Piobaireachd

[RyanKavanagh]

I am interested in getting some Piobaireachd into the IMSLP's collection. Piobaireachd can be considered to be the "classical" music of the Great Highland Bagpipes. Quoting the Piobaireachd society's homepage,

When the Highlands and Islands of Scotland adopted the bagpipe, perhaps some four hundred years ago, they began to develop the instrument and its music to suit their needs and tastes.

What emerged was the instrument we know today and a form of music, piobaireachd, which is unique to the instrument. It is a very stylized form of music. There is freedom in the theme or "ground" of the piobaireachd to express joy, sadness, or sometimes in the "gathering" tunes , a peremptory warning or call to arms.

Thereafter the theme is repeated and underlined in a series of variations, which usually progress to the "crunluath" variation where the piper's fingers give a dazzling technical display of embellishment or gracenotes.

For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%ACobaireachd and the Piobaireachd society, http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/.

http://imslp.org/wiki/Public_domain states that:

Reprint editions of publications that are in public domain are not subject to copyright in Canada, the USA, the EU, and most (if not all) or the world. This is not only the case for paper reprints, but also for scanned reprints available on digital media or on the web. No copyright can be claimed on the scanning of a public domain work (see Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp. case), regardless of whether the original scanned is in printed or manuscript form.

However, the Piobaireachd society states that:

Many of the items published here belong to the The National Library of Scotland and the Library states that these are available for non-commercial playing and study uses only, including downloading and printing. Written permission for any other uses (including reproduction, publication, adaptation, manipulation of images, rental and leasing) must be obtained form the Manuscripts Collections Division of the National Library of Scotland.

-- http://www.piobaireachd.co.uk/index.php ... &Itemid=97

Seeing that almost all piobaireachd composers have been dead for over a hundred and fifty some years and any editors at least a hundred, from what I can tell, their music can safely be deemed to be in the public domain. Can the National Library of Scotland blurb be safely ignored?

[Carolus]

The only issue that can arise is if the particular item in question is an arrangement or adaptation of the public domain original. Mere scans don't qualify as arrangements or adaptations under most copyright laws.

[RyanKavanagh]

No, they're all scans of previously publish manuscripts (or books) published in the early to mid 1800s.