Selling Public Domain Sheet Music?

[NightStryke]

If hypothetically I wanted to print public domain sheet music, and sell it myself. Would this be legal? Obviously I think that it would be, but I do have a couple situations I'm not sure about...

What if I wanted to sell Bach's "The Well Tempered Clavier Book 1". Schirmer published a version of this edited by Carl Czerny and published it in 1893, so technically it should be in the public domain, and I could do anything I would like with right?

My problem is that Schirmer is still selling this same version. So because they still exist and are still publishing it, do they have exclusive rights to it, after all it is their version.

Or, on the other hand, because it was published in 1893, does everyone have free dibs to do whatever they would like with it?

Thanks!

[KGill]

Any exclusive rights to the edition have long since expired; the initial Schirmer must have been at best a reengraving anyway, since Czerny died some 36 years before it was published. Anyone can do absolutely anything they want with it.

[Carolus]

It's absolutely legal - and there are several music publishers around who specialize in doing this very thing. Dover and Kalmus (including their LudwigMasters subsidiary) are two of the bigger ones, International, Lauren Publications, Classical Vocal Reprints are some others. There are also the reprint "robot" outfits like Kessinger and Nabu Press who generally produce very poor-quality reprints from things they download and process from Google Books and Internet archive.

[NightStryke]

That is really interesting, thanks guys!

One more follow up question. Another piece of sheet music that Schirmer sells is the "Kreutzer Forty-Two Studies or Caprices For the Violin). Now, I actually have this, and at the bottom of the first page of music there is this warning:

"Copyright 1894, 1923 (Renewed) by G. Schirmer, Inc. (ASCAP) New York, NY
International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
Warning: Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is
prohibited by Federal law and subject to criminal prosecution."

Does this mean that since they renewed the copyright in 1923, they still have exclusivity to it? And that I should double check to make sure they haven't renewed the copyright before I try to sell anything of the sort? Or what?

Or is this just a scarecrow?

Thanks again!

[Choralia]

Does this mean that since they renewed the copyright in 1923, they still have exclusivity to it? And that I should double check to make sure they haven't renewed the copyright before I try to sell anything of the sort? Or what?

For this question, as well as for other similar future questions, I would suggest you to upload the scores to IMSLP. The copyright review team will evaluate them, will determine whether they are public domain, and under which jurisdictions (three main jurisdiction classes are considered: U.S.A.; 50pma - e.g. Canada; 70 pma - e.g. Europe). If not public domain yet in some of them, they will also determine the year when they will become public domain then. By doing so, you will precisely know where and when you can lawfully sell those scores.

Max

[NightStryke]

Thank you for your help!

~Nightstryke

[Carolus]

The 1894 copyright, renewed in 1923, expired in 1952. Renewal on anything first published before 1907 only extended the term for another 28 years for a total of 56. Items first published 1907 through 1922 were protected for a total of 75 years if renewed. Those published 1923 and later could still be under copyright.