Are all the traditional Irish tunes considered public domain? If one were to hypothetically release an original recording of traditional session standards, are there any legalities that have to be considered, or is it pretty much fair game?
One thing I’ve learned in hosting a tune website is to be careful about your tunes. Not all tunes played at sessions are ‘traditional’. Many of them have modern composers. Those will fall under copyright more than likely, depending on the country they were composed in, and whether or not that country is a signer of the Berne Convention. If you’re going to make a commercial recording, you should make an effort to vet each tune to make sure it’s traditional. Otherwise, you might run into difficulties later.
In the US, at least (and most countries that are part of the Berne Convention), if you release a recording of traditional tunes, the recording is still an “original work” and is protected. It can’t be legally copied and distributed by someone who doesn’t have an agreement with the copyright holder.
What Wanderer said. I’ve been surprised that some of the tunes I’ve always thought of as traditional (and even seen recorded by respectable bands as trad) are, in fact, not.
It’s pretty easy to google tune names and find out the truth.
Tom
What do you mean by “traditional”?
If you look in tune-books you’ll often see the name of a composer at the top of a tune. “Mountain Road” was written by Michael Gorman, “Christmas Eve” was written by Tommy Coen, “Otter’s Holt” was written by Junior Crehan, “Hunter’s House” was written by Ed Reavy. You should check that any tune you record has copyright issues - it’s only moral. I was surprised to find one particular tune on my CD wasn’t “traditional” at all (Barrowburn Reel), and even some common tunes such as “The Butterfly” and “City of Savannah” have named authors.
The reverse side of the coin is the phenomenon I remember particularly from the folk scare years of the 60s, where contemporary musicians would take credit – or be given credit by their publishers – for songs and tunes which were clearly far older than themselves. Open a folksong book, and see “Cockles and Mussels, copyright 1965 by Pete Seeger”, or some such thing. I always wondered if these faux copyrights were ever enforceable. Unless you believe in Cecil Sharp’s “singing, dancing throng”, presumably some past individual was initially responsible for the words and/or tune, but certainly not the named copyright holder. Yes, it was supposed to be the particular written “arrangement” that was protected, but there was usually nothing to distinguish it from the common, traditional setting.
Of course, it’s possible for a tune to be both traditional and authored. On recordings, “traditional” means anonymous, but the two concepts are not the same. Whether or not a tune or song has entered the folk process is really a separate issue from its source.
My impression is that the composers of trad tunes are usually happy to release the rights to record and perform their pieces, as long as proper credit is given. In any case, research and asking for permission do seem like the way to proceed.
To a significant degree, yes. Many, however, can certainly use the income from their compositions, and you’ll get directed to the appropriate mechanical licensing agencies, such as Harry Fox (in the U.S.), MCPS (in the UK). Some are to be paid directly to the composer (or their family, heirs, or rights-holders).
Kevin Krell
Thx for the insightful feedback, everybody. Please bear in mind my intentions are to make sure that writers get compensated & that I don’t screw anyone over in whatever hypothetical future endeavours I pursue.
I had just noticed that some of the texts I’ve reviewed, like O’Neill’s, give no copyright indications whatsoever, except to indicate a grouping of tunes as O’Carolan’s. I’m guessing they were only able to publish the text as such because everything was public domain.
So I guess my real question is if I were to hypothetically put out a recording that was a mixture of my original (if derivative) compositions & some old tunes that I could trace back to the 1800’s at least, would I have to worry about copyright?
“O’Neill’s Music of Ireland 1850 Melodies” was published in 1903.
Anything found in there is public domain in the United States.
Here’s a source for free sheet music to every tune in that book.
great link - my version of O’Neill’s is the revised w/ all the questionable ornamentation that i was recently advised to use as fuel. thx!
Instinctivly, I want to say “I’m sure that would be fine”. But I know that the correct answer is that you need to check what the copyright laws in your country say.
I notice that you’re in Canada. Many people in this forum are US-based. I don’t know if the two countries have similar copyright laws, but would not be surprised to find some differences.