IMSLP Forums

* Old Poem (1920)
* Pastorale for voice (1921)
* Honkytonk Blues (1921)
* Three Moods for piano (1921)
* Four Motets for mixed voices (1921)
** Help us, O Lord
** Sing ye Praises to our King
** Have Mercy on us, O My Lord
** Thou, O Jehovah, Abideth Forever
* Sonata in G Major for piano (1921)
* Petit Portrait for piano (1921)
* Alone for voice (1922)
* Cortege Macabre for orchestra (1923)
* As It Fell Upon a Day for voice, flute, and clarinet (1923)

Ok that is quite a number of pieces there, do you have any evidence of the first publication of each of those pieces that you can link here? Keep in mind even though they could have been first composed before 1924, they must be first published also before then as well!

Hi, Copland nut here. Several of Copland's earliest works (pre 1925) were not officially published until very late in his life.

Four Motets was not published by Boosey & Hawkes until 1979
Pastorale published by B&H in 1979
Petit Portrait published by B&H in 1981
Three Moods published by B&H in 1982

I couldn't find original publication years for Cortege Macabre and As it Fell Upon Day. I think both were originally published by Boosey which would date them after 1938 (when Copland's longtime relationship with the publisher first started). The Cortege was later withdrawn from his official catalog and can only be heard in the full ballet of Grohg (which remains unpublished but has been recorded a few times). The Cortege was notably not included in the Dance Symphony, which consisted of extracts from the Grohg ballet.

HOWEVER

Old Poem was indeed originally published by Maurice Senart in 1921, much like the other early work Passacaglia (1922), which can already be found here on IMSLP. Senart's catalog was bought by Salabert in 1941, hence why the Passacaglia featured on this site is printed by them, not Senart.

Most of my information came from Neil Butterworth's book "The Music of Aaron Copland." https://archive.org/details/musicofaaroncopl00butt

Like I pointed out already they must be first published before 1924 for us to accept them. What you pointed out with those few pieces is that they are not Public Domain anywhere then.

I was actually trying to support your point with specifics about how most of them were not in public domain yet.

"Old Poem" though would appear to be in the public domain. I do not have the sheet music for this piece though.

There are two works for women's chorus written by Copland, "An Immorality" and "The House on the Hill" that were first published in 1926 by E.C. Schirmer as "Two Choruses."

Links to support that first publication date:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-c ... y-title/a/
https://www.loc.gov/collections/aaron-c ... y-title/h/
https://www.aaroncopland.com/works/two-choruses/
https://www.worldcat.org/title/two-comp ... ef_results

My question about how copyright works: when these two pieces enter the public domain in the US next January, are later printings of them as separate pieces by Boosey & Hawkes considered public domain at that point as well?