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I own a copy of the score in subject (Ricordi nr. 132187 - vocal score with piano reduction). The work was composed in 1880, however it was first published in 1951. The Ricordi score shows 1951 as its copyright date, and there is no other name on it than Puccini's name (no editor name, no name of the author of the piano reduction). As this work was originally intended as the final exercise for Puccini's conservatory diploma, I guess that the piano reduction is by the composer itself, as it was probably required to submit the work to the conservatory. So I think that this edition should be regarded as an urtext edition, with no significant content added by others.

I think this work is PD in Canada and EU. Puccini died in 1924, so all terms related to the composer's death, editio princeps (if ever applicable - first publication of 1951 occurred much earlier than 70 years from Puccini's death), and protection of urtext editions appear to be expired. Is this alright? Does anybody have any different information concerning the author of the piano reduction? I googled and searched worldcat extensively, however I found nothing.

Max

My score doesn't have any information on who did the reduction either, but it's a US score (copyright 1951, 1952 by Mills Music and Ricordi, no 90061) with the note 'international copyright secured'.
The score has notes in English and the reduction has lots of indications of orchestration also in English (e.g. Add Brass, Strings pizz) added into the Ricordi score. I wouldn't have thought it was a reduction by Puccini though (I imagine he submitted a full score).

Free in both Canada and in the EU. Possibly still protected in USA.

Thanks, Carolus: IMSLP-EU will be happy of hosting it . By the way, the Ricordi and the Mills editions are originated from different sources, as remarked by Wikipedia:

At the end of World War II, Fr. Dante Del Fiorentino purchased an old copy of the manuscript of the Messa from the Vandini family in Lucca, imagining it was the original score. However, the autograph, in the possession of the Puccini family, was given by his daughter-in-law to Ricordi, Puccini's publishing firm. The ensuing legal battle was finally resolved by dividing the rights to the work between Ricordi and Mills Music (the publishers of Fiorentino's manuscript).

Max

Actually, I think we need to give more thought to the fact that the messa was first published in 195x. Assuming it was never published before (as the preface to my copy of the messa suggests), that edition might be an "editio princeps", which gives the publisher 70 years of protection from the date of publication here in the EU...

I believe there are not 70 years protection for editio princeps in the EU - only 25
see http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editio_pri ... eberrecht)

kalliwoda wrote:I believe there are not 70 years protection for editio princeps in the EU - only 25

Correct, at least in Italy (where I am located) and in The Netherlands (where the EU server, that is supposed to host this score, is located). Moreover, editio princeps in Europe only applies to works published for the first time after copyright protection expired, which is not the case as this work was published earlier than 70 years after Puccini's death.

Max