IMSLP Forums

Any way if this is obtainable? Maybe, yes, no?

A lot of Bartok's works will suffer from the [TB] block, since they are still under copyright in the US and EU -- since he died in 1945, his works will only be public domain in Europe in 2016. In the US, only those works published before 1923 are in the public domain. The Viola Concerto was one of the last works he wrote, so it was not written early enough to qualify for this. You will have to buy this. Try Sheet Music Plus, or JW Pepper.

You might also want to check death dates of the composers you ask for. It would give you a quicker answer.

In addition to the good advice provided by Steltz, this concerto (Bartók's Viola Concerto) was one of the last pieces he wrote and was left in an incomplete state at the time of his death. It was completed by several individuals, notably his friend and pupil, Tibor Serly, and his son, Peter Bartók. Because these individuals died less than 50 years ago or are still living (in the case of Peter), none of these completions are eligible to be uploaded to IMSLP as they are copyright around the world. The only thing that would be permissible is the incomplete manuscript of the concerto.

The complete Set of Parts was available, but had to be Deleted. Thus being edited by Tibor Serly who died in 1979ish or so..

mk.49

hrm. would even the incomplete manuscript be permissible? I guess that depends strongly on manuscript-related copyright laws... (it is not a "no-brainer yes". especially for a work composed fairly recently when it comes to US copyright, and even when it comes to earlier works by various composers, etc.
I wonder for instance how manuscript law would treat the manuscript of another Bartók work, the early symphony in E-flat (which I think is complete, one movement of which may have been published early on- all of it has been performed and broadcast recently, though that might have been a completion of an incomplete work, I haven't looked into this.)

Since the work (in its completed form, of course) was published not long after Bartok's death (late 1940s, in any case, though I don't remember the exact date offhand), it would be completely permissible to have the original sketches here, though they would be inaccessible until 2016. The only real issues for manuscript copyright occur when the work has either not yet been published or was published very recently (within the last 25 years).

I had actually looked over the parts, (the 1st Violin part I uploaded, if anyone was able to browse the part -IE copyright reviewers) has possibly overlooked that, infact, these parts are not the complete revised parts edited, and prepared by Tibor Serly. These are a much earlier revision. I am researching these parts, as they came from a filing cabinet of a gentleman who was with Utah Symphony, up until his death in 2008. Clovis Lark, who is current Principal Music Librarian is closest friends with Peter Bartok, he will have the information I need.

mk.49

There was a facsimile edition of Bartók’s sketches published many years ago, so I am sure there is the potential for there to have been more than one attempt at completing the work; nevertheless, the only permissible upload would be the sketches.

Regards, PML

Apologies if I am irritating by asking a question that's been explained the answer to before, and most people know already, but - if it's legal for Australians & New Zealanders (and it looks like Canadians too) to both upload and access by the way of download, why can't we currently upload the Viola Concerto to IMSLP?

If the server is in Canada, then there's nothing illegal about it, right?

Also, I have started a new thread about the whole issue of Australia/New Zealand (and I guess Canada) freedoms and IMSLP, but it has not been approved yet so I cannot link to it right now (I hope threads/posts aren't always pre-moderated but that it's just cos it was my first post in the forum). It will appear in the regional forum.

I am trying to make sense of it all, and would like to help if there's any way I can to make it possible to upload and host and link from IMSLP, works that are PD in Au/NZ/Ca.

Hi Epos.

Some pieces, like the Bartok viola concerto, are public domain in neither the US nor the European Union, and are thus marked "[TB]", which stands for "Technical Block". These scores have been blocked because they are not legal to download in both of the areas from which IMSLP receives the most traffic. Since we can't selectively "IP block", it might open us up to legal issues down the road. I understand your frustration, as you live in New Zealand where copyright laws are less strict, but the policy to keep files blocked is here for a reason.

Hope this helps -

Nick