George Gershwin

More details

Under regular circumstances you would expect that music by George Gershwin is out of copyright and in the public domain, as he died more than 70 years ago. However in Gershwin’s case there is an extra complication – a lot (if not most) of George’s work was accompanied by lyrics written Ira Gershwin, who did not die until much later (1983). This clearly means that the lyrics are in copyright – this is not questionable. However you might well expect the music without lyrics to be generally available.

We at Score Exchange have spent a great deal of time, and effort to track down the current, actual copyright status of George Gershwin. This is the information that we have found:

1. As Score Exchange is based in the UK, UK law applies. This means that the situation might well be different in other countries. It also might mean that music that is allowed in the UK is not suitable for consumption in other countries.
2. In the UK, lyrics and music used to be treated as two separate ‘works’ for copyright purposes. This means that music of songs could be in the public domain before the lyrics or vice versa.
3. Amendments in 2011 to the EU copyright directive (2006/116/EC) made co-written work, such as songs with music by one person and lyrics by a different person, treated as a single work for copyright purposes. This means that such works will not become public domain work until 70 years after the last surviving co-author dies. You can see an EU press release about this here. (see the section on co-written works near the end)
4. The directive from 2011 has now been incorporated into UK law.

Initial conclusion

Based on these facts, and the legal advice we have received about music and lyrics of songs generally, these points would add up to mean that the work created by George Gershwin without Ira Gershwin’s involvement is currently in the public domain.

However…

Any work that was co-written with Ira Gershwin whether in terms of music or lyrics, is still covered by Ira’s copyright until 2053.

In Europe this copyright is administered and licensed where appropriate by Faber Music on behalf of Warner/Chappell who, as far as we are aware handle the rest of the world.

Final conclusion for now

At the time of writing (4th February 2015) Faber Music, have yet to provide us with a definitive list of works by either Ira or George Gershwin that were or were not co-written with the other.

While we do not have a definitive list, Faber Music has confirmed that the following list of works, are solo George Gershwin works, and therefore are now in the public domain:

• “RHAPSODY IN BLUE”,
• “THREE PIANO PRELUDES”,
• “CONCERTO IN F (FOR PIANO & ORCHESTRA)”
• “PROMENADE” a.k.a. “WALKING THE DOG”.

But then…

Some time has passed and it’s now October, 2017. We’ve been in contact with Faber again. They’re still not able to provide us with a definitive list of work by Ira Gershwin, but the Warner Chappell website has a lot more information than it used to. This link should show a list of works where Ira is officially listed as an author: http://uk.warnerchappell.com/search-by-writer/GERSHWIN IRA (CA)

Based on this, our current advice about Gershwin’s music is this:

1. Check the link above to make sure that Ira Gershwin is not linked to the work you wish to arrange and publish
2. Use the same search system to try to make sure that the music you want is actually a solo George Gershwin work, rather than a collaboration with someone else.

If neither Ira or anyone else is involved in the original work, then there’s a good chance that it’s a solo George Gershwin work making it in the public domain and available to use without requiring a license.

Further information

If you have any other information that would help to clarify anything that we are saying here, we would like to hear from you – please contact us.