My pastor wants to use a hymn from the St. Gregory hymnal for Holy Family this year and print it in a program. To whom or to what would I address my questions for copyright? Who holds the copyright on the St. Gregory hymnal?
Does the book itself contain information about the piece in question? The individual contents may or may not be under copyright, and may be owned by people other than the ones who published the hymnal.
I have a reprint edition from 2000 by Neumann Press; it seems to be based on a 1941 edition (with supplement). There is no entry in Stanford's copyright renewal database for the book, so I expect that the SATB edition is in the public domain.
We sang for a Lenten Program using music from the St Gregory Hymnal - 1920 edition last year and we were hoping to sell our recording. It was recorded during the performance. Am told that since the St Gregory Hymnal is older than 75 years and composers may be passed on, that we could use. Understanding the copyrighted laws this seems to fall into a different category, as most composers are now passed on or it is an ancient piece of music.
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