Gershwin, Walking the Dog (Promenade)

[steltz]

This file has been blocked while it is being queried. I just want to point out that according to Grove, the solo piano version was done by H. Borne. If this is Hal Borne, he died only in 2000. I don't know that this particular arrangement is his, though, because I can't download it.

[KGill]

The score makes no mention of Borne as an arranger; it simply gives 'Promenade (Piano Solo)' and 'George Gershwin' at the top of the first page. Does Grove say when and by whom Borne's arrangement was published?

[steltz]

No, it doesn't. But my university library has the 1974 Chappell edition of this that was released with Merry Andrew and Three Quarter Blues. I can go have a look at it to see what's on it.

[Melodia]

As far as all I've read, Gershwin made his own piano version (I believe he even made a piano roll of it).

[steltz]

Here's the reference: from The Gershwin Years, by Edward Jablonski & Lawrence D. Stewart (1974:270-271): "Since no complete manuscript was found among George's papers, the little piece lay fallow for a number of years until it was possible to piece it together from the film's soundtrack, from a rediscovered page of the second piano part, and from the very good memory of Hal Borne, who had served as rehearsal pianist to Rogers and Astaire during the shooting of the film."

Chappell obviously didn't think this was worth copyright protection for Borne, since they don't credit him on the 1974 copy my library has. At least they aren't claiming copyright on his behalf. Still, Gershwin's original was for 2 pianos and chamber ensemble, and the page found was the 2nd piano part from the original instrumentation.

This makes it pretty clear that Borne did do a reduction -- rehearsal pianists are always condensing orchestral scores to one piano, so the reduction would be his. Interesting legal point. Chappell hasn't credited him all these years. What do the legal eagles say?

[Carolus]

This might be a case where the arranger (Borne) was legally an "employee for hire" of the movie company, which means any arrangements prepared by him were "works made for hire" in which he had no copyright interest. The fact that they did not bother to credit the arranger would throw the term to that of the one author who was credited (Gershwin) in countries where term is determined by the author's lifespan. In the country of origin (USA), the publication date is the determining factor, so Borne's contribution makes no difference. The fact that Borne is not credited at all tends to prove that he was an employee working within the scope of his employment.

[steltz]

Thanks for that, Carolus. Looks like it can be cleared. I think Borne should be credited here, though, so I will insert the quote from the book on the work page.

[JamesBrigham]

On Thursday 22nd December 2022, I uploaded an engraving of Walking the Dog (Promenade) to MuseScore.com
But by the next morning it had been taken down by request of Publisher Alfred Music Publishing.
The link to my upload now yields nothing: https://musescore.com/user/58480/scores/9253486 although I can still see the piece in my account.

MuseScore.com says:

We believe that this score is related to the work "PROMENADE" composed by "GERSHWIN, GEORGE".. The copyright holder has prohibited us from publishing any scores related to this work.

I have appealed by stating:
This piece of music is in the public domain in the EU and in Canada because the sole composer, George Gershwin (26 September 1898 — 11 July 1937), died over 70 years ago. It has been typeset to match the sheet music available to download on the IMSLP site: https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ReverseLookup/102095

I'm not sure if my appeal will be fruitful or even listened to, so in the meantime I thought why not upload it to IMSLP.org!

So I would like to ask if there would be any copyright issue in uploading my MuseScore engraving file along with the PDF to IMSLP?

[Sallen112]

Probably because the work is under copyright in the USA currently until 2056 and MuseScore main server is probably in the USA. IMSLP has three server regional system where we do have our main server in Canada, so the work is already PD-CA.

[DBMiller]

James, your file is good to submit to IMSLP.