IMSLP Forums

Are Mendelssohn's String Symphonies available?

In particular I am seeking String Symphony #2 in D.

Thanks!

Can someone PLEASE upload the Mendelssohn string symphonies?
This may be part of the orchestra parts project...

The OP Project finished a few months ago (except for stuff under copyright in Canada), so if there aren't already parts for them then we'll just have to see if someone else happens to have a set.

The first edition of the string symphonies may be recent enough (I think it was first published in the 1960s) for Canada’s Editio Princeps law to kick in. A lot of Mendelssohn juvenilia (including a couple of operas/singspiels, significant concertos, and the full orchestral version of Sinfonia VIII) has not been published until comparatively recently (or not at all) and under Canadian law is eligible for a 50 year copyright term upon publication (the corresponding term is only twenty-five years in the EU). The Canadian law can be fairly tricky for works performed in the composer’s lifetime, which was the case with the Mendelssohn Sinfonias, albeit in the private home of the Mendelssohn family in Berlin.

I would be rather doubtful on these being permissible to host on IMSLP.

Regards, Philip

Would love to see these on IMSLP

I would have thought this was not possible until 2016 at the earliest, owing to Canada’s Editio princeps — as these were first published in 1965 they would qualify for a full 50-year term; however these works were performed in Mendelssohn’s lifetime, so I was under the impression this might be one of the loopholes that negate the Canadian interpretation.

Like a lot of Mendelssohn juvenilia they would have to have been published at least 25 years ago for the Urtext provision for works published in Germany to allow them to have entered the public domain there (in the EU).

Regards, Philip

Canada's 50 year term does not apply here as they were not published in Canada. Only the 25-year Editio Princeps term in Germany applies (maybe). I think these were first issued in the DDR, which had no copyright relations with the USA until the 1970s (even then very dubious), they are evidently free in the USA and have been reprinted by Kalmus. Apart from the NAFTA countries (USA and Mexico), Canada applies the "Rule of the Shorter Term".

anybody??? I m really really really desperate...

First published 1995. Under copyright worldwide.

If you had a lot of money, you could probably buy the manuscript. Or you could find out where it is and then travel there. Or just buy the piece.

Hi Daphnis,

I would have thought the proprietary rights in Editio princeps would have subsided by now in the relevant jurisdictions, though the 95-year-term of the US is still the main elephant in the room. The edition that was published was more or less an urtext, and was issued in Europe.

Cheers PML

Perhaps you would know better than I in the case of Mendelssohn's works. But like you say, the unjust temporary block it will suffer is probably the deal-breaker for the OP.

Not sure exactly what piece we're talking about here, but if this refers to one of the String Sinfonias, they were all first published in the 1950s and 1960s in the DDR, which had no copyright relations with the USA. Sinfonias I though XII, including the version of VIII for full orchestra and the Symphony movement in C minor, edited originally by Hellmuth Christian Wolff are reprinted and presently available for sale in the USA from Kalmus (catalog numbers A7741 through A7753). All are public domain in the USA and were not subject to restoration due to expiry of term in the country of origin (which was unified Germany by 1996).

Ah, well then I stand corrected. The earliest dates I saw (from a quick look-see) were ca. 1995. I must have wrongly assumed Kalmus reprinted it by permission.

About the only thing they reprint by permission in the orchestral area are works of Leroy Anderson, for which they have a distribution agreement with the Anderson estate. They do a number of licensed reprints of band titles through their LudwigMasters division.