Clearance
It’s been a while since I posted here, but then again, time waits for no man.
I just completed (as of a few weeks ago) a new piece for soprano Helen Funston entitled Milky Way. It’s scored for soprano, cello and percussion trio, and it incorporates fragments of text taken from Fernando Pessoa‘s poem Milky Way from the Book of Disquiet. I’m very proud of the work, as I ventured out into a lot of new territory (percussion writing is very overwhelming to me, as is vocal writing) to accomplish it. There is some fun textural moments, and a lot of fun choreography for the percussionists, some lovely lyrical moments, and to top it off it has two alternate endings!
It’s also time for awards submissions… and guess what? I don’t know if I can send this piece out.
I’m pretty unfamiliar with copyright clearance in the use of texts for music, and I have no intention of publishing this work anytime soon so I won’t have to deal with it this time, but from what I gather it’s a tricky set of hoops to jump through. Just about every award there is requires you to submit documentation that the text is either in the public domain, or that you have clearance from the publisher to use it. Makes sense, except I have no idea as to how one would get permission.
I poked around on the publisher’s website and when I tried to submit a request for permission, the publisher’s website told me that they do not have rights over the material. Apparently, the UK branch of the publisher may have it, but it doesn’t seem certain. For the moment, I seem to be stonewalled.
I want to submit this piece to competitions, but if I can’t get clearance from the publisher to do it, how can it be done?
Any thoughts/suggestions as to how one would go about this?
Or would it just be easier to write the text myself or have a friend do it for future works?
