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orchestraltrpt Veteran Member
Joined: 04 Mar 2003 Posts: 163
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 7:31 pm Post subject: Hymn Descant / Lines - legal question |
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Hi! I'm a trumpet player / composer / arranger and I'm looking to potentially publish online a book of hymn descants that I have used over the years for my own use.
Has anyone done anything similar? I am particularly curious about any copyright issues regarding copyrighted hymn material.
I assume if I only provide my original descants and no other copyrighted material all will be ok.
Thanks for your help, |
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legallyloud Regular Member
Joined: 14 Mar 2011 Posts: 16
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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I am an attorney but copyright is not my specialty. Generally speaking, the chord changes under your descants are not copyrightable in and of themselves. But, the descants may be considered derivative works of the original hymns. In that case, you would need arrainging rights from the copyright owner. It is not so cut and dry. Be careful. Perhaps someone with more experience in this area can help further.
To elaborate a little: many of the hymns you would probably use are public domain. Do whatever you want with those.
If you composed a new song using only the chord changes to a copyrighted hymn but changed all other elements, you would likely have an original composition that would not be controlled by the original copyright owner. But, with a descant, you are not making an all original composition. You are making a new voice line for an existing composition. That may be considered a derivative work.
Hope this helps. Anyone else dealt with this situation before? |
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trickg Heavyweight Member
Joined: 02 Jan 2002 Posts: 5677 Location: Glen Burnie, Maryland
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 5:22 am Post subject: |
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I don't know if this will help or not - it's possible that some of the hymns you have written descants for would be in the public domain, but it's possible that there are a number of them that are still copyrighted.
I don't know how any of that applies though - you are composing original descants against pre-established works, so I don't know how the copyright would apply.
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/hymns-public-domain-and-copyright _________________ Patrick Gleason
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"95% of the average 'weekend warrior's' problems will be solved by an additional 30 minutes of insightful practice." - PLP |
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orchestraltrpt Veteran Member
Joined: 04 Mar 2003 Posts: 163
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 3:19 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for your insight. I will stick to public domain hymns for anything released.
Stay tuned! Thanks, |
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