Hildegard chant copyrights
  • GloriaPatri
    Posts: 3
    Anyone have experience with composing a new work based on Hildegard text/chant that might be recorded? Latin text, chant from original codex are public domain, but my initial research points toward Hildegard Publishing Company requiring licensing for recordings.
    Has anyone dealt with securing clearance to quote, develop, create and record with ideas from something of Hildegard’s music? If so, how difficult was it to gain permission?
  • NoahLovinsNoahLovins
    Posts: 23
    If anyone tries to claim copyright infringement off of melodies contained in a 900-year old codex that is freely and publicly accessible, they are wrong
    Thanked by 1GloriaPatri
  • GloriaPatri
    Posts: 3
    It’s more about the recording/distribution issue- online searches bring back Hildegard Publishing Company claiming integrity controls over her works or anything created from them.
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,440
    If you’re using a modern engraved score, modern scholarly edition, or a transcription/arrangement made relatively recently, those may be copyrighted.

    Hildegard Publishing Company's typesetting, editorial decisions, translations, and layout can be copyright protected even though the original chant isn’t.

    If you're working from her original works, those are clearly public domain and certainly not under copyright.
    Thanked by 4RomanticStrings tomjaw probe GloriaPatri
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 110
    Accoridng to its website, the "Hildegard Publishing Company" is based in the US, so the following might not apply, but for other publications made by German publishers this info might be a useful.

    According to German copyright, an editor can claim full copyright (including performance rights) for posthumously published works for 25 years. There was an interesting lawsuit in the early 2000s about Vivaldi's opera "Montezuma". The Berlin "Singakademie" had a published a scan of a copy found in its archive and claimed copyright on the opera. The main point in the lawsuit was whether the opera had already been published in the 18th century or not. At that time, opera part books were not printed, but manually copied on demand, and the question was, whether it had been possible in the 18th century to obtain such a "copy on demand" of "Montezuma".
    Thanked by 2irishtenor GloriaPatri
  • GloriaPatri
    Posts: 3
    Thanks for all the different feedback- I opted for permission for a translation use and composing from a notation made from the codex from a site that uses Creative Commons copyright, despite the chant and Codex in public domain. They were very quick to give permission for use and recording, as long as I use their permission note.

    From what I’ve discovered with so many types of sacred resources, there seems to be a lot of sticky exceptions about text, score, particular source info and copyright. Despite the public domain age of the original text/codex- there are forums, studies and societies that promote a lot of transcription and score details. They clarify and standardize much of the Codex as it is heard today. I suspect most composers, performers, and directors will need to access them in some way- either directly or, unknowingly, in indirect fashion via recording resources, etc., whose performances employ those resources. My approach ultimately came down to this adage: it’s always better to be respectful and extra cautious with copyright. One never knows what kind of life a piece or particular performance may travel, so clearing that hurdle pre-creation is a necessary due diligence for every text use in this complex era of ancient texts, expanded upon through centuries of scholarship, score adaptations, recordings and publishers, both in print and online.

    Thank you all for your thoughts!
    Thanked by 1chonak
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