IMSLP Forums

I don't understand which criteria to determine pd for Muzyka edition (I'm talking about editors).
For example music by bach edited by Borrisowsky(1900-1972 ) (free arrangement very far from urtext) is it pd?
If I remember well, once Carolus told that all editors that worked for russian state edition have to be considered pd .
Is it true?

(Ps. I'm speaking about editors that produced arrangement and transcriptions and not about urtext edition )

Greeting

Carmar

It's somewhat complicated, but here's the thumbnail sketch: A large number of the arrangements - like Rostropovich's piano reduction of a Vivaldi Concerto which was discussed recently - were produced by state employees working for a state agency (Muzgiz/Muzyka). Under the laws of many countries, works of this nature (government publications) are not considered to be the subject of copyright. This gets rather complicated when we're talking about the old USSR though - since even the composers were technically state employees working for a state agency (the Soviet Composers' Union).

Apparently, most western countries made an exception to the government publication rule in the case of original works by composers like Shostakovich et al, who were protected in the present-day EU, Canada, etc. The USA was the glaring exception, which is why one still encounters Kalmus reprints of such Soviet composers up through the 1970s. When the GATT treaty went into effect (1996) in the USA, the composers of original works (like Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Kabalevsky) were "restored" to copyright status in the USA, and NIEs were duly filed. However, there were very few NIEs filed for arrangements and transcriptions. The ones that were filed tend to be those done by composers whose original works had been restored, by and large. The arrangements and transcriptions which were fist issued by Muzyka thus fall into a very nebulous gray area. Most of the ones that were reprinted before GATT are still available, and being sold without any territorial restrictions. So, we're having to look at these on a case-by-case basis. If an arrangement is present reprinted and available from Masters or Dover, we're fairly confident that it is free. If it's too obscure to have been reprinted by them, it might very well be free anyway.

However, if an arranger (or the heirs of those dead less than 50 years) of a work that is not available in reprint objects in writing to the arrangement being available at IMSLP, my inclination would be to take it down. As I said earlier, this is a nebulous area that is subject to differing interpretations. As far as I know, there has not been any court case addressing this issue. The situation I described above could be nothing more than a vague "gentleman's agreement" among publishers. Our colleagues at Sibley Library have been posting a number of Soviet wind band arrangements; the Load CD site in Switzerland has a fair number of them available also. My interpretation is therefore not unique.

So at the end what's your suggestion? I upload and you'll decide....... or it's only a waste of time?

Ciao and thank you

Carmar

You upload and we decide. Not a waste of time as quite a few will be OK.

Thank you very much
Ciao
Carmar