New-York tribune., 1911-12-25
Composers and Performing
Rights.
Several Views and Some News
on a Vexed Question.

! charged is not much more than the ordinary
! sum paid for the hire Of the score ana
| parts-In fact. il Is considerably less than
| the fee asked by many foreign publishers.
The Justice OF asking such fees is appar-
| ent when IL is known that for an orchestral
| work the composers only chance of any
recunary reward for his labors is from the
performing fee. which I'm all cases goes 20
! the composer and not TO the publisher. In
| former days there were no such rewards
and the composer who wrote for the or
chestra only starved to death. In the pres
ent times he prefers to live and ENJOY HIS
work. which he has every right to do
| The reason why. the concerto was not per-
| formed I'm America last season was that no
! ,iolinist saw it to put it in his repertory'
II. W. GRAY.
| New York. Dec. lS 1911.
courteous note from an cmnently
courteous and fair-minded gentleman ahd'
az II chances. the representative on TINS
side Of the Atlantic OF the publishers ot
Sir Edward Elgar's concerto and sym
phonv. As such. IT would seem as If ne
ought TO have been fully informed of the
matter concerning which yhe writes in 50
temperate and kindly a tone And yet the
facts uDon which the remarks Of The Irio-
une's reviewer were based do not seem
TO be in his ken. l[ad they beer, IT Is
doubtful II so fair minded gentleman
would have questioned the statement that
the concerto had not been performed in
America because OF the size Of the fee de-
manded for the performing rights. and the
intimation that the fee was eXorbitant. II
To heqanCp
marked down" from s,Oo0 TO $50. between
the time when the fist application was
made, last January, and the first perform
ance. about a fortnight ago. The facts are
simple. and may as well he told. Last Jan
uary Nine. Maud Powell asked for the
privilege of first performing the concerto
I'm America at the festival which is given
every June in Norfolk. Conn. ard for the
privilege offered to pay fee Of 500. She
did not apply TO Mr. Gray but to Sir Ed
ward Elgar direct She was referred to
his agents. Noyello & Co, in London, and
from them a month later she received al
letter saying that since her proposition in
volved the postponement Of the first Amer
lean performance till June. the fee offered
was not sufficient; she might have the right
of first performance in June for sl,Goo
they would thereafter be glad to quote her
prices for subsequent performances. The
performing fee in London at the time was
seven guineas: IL is now ten eIineas in
the United States. which fee (as that OF
the $1,000 did includes the loan of the per-
forming material The performing rights
for the symphony cost about five times as
much as the concerto
These are the simple facts In the case. but
they contain a large invitation 10 comment.
coupled as they have been within the last
week with renewed activities on the part OF
the agent OF the French Society OF Authors,
Composers and Publishers who has COM
PEELED Nine. Nordica to pay g. for the priv
ilege Of singing song by Debussy. and no.
tice OF an effort to collect frCGi Nine Schu
mann-IIeink a similar fee for every time
that she has sung familiar air from Sam
son ct Dalila." The agent has shown plainly
enough that he recognizes that his proper
field lies In the regulation OF the bands in
hotel dining rooms and public eating houses.
There most lovers Of music will wish for
more power 10 his elbow TIL the nuisance
be suppressed But II it cost Sir Edward
Elgar the difference between fee OF $500
and what he received for the performances
by Mr.. Spalding simply because he thought
there was so frantic a popular desire to
hear his work in America before June, 1911. |
IL is likely 10 cost him a great deal more
before he makes discovery Of that desire
again. There is a homely admonition that
it is not wise TO cut ones own nose off to
spite ones face Granted there is no large
,ft ty,r, In Ia,
sition Of works in the larger forms, is It not
better 10 encourage the performance Of
them than to put a ban on them? A wish
was expressed in this journal by it's re-
viewer that sir Edward Elgar's second SYM
phony might be heard again. VIII it be?
All our larger musical institutions depend
for existence upon the philanthropy Of un-
selfish promoters. They are fond Of music !
or they would not pay the sacrifice entailed
by offering its larger manifestations TO the
public Shall they be asked 10 double their
sacrifices, 50 that a composer who felt a
call 10 write a symphony may be remuner-
ated perhaps beyond all reason. when there
is no evidence Of public craving for the
work? The laborer is worthy Of his hire, |
but is he entitled 10 demand ten years re-
ward in the first. six months? If his work is
worth anything IT will be worth more in ten
years than II is to-day. The folly OF using
real or supposed public curiosity 10 enforce
exorbitant demands was vividly illustrated
in Richard STRAUSS procedure I'm refusing
performing rights for his latest opera 10
all theatres which would not enter into a
contract also TO perform his earlier works. !
BY this means he succeeded i'm getting fees
out of a few German theatres but we have
not observed that the process has revived
"Guntram" or put new life into "Salome"
or "Elektra" Neither have the skies been
rent with cries Of anguish in localities
where the delectable "Rosencavalier' has
been withheld from the public by managers
who, like our philanthropists believe that
even in art there ought TO he some relation
between supply and demand.
II ls scarcely worth while to comment on
the folly Of the course which asks a fee
from a singer for singing a song or an
instrumentalist for playing short solo.
In these cases composer and publisher re-
ceiye their reward from the sale OF the
music and this sale depends almost wholly
upon the publicity given by performance.
So we'll is this principle understood that
the custom prevailed for decades in Eng
land Of paying a fee 10 the singer every
time that a song In which the publisher
felt a special interest was sung. more
common practice is for publishers TO under
take the printing Of works Of magnitude
for which a small sale IS a foregone con
clusIon on condition that popular COM
.,f. IN n