Music Arrangement Laws

Factual Questions
1

I attended a choir concert this weekend. The performance included a few arranged pieces. One was a Robert Frost poem set to (I assume) original music, another was a Mahler tune with words added and sung, another was a pop song from the sixties re-arranged for chorus.

So how does this work regarding copyright, etc.? So a composer wants to put a famous poem to music. Does he have to get permission to use the text? Is there a time frame or something that marks off public domain? How about if one wants to re-arrange an older piece of music, say from the classical era, or a newer pop song? How does it work?

2

Copyright’s a complex topic that comes up frequently on the boards.

In a nutshell.

Before 1978, if you wanted the government to recognize your copyright, you had to register your work with the copyright office (you still should do this if you expect to win a lawsuit). Now, though, you have recognized copyright the minute you put your work into fixed form (written or recorded).

Anything created now by an individual or group of individuals has a copyright lasts for 70 years past the creator’s death (the death of the last creator if more than one). If it’s a company who holds the copyright, protection lasts 95 years.

Before 1978, however, protection lasted only 28 years, after which you could renew for an additional term, which is now 67 years (for a total of 95). Before 1992, you had to actively renew. Now, it’s automatic for stuff still under copyright at the time that law went into effect.

Based on the timing of all these laws, the broad summary is this:

Everything created before 1923 is in the Public Domain. You may use it however you wish without permission from anyone (although you might wish to acknowledge the original creator to avoid accusations of plagiarism).

Anything registered for copyright between 1923 and 1964 is in the Public Domain unless the copyright was renewed, which it most likely was, so don’t get your hopes up.

Anything registered between 1964 and 1978 had its copyright automatically renewed for a total term of protection of 95 years.

Anything created 1978 or after is automatically copyrighted, whether registered or not for the terms I mentioned before: Death + 70 years for individuals, 95 years for others.

Copyright means you control how your creation is used and distributed. Taking an existing poem and setting it to music is called a “derivative work”, and you have the right to decide if your words are used in such a work. Same thing for taking an existing song and creating a new arrangement of it. Even if the person didn’t write the arrangement down, you still have a recognized right to control whether, and in what manner, your song is performed.

3

The short answer is, if the work you’re using is under copyright, you have to get permission. Simple, eh?

(That wasn’t the Frost poem that begins “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood”, was it? I sang that sucker back in 1973!)

4

Yes. Enitled,* Frostiana*. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

5

1911, I believe (possibly 1912 by now). That’s what we were told during secondary music methods and choral arranging, anyway.

Re: setting poems.
What you need to do depends almost entirely on the poet/copyright holder. Sometimes you can pay a one time fee and set a poets works whenever you like. Others (I believe e.e. cummings’s estate works this way) you need to secure permission for every work and pay massive royalties. Some won’t let you set their work at all. For a long time, only Randall Thompson was allowed to set Frost.

Re: re-arranging music.
If it’s still under copyright, you need to secure permission from the copyright holder. They will tell you what you can do, how many copies you can make, etc. Here’s the thing: if you arrange a copyrighted piece, you’re arrangement does not belong to you, it belongs to the copyright holder. It’s generally easier to take a public domain piece and arrange it, since then you don’t have to deal with any of this shit.

6

You didn’t happen to take this course in about 1986 or 1987, did you?

link

7

It’s quite possible I’m mis-remembering. I’ll see if I can dig up anything that supports my contention, but so far I’m coming up blank.

(And, no, this was Fall of '06 and Spring of '07.)

8

Now that I think about it, it may be that either recordings or sheet music were not covered by copyright law until the 1909 revision. Anything before that would be in the public domain from the get go, but anything after that but before 1923 would also be in the public domain