IMSLP Forums

Hi,

I have a score of Rossini's italiana in algeri published in the schirmer opera score editions. On the first page, It is written "copyright 1966 by G. schirmer" but then "All rights of any kind with respect to the english translation and any part thereof, including but not limited to stage, radio , television, [...] and printing are strictly reserved. License to perform this work in this translation in whole or in parts must be secured in writing from the publishers."
I am confused... Does it mean that only the english translation is protected or is everything copyrighted. In other words, can I scan and upload the scores after removing the english translation or not?

Thanks,

julie

To be on the safe side, I would assume that the entire score is copyrighted. However, does it look like the music may have been published earlier, and the English text was added on top of it? (A telltale sign may be a much newer-looking font for the English text than for the rest of it.)

No it is the same font for both english and italian texts. I guess the disclaimer is just weird then. Too bad!
Has anyone ever seen a disclaimer like that?

My guess is that the copyright claim refers to the English translation. Schirmer issued quite a few vocal scores with new translations starting in the early 1950s. Ruth and Thomas Martin were responsible for a fair number of these. If it is also a new edition of the music upon which the claim is being made, there should at least be an editor credit. A common procedure for vocal scores like this was to strip out all of the text (Italian and English) of an earlier issue (from around 1900, with the older translations by MacFarren, etc.) and insert new text in both languages. An easy way to check on this is to see if there are the same number of music pages in the later score as are found in the earlier, ca.1900 score - many of which are here at IMSLP. If this is the case, you could simply strip out the translation and scan (or scan and strip out electronically).

there are 366 pages in this edition... But I could not find another score to compare.
The English edition is indeed by Ruth and Thomas Martin, but I could not find an editor credit.