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Copyright on facsimiles?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 7:52 pm
by Will W W
I have a facsimile of Carl Maria von Weber's Horn Concertino, autographed hand-written verson from the German State Library. The facsimile was printed in 1986. The work is public domain but is there copyright on the facsimile?

I also have miniature scores from Eulenburg, Boosey & Hawkes, and Philharmonia. Are those publishers public domain?

Last question - if I'm scanning any of the above, what format should I make the scans?

Thanks!

Posted: Wed May 21, 2008 9:39 pm
by Carolus
A facsimile of a manuscript for a unambiguously public-domain work (creator dead more than 70 years - like Weber) has no copyright status in either Canada or the United States. Such images may be protected under the laws of other countries, however. As long as you do not reproduce an editor's preface, or other new material, you can scan and upload all the facsimiles (of this nature) you have access to. IMSLP will absolutely welcome the contribution after we re-open in July.

Format depends to a degree on what the intended use of the final product is. For ease of uploading and printing, 300-600 ppi monochrome TIFFs are ideal. For viewing all the details of manuscripts on screen at high magnification, color JPEGs at 150-300 ppi work very nicely. The color JPEGs result in large file sizes (the color facsimile PDF of the first edition score of Haydn's Creation at the Danish Royal Library site is more than 100MB).

As for publishers, we can't guess what is public domain or copyright based only on who the publisher is. There are some works issued by the publishers you mention that are public domain, while others are under copyright.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 2:38 am
by horndude77
I'm very excited for the Weber :).

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 3:33 am
by Will W W
Thank you Carolus for your reply. Should I make the images into one pdf file then?

Horndude - the score is hand-written and a beast to work through. So please expect some squinting and head-scratching :lol:

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:22 am
by aldona
Horndude is a genius at converting old scores to beautifully readable new typesets, so there should be no problem there. 8)

Those miniature scores you have...any Schubert symphonies among them? or incidental music to Rosamunde?

(doing inventory for when IMSLP comes back up...working towards eventually having a complete Schubert page)

aldona

Schubert

Posted: Thu May 22, 2008 7:33 pm
by Will W W
Hi aldona,

In terms of Schubert, I have Unfinished Symphony D. 759, Quartettsatz D. 703, and String Quartet in D major D. 94. They are all edition Eulenburg.

Edit: Just found String Quartet in C major D. 956, edition Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag. I don't have anything else by Schubert.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 12:33 am
by aldona
Hmmm...maybe best to wait until IMSLP is back up and check what is already there, before you start scanning too many things...I seem to remember that the "Unfinished Symphony" was the only one of Schubert's symphonies for which a full score was already uploaded before IMSLP went down, and I think all the string quartets were already there (Dover reprints).

(to the moderators - maybe one of the first bits of IMSLP to be resurrected, for the benefit of all our new and potential contributors, could be an up-to-date wish list?)

Just my thoughts...

aldona

Posted: Fri May 23, 2008 12:54 am
by Will W W
For certain works, Wikipedia has links saying "____________ was available at IMSLP." However the Schuberts are not linked. Is there any way to know if they are in the database?

Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 1:34 am
by imslp
aldona wrote:(to the moderators - maybe one of the first bits of IMSLP to be resurrected, for the benefit of all our new and potential contributors, could be an up-to-date wish list?)
Here we go:
  • Symphonies 1-7,9 in full score (Symphony 8 "Unfinished" already uploaded)
  • All Masses in full score (Masses 1-6, Deutsche Messe D.872 and Deutsche Trauermesse D.621)
  • 'Rosamunde', D 797 (overture and complete incidental music)
  • Octet D.803 (score and/or parts)
  • Octet D.72 (score and/or parts)
  • Nonet for winds D.79 ("Eine Kleine Trauermusik") (score and/or parts)
  • Piano Sonata in D major D.850 (op.53), with corrected 2nd part
  • Piano Sonata in A major D.959, with corrected 4th part
  • Operas/Stage Works (full scores):
    • Rosamunde, D.797 (overture and complete incidental music)
    • Alfonso und Estrella, D.732
    • Des Teufels Lustschloss, D.84
    • Die Zauberharfe, D.644
    • Die Zwillingsbrüder, D.647
    • Die Verschworenen, D.787
The Schubert category is actually quite complete, which is the reason for the rather short list :) For the rest of the wishlist, if one of the other admins would be willing to move the page(s) temporarily to another wiki that'd be very welcome; I'm currently very swamped.

I have Schubert Symphony #6...

Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:01 am
by homerdundas
full size score, I'll scan it and upload after July 1 :D

Posted: Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:57 am
by Carolus
Will WW, It's always best to merge as many pages as one practically can into a single PDF file. The only limitation is file size, simply because a huge single file (like the Haydn Creation at the Danish Royal Library) can take a long time to upload - and download.

Finished the Weber

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:52 pm
by Will W W
Hey guys,

I've finished scanning the Weber and it's currently at 35 colour pages, 340 MB. If I resize it, I can bring it down to 70 MB. Will the resized version be acceptable? (I can pm someone a link to the pic)

WWW

Holy Cow!

Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 5:37 pm
by homerdundas
Did you say 340MB?! Hey - not all of us have a fibre link! By comparison, the scans I have been preparing for upload are 20-40KB per page, a factor of 500 smaller. (albeit, black dots on a white background). If you are scanning a monochrome facsimile image, I suggest you scan to black and white TIFF images, greyscale images will reduce the size considerably. If you are truly scanning a colour image - perhaps scan black and white images anyway, for ease of downloading. I'm sure the site will accommodate both when it comes up again.
Homer.

LOL

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 1:12 am
by Will W W
The copy of the Weber I'm scanning is a facsimile, a reproduction of the original handwritten and autographed score. Carolus said the scanned format depends on the use, so I scanned it in colour first because I think colour can be converted to monochrome.
I have finished the scanning and cropping, so my question now is what size I should make it for ease of uploading, colour and/or monochrome. Also, horndude mentioned making a typeset from the facsimile, so I want to know if the image quality of the resized version will be good enough for the job.

Posted: Tue Jun 10, 2008 5:06 am
by horndude77
Color is used often for facsimile scans, but we can probably make it smaller. Monochrome or black and white might work here instead of color. PM me the link, I'll take a look.