Bach scores
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 8:25 am
OK, here are the basic facts for anyone intrested:
The Bach Gesselschaft Edtion of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach was published in a series of volumes from 1851-1900. These volumes are public domain worldwide. The last surviving editor died a century ago in 1906. Scanning volumes does not place a work into copyright. Something must be added to the original, like a new preface, new editorial markings, etc. in order to claim copyright for a derivative work.
In some countries - Germany for example - there is a particular, limited class of copyright granted to so-called "critical editions." The term for such "scientific" works - when it is simply a re-engraving of existing public domain material - is 25 years from date of publication. The BGE varied in quality, depending upon the individual editor in quesion. The BGE volumes edited by Wilhelm Rust (1822-1892) were generally quite good and often differ little from their modern counterparts published in the Neue Bach Ausgabe. Other editors were less meticulous than Rust. In a few cases, manuscripts and other source material have surfaced which resulted in significant changes.
At any rate, the bottom line is that there is nothing in the Bach Gesellschaft Edtion that is protected by copyright - not a single page. This stands in stark contrast to other works found on this site, like Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" which is protected by copyright around the world (Barber died in 1981 - considerably less than 70 years ago, and the title in question was published well after 1922 in the USA.)
The Bach Gesselschaft Edtion of the complete works of Johann Sebastian Bach was published in a series of volumes from 1851-1900. These volumes are public domain worldwide. The last surviving editor died a century ago in 1906. Scanning volumes does not place a work into copyright. Something must be added to the original, like a new preface, new editorial markings, etc. in order to claim copyright for a derivative work.
In some countries - Germany for example - there is a particular, limited class of copyright granted to so-called "critical editions." The term for such "scientific" works - when it is simply a re-engraving of existing public domain material - is 25 years from date of publication. The BGE varied in quality, depending upon the individual editor in quesion. The BGE volumes edited by Wilhelm Rust (1822-1892) were generally quite good and often differ little from their modern counterparts published in the Neue Bach Ausgabe. Other editors were less meticulous than Rust. In a few cases, manuscripts and other source material have surfaced which resulted in significant changes.
At any rate, the bottom line is that there is nothing in the Bach Gesellschaft Edtion that is protected by copyright - not a single page. This stands in stark contrast to other works found on this site, like Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings" which is protected by copyright around the world (Barber died in 1981 - considerably less than 70 years ago, and the title in question was published well after 1922 in the USA.)
