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Posted: |
Jan 10, 2012 - 9:37 PM
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By: |
JamesFitz
(Member)
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None of this is true anyway. Williams and Morricone, like all other Hollywood composers don't own their music and have no say as to whether it's performed or not. If the orchestral parts aren't saved from the recording sessions then there is a bit of control in that no one has the music. But this would mean Morricone traveling around the world with his own parts. It's possible.
But again any of the studios, who actually own the music, would gladly issue a performance or arrange my license to anyone interested in paying them for the privilege.
As for re-recordings. Copyright law permits artists to control first recordIngs. After that anyone can re-record with wha they call a compulsory license. So if you called up the studio who produced The Mission and said you wanted to arrange, play, and record the entire score of The Mission on kazoos and toy pianos, there's nothing Morricone could do legally to stop you.
Writing film scores is work for hire. Prop builders don't get to take the sets home with them because they don't own the sets. They were hired to do a job and turn it over. Same goes for film music.
All of the above is totally correct.
Once a recording is released you can do a re-recording as long as you do not alter the tune.....Silva Screen have been doing it for 25 years. What you cannot do without permission is record something still bound by "first recording rights". So re example I could not (without permission) record any of the cues from QUO VADIS that had not been commercially released. Fortunately I did get permission from EMI MUSIC to do this ... but any question about this was solved by FSM releasing all of the originals .. so I didn't need that permission in the end. (QUO VADIS being recorded in March...plug, plug, plug)
Some publishers ... especially of people like Sondheim, Cole Porter, Rodges & Hammerstein ... try ensure that only "approved orchestrations" are used but this has no really strong legal basis when recording for album. The publishers of WEST SIDE STORY insist that any new recording only uses the original pit orchestration rather than the film versoin...this is patently silly!
In the case of Ennio Morricone, he does seem to think that he and only he should record and perform his music! This is a crazy notion and one that his publishers, General Music try to enforce! They seem to have been successful with this, in that I recorded many years ago a 12 minute suite arranged by Mark McGurty of THE MISSION and which was released and is still avaible on CD. BUT, as I had hired the music from Themes and Variations, somehow General Music and EMI Music got that company to withdraw the music from their concert hire catalogue as the arrangement had not been arrproved by Mr Grumpy Morricone!
99% of all composers and publishers are overjoyed if anyone does a new recording or performs their music in concert ... it means extra revenue for both!
Just occasionally you get a composer or publisher who doesn't agree with what is a commonly accepted practice (if a wee bit of a grey area) ... maybe they just take themselves or their work too seriously?
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Posted: |
Jan 11, 2012 - 10:03 AM
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By: |
Morricone
(Member)
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None of this is true anyway. Williams and Morricone, like all other Hollywood composers don't own their music and have no say as to whether it's performed or not. If the orchestral parts aren't saved from the recording sessions then there is a bit of control in that no one has the music. But this would mean Morricone traveling around the world with his own parts. It's possible.
But again any of the studios, who actually own the music, would gladly issue a performance or arrange my license to anyone interested in paying them for the privilege.
As for re-recordings. Copyright law permits artists to control first recordIngs. After that anyone can re-record with wha they call a compulsory license. So if you called up the studio who produced The Mission and said you wanted to arrange, play, and record the entire score of The Mission on kazoos and toy pianos, there's nothing Morricone could do legally to stop you.
Writing film scores is work for hire. Prop builders don't get to take the sets home with them because they don't own the sets. They were hired to do a job and turn it over. Same goes for film music.
Well just off the top of my head actors are hired hands but there are more than a handful that can demand a piece of dollar one at the box office. So I believe Williams and Morricone, veterans and tops in their field, could demand and get more than your average composer. Then there is the basic idea you are a small but growing in popularity orchestra whose distinguishing feature is the emphasis on film music. What value at all is it to get on the wrong side of a Williams or a Morricone?
Anyway here is Steven's response to me mentioning performances like Munich and the Spaghetti Western Orchestra:
Some or all of these may have gotten special permission or a deal with the Morricone people. You never know what is happening behind the scenes. They just told us nothing is available and if it is out there it is illegal
Basically, Morricone kept all publishing rights. The production companies honor his contract that he has full power over live performance.
In the mean time he is consoling himself with the choral piecs he IS playing on February 11th:
Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Omen, Avatar, Saving Private Ryan, Edward Scissorhands, Independence Day, First Knight, Empire of the Sun, Agnus Dei (a choral setting of Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber) and The Abyss.
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It is well known Morricone does not like - nor encourage - his music to be re-recorded or performed.
He does not allow - or does his best to stop - the publication or the availability or access of the partitures. His partitures bible for concerts he carries around with him from country to country, he clutches like tablets of the ark and keeps them under lock and key.
The only time you see music sheets of his themes written up usually is if someone else has re-transcribed them from the music.
I once attended a concert in CastelFranco - small, local scale, where Alessandroni was conducting themes from Leone films with a 50 piece orchestra. As Morricone does not make his partitures available, Alesandroni had had to spend the entire summer writing out the parts for the conductor and the musicians.
What James F says is right, his music company do their best to enforce the unenforceable, and Morricone seems to use every trick in the book to put pressure on to get his way, using his status and power and influence and professional clout to keep some control of his massive ouevre. I think he likes people and artists to first show respect to him by approaching him formally. He may grant requests if he fancies it and there is a Y in the month, or he may not. Sometimes he turns a blind eye to things he knows are happening, sometimes he does not. Same as people who approach him with projects, like Morrissey and Hayley Westenra and Yo Yo Ma etc. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
This also applies to CD producers. Those that want to work with him again follow his instructions and are bound by his decisions, and if he wants a track taken off a new CD layout, for whatever eccentric reason, it comes off - if the CD producer wants to work with him again.
If on the other hand the CD company can deal with the music publishers and get access to tapes without Morricone involvement, then thats a different story it seems.
The other side of this coin is that perhaps Ennio is this strict way from experience. I guess we cannot imagine how many people out there would make money or take advantage or use his stuff over the past 50 years if he did not try at least to control it, limit it, etc. What seems fussy and counter-productive to us, may be his way of stopping a tidal wave of abuse.
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Was this Cinema in Concert linked in the first page ever put on dvd/cd/bluray?
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It's certainly possible. Williams has a legal thing where his music cannot be re-recorded by anybody else and used; has to be excerpts from the original recordings only. I'm not sure if it applies to all Williams music, but it did in the case of some animated shows that used some of his tunes.
If that is the case then I wonder how Ron Jones got around that for the Ruby Spears Superman cartoon.
Well, that was 29 years ago...
Lukas
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Sorry, you are right indeed. The concert on this CD took place in Munich in 2004. It was also a BR event, hence my mistake. It's a very nice CD though that, I believe, has seen little circulation outside Germany. 
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