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#How To Identify PD Music

Music and Lyrics and Arrangement

music - the melody or the rhythmical sequence of single notes lyrics - words that are sung with the music arrangement - specific harmony notes played with the melody

When doing public domain research, you must separately consider the PD status of the music, the lyrics, and the arrangement. Most often you will find a piece of sheet music with a PD copyright date which includes music, lyrics, and arrangement. The PD status for all are the same, and your research is done. But there are many instances where music is in the public domain, but the lyrics are still copyright protected. For example, an old tune called Aura Lee is in the public domain, but the Love Me Tender lyrics sung to the Aura Lee tune by Elvis Presley will still be under copyright protection for years. There are also instances, particularly in religious music, where an author takes ancient lyrics and writes new music--the lyrics are public domain, but the music is copyright protected.

The arrangement of a song can also be protected by copyright. A chord progression does not constitute an arrangement, and a chord progression alone cannot be protected by copyright. But the chord progression, harmonies, accompaniment rhythm, and musical fill phrases are together a creative work which define the style and feel of a song. Anyone can create and copyright an arrangement of any music in the public domain. So even though music and lyrics may be in the public domain, there frequently are numerous arrangements of any public domain work under copyright protection.

Derivative Work

When a musical work is first written down in a tangible form, the original is created. Changes to the original create a new work which is called a derivative work. The author of a work has exclusive rights not only to his original work, but also exclusive rights to make derivative works from the original. But anyone can create and copyright a derivative work from anything in the public domain. Therefore, a composition may have numerous derivative works protected by copyright even if the is original is the the public domain. We will leave it to the attorneys to differentiate between arrangement and derivative work . What you must know is that both are protected by copyright law.

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