Johann Sebastian Bach (?), Jesu meine Freude, BWV Anh. II 58
Since I started transcribing the works from BWV Anhang II (the list of works that are possibly composed by Johann Sebastian Bach, but the authorship of which is uncertain) I read a bit more about these spurious works. There are a lot more of them than I knew. The list of possible works goes beyond the BWV-catalogue, some works are catalogued as not having a BWV number (hence called BWV deest) and some of works are listed in other catalogues, like Emans. So, although the organs works in BWV Anhang II go on to number 79, reaching that number won’t mean the end of this series of possible organ works by J.S. Bach.
The last published work in this series was BWV Anh II 54. BWV Anh II 55 I already published one and a half years ago. The numbers 56 and 57 are known these days to be composed by Telemann and Vogler respectively.
Regrettably, I do not have a manuscript source for this work. I based this transcription on a midi-file I found online. I’m not sure what this means for copy rights. The midi was probably based on a commercial edition, now I transcribe the midi back to written music. Do I infringe the copyright of the original edition or not? I do not know what edition that was, yet that’s perhaps not an excuse. So it is a bit reluctantly that I put up this score.
The music itself is a very good prelude to the famous melody of “Jesu meine Freude”. I quite like the triple meter that Bach (?) uses for the accompaniment. The elegant way the music moves harmonically lends credebility to Bach as author.
The recording was done on the sample set of the Silbermann organ of the Stadtkirche Zöblitz by Prospectum.
Score
Bach, BWV Anh II 58 Jesu, meine Freude
Performance
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http://www.tobis-notenarchiv.de/bach/19-Anhang_II/02-Orgelwerke/BWV_Anh_058.pdf
Tobi has transcribed large amounts of Bach’s and attributed music, and has taken the appropriate actions regarding copyright. It is a website well worth a visit.
Of course I know of Tobi’s Notenarchiv. His version of BWV Anh II 58 is almost the same as mine. Yet I do not know what his source(s) (are), and how he has taken care of copy right issues. I could not find anything of that on his site. So, to be on the safe side, I do not use his scores as a source for my own.
A work that has not been published (i.e. made known to the public through an edition or a recording) is the property of the owner of the manuscript.
this is called a “posthumous work” explotaton right.
If the owner of the manuscript decides to publish the work, he is granted by law a copyright for 25 years post publication. This right to explote the work is similar to that that would have been granted to the author (or his heirs) of the work if this one had died less than 70 years ago.
This is the law in all E.U. Countries since roughly 1990.
in the US, the term is more complicated, but it usually is 95 years post publication, and called “copyright”.
Hence, if the library owns the manuscript, therefore you have to ask the library authorisation to publish the work during the period following the first publication (25 y in EU, 95 y in US).
If the library has transfered the rights to an editor, then you have to ask the editor, which usually will refuse the right for you to publish, since it is his source for business.
Thanks for the information. That’ll need some study…