The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-05-26

an agreement to pay royalties. or course,
few scores get away. One OF the men
who has bought one with the agreement
not TO use 1t, dies, and the score is sold.
What does the man who buys the score
then care for the agreement? 1t does not
bind him. / believe the Metropolitan
Opera Company has had it's score of
Carmen for long time.
"A few years ago when 'Cavalleria
Rusticana' and 'Pagliacci' were first pro-
duced, in Italy, Hinrichs was giving opera
in Philadelphia. A couple OF weeks after
the performances in italy he announced
that he would give these two works in
Philadelphia. We were very much sur
prised and wondered where he had got
the scores-we had the American rights
for these two works. l asked Hinrichs
afterward, and he said that he got the
scores in Italy You see, many Italian
orchestra players make business OF
furnishing scores to Russia. the United
States and other countries. They have a
sort of ring. and have an understanding,
l suppose with the librarian. The vari-
Gus players copy Off their parts-they will
sit up all night to do it-and the full
score Is made up from the Individual
parts. No one would dare to do that
sort of thing in Germany; the penalties
there are too severe.
1.-The librarian of congress has recently
decided that in recognition of copyrights
on foreign works he will consider the ma
tionality of the author, not that of the
publisher. This decision VIII have some
interesting effects. Take the case of
Grieg for example. Grieg is a Norweg-
ian, and this country has no copyright
agreement with Norway. But Gregs
American rights have been protected be-
cause his works have been published by
the German house of Peters-we have a
copyright agreement with Germany, you
know. So no one here in America has
ventured to print an unauthorized edition
of Grieg's works, but there is nothing to
prevent anyone from doing so. We ex-
perienced something of this sort short
time ago. We published a work by a
young Hollander. who has lived in this
city for eight years When we tried to
get It copyrighted the authorities In
Washington noticed the Van in the COM
posers name and refused to give us the
rights to the work. We explained that
the composer had been a resident of New
York for eight years, but they said that
being a resident was not enough; the au-
thor must be citizen as well. This
seems rather hard, but suppose. after
all, the only thing to ne said is that Nor
way and Holland ought to get a copy
right agreement with this country. Roy
aties are paid sometimes, however, as a
matter of honor.
I'VE are constantly having discussions
with the authorities in Washington over
copyrights and similar matters. and some
very interesting questions arise from time
to time. A while ago the Typographical
unions secured a provision in the tariff
laws that books not printed from types
set in this country should pay a heavy
tariff Now some music is printed from
types. and the Typographical unions tried
consequently to have music ciassed as
books. This is the ruling In England
there a sheet of music rs a book But
music is not a book here. Then, again,
some music is printed by lithographing
process. and an effort was made by lith-
ographers TO have II classed as iitho-
graphs. on which there was a very high
tariff. On the other hand. the tariff laws
put no duty on books printed in a foreign
language. and a ruling was obtained
CHASING scores with German words as
German books; consequently they were
admitted free.
Speaking OF scores, many can be OBJ
I talned only in manuscript This is partly
I because a young composer cannot always
find a publisher for a large work. partly
because a work can be controlled as long
I as 1t is in manuscript, Recently, how
ever. many fun scores have been pub
| lshed In cheap editions N. Y. Times.