf, etc. as a source or one of the sources, would that arrangement infringe copyright law?

If the Urtext was published in Germany and more than 25 years ago, it'd be public domain in most countries anyway. Otherwise, it *may* be a copyright infringement (depending on how it is used), but I highly doubt the publishers either care or can legally enforce it.

Basically, one should feel free to use such editons as a source unless they happen to contain original interpolations or reconstructions by an editor. In most countries, you would be free to use whatever the original composer wrote as your source (assuming the composer in question died more than 70 years ago - 50 years in some countries).

US law is rather murky about the issue, since even an urtext edition is presumably protected for the life of the last surving editor plus 70 years (if published after 1977) or 95 years from the date of publication (if published before 1978). There has not been a lot of case law over the issue of editions, but there is strong precedent for arguing that only original works of authorship are the subject of copyright, and that discoveries - however important - are not original works and thus not protected. Of course, unless you happen to have several million dollars lying around begging to be spent on legal fees, it would probably be best to mention the Neue Bach Ausgabe as the source for one's latest orchestration in only the most oblique and vague manner.