IMSLP Forums

Hi all,

I hope I might draw on your collective knowledge (and share a bit of frustration ): I like to play a piano piece by Poulenc on wind instruments. Ofcourse that means transcribing notes, and that constitutes copying them (or re-'arranging' them.) I'm not interested in publishing the transcribed notes in any shape or form beyond actually playing them, or make and publish a recording. All in all, a quite small and harmless wish by a low-profile amateur ensemble.

What makes it complex is that I want to do the right thing. Not like many, many small groups and ensembles just bet on it that you remain under the radar (so to speak.) But Chester music says that they are not the ones that can allow arrangements being made, only the Poulenc-estate can. No problem, I'd like to ask them, but Chester doesn't reply to requests on where and how to reach the Poulenc-estate.

All Internet sources a can muster remain silent on where and how to contact the Poulenc-estate, and even the company that engulfed Rhone-Poulenc which I contacted as a long shot doesn't reply.

So, does anybody know how to move forward doing the right thing: how and where to contact the Poulenc-estate?

What frustrates me most is how hard it is to make such a simple, totally harmless [1] thing happen. That there is no simple generic, universal clearing procedure for this. I ponder: if it is (made) so hard, it's not really strange people continue regardless.

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[1] Buying the music, paying for the copy of it being made and of course paying a fee for playing the work -- which all need to be done anyway -- can only benefit, not harm, publishers and estate. Having people enjoying playing and (hopefully) listening to the music, can only be beneficial as well.

To an extent, it really depends on where you reside. In the US, apart from a single exception, one must obtain permission in writing from the copyright owner to make an arrangement or derivative work of any sort in advance. The exception is if you are recording, or planning to record the work - which means you obtain a license to record the work from the Harry Fox Agency, pay the compulsary license fee for your recording. Once you're under the compulsary license, you are permitted to arrange the work in any way you like for the purpose of recording it. It's literally a loophole one can drive the proverbial Mack truck through, but it's actually part of the law and no one has successfully challenged it.

You cannot distribute your arrangement in any means other than the recording. Other countries have different rubrics governing the creation of derivative works. In some, no permission is required to make the arrangement, only to distribute or record it. Others would require permission from the author or his/her heirs due to the "moral rights" clause. Of course, if your in the US and the Poulenc work was published before 1923 (as several Chester titles are), you can do as you please because the work is public domain in the USA.

You should try emailing Apple.com... there is no way to contact them except ringing them up. There is no Apple store in Perth, so that is not an option.

Or you can wait until 2014, because that is when most of his works (assuming these are published within his lifetime) will go into public domain in Canada and countries which observe the life+50 rule.

You want to do it _legally_, you mean. Right and wrong is a totally different matter.