Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges

[sbeckmesser]

It seems to me that Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges -- and, indeed, all the rest of Ravel's works -- should be at least now available via the EU server, no?

--Sixtus

[pml]

There’s some weirdness concerning French copyrights in the inter-war years, which is presumably the reason behind the scores not being available; on that link to Wikipedia, there’s some mention of this under the section “Proprietary rights”. I’m afraid I’m not really conversant with it except to say that I’m aware of it. Sorry.

Regards, Philip

[Carolus]

It's an extension of up to 14 years (life-plus-84) if the composer and publisher lived through the wars. 30 extra years if the composer actually was killed in the war. This should not apply to any other EU country, however, just to France.

[sbeckmesser]

By this math, none of Ravel should be PD in Europe until 2024 and yet most Ravel scores seem to be PD everywhere. And Tzigane, published in 1924, is apparently PD in Europe while L'enfant, published a year later, isn't? Je ne comprends pas.

--Sixtus

[KGill]

The copyright status of a work also depends on the date of death of any librettists/editors/etc. The words to L'enfant were written by someone who died in 1954, so the work is under copyright in all of the EU, not just France.

[Carolus]

KGill is right. Colette's living until 1954 is the reason it is not yet free in the EU. It's too easy to forget that the term is 70 years after the last surviving contributor. That's why dates for librettists, arrangers, translators, etc. are all actually quite important.