musical settings of old poems

[gjohannes]

What is the name of your state? New York

Hello! I have created a series of musical settings of poems taken
from the anthology, "Come Hither". This anthology comprises poems ranging from medieval ballads to early 20th-century poems by such poets as Robert Frost and John Masefield, almost all of which I believe to be in the public domain.

The anthology holds 1923 and 1928 copyrights by the anthologist, Walter de la Mare, and a 1957 copyright by its publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. The book has also been reissued by Avenel Books in 1990; I don't know whether or not this publisher has a copyright interest in the book.

I wish to make a recording of the poems I have set to music, with the intention of selling it commercially. I intend to place the settings in the same order as they are found in the "Come
Hither" anthology. I would also like to credit the anthology in the packaging of this recording. In the anthology, the poems are grouped under a number of headings (e.g., "Morning and May", "Mother, Home and Sweetheart"), which I would also like to use in the packaging.

Given these considerations, I need to get an idea of what I will need to do in regards to the copyright holders of the anthology. I'm a bit uncertain, since this project appears to be a derivative work based on another derivative work.

TIA,
Gary Johannes

 

[ChicagoLawyer]

The poems themselves may be in the public domain, so you would be free to do with them as you wish. Obviously, where a specific work is not public domain, you would need the consent of that author.

Since you are essentially putting the anthology to music, you would need the anthology publisher's permission, especially where you are relying on their ordering of works, commentary and identifying them as the source of your information.

They do not "own" the individual works, at least not those that are public domain. But, you are right, in a sense, because your music project is somewhat derivative of the anthology publisher's interpretations and groupings of the poetic works. But, it is not derivative of the individual poems, as you are not changing their wording, etc.

Because you are relying on someone else's interpretations/groupings, you would need to acknowledge and credit their rights.

Think of it like this: If you were just doing a musical version of Romeo and Juliet, you would not need to credit any specific publisher of Shakespeare as the source of the lyrics. But if you were going to base your musical on someone else's version, then you would. For example, West Side Story is an interpretation of R&J, right. Suppose you were going to do WSS in rap. You are further interpreting that interpretation and would be a) derivative of it and b) required to acknowledge their copyrights.

Hope this makes sense. Good luck.

This is not intended to be legal advice. Rather, it is general information. We have no attorney client relationship you really should contact an attorney for specific advice.

 

[gjohannes]

Thanks, ChicagoLawyer! That's pretty much exactly what I suspected. I'll definitely be consulting a copyright attorney to check out the nitty-gritty, but it's good to have an overview beforehand. Thanks again.