Sheet music / Editor query - who is the 'works' owner ?

Hi all,

Possibly something that's come up before but a search couldn't find anything.

Is there a correct LT standard for sheet music in reagrds to who the owner of the 'work' actually is ? Is it the actual composer and should this always be the case ?

I've found in my own library these two anomolies when I first inputted all my books:

https://www.librarything.com/author/barriosmangoragustn - is the composer

but this guy (who is kind of the official Barrios transcriber/editor - with an input far beyond say someone compiling beethoven's piano concernto's for example)

https://www.librarything.com/author/stoverrichard

What is the correct procedure here ?

thx
the Ig

By "owner", I take it you mean "author"? I would use the composer and/or lyricist.

In the case you cite, I would list Agustín Barrios Mangoré as the author and put Richard D. Stover in the "other author" field as "editor".

>2 lilithcat: In the case you cite, I would list Agustín Barrios Mangoré as the author and put Richard D. Stover in the "other author" field as "editor".

I agree on this, but it leads to a valid question that might come up if I ever get around to cataloging my sheet music. I'll give a few examples from actual material in my collection and see what people think. I can't use touchstones for some because they aren't in the database or I can't identify them.

Please note that I'm not trying to troll anybody; I'm genuinely interested in the responses. One reason I'm not trying to file my sheet music is the difficulties I'll describe here.

Example 1: Roses of Picardy, words by Fred E. Weatherly, music by Hayden Wood.

LibraryThing lists Wood as the primary author on the touchstone page but Weatherly on the record itself! On the cover, Weatherly is listed first but, Wood is listed in type that is twice as large. (The link leads to what appears to be the same edition that I have.) On the interior, Weatherly's name is on the left, Wood's is on the right. And Weatherly wrote the better-remembered song -- he wrote the words to "Danny Boy." Apparently Weatherly is listed as the primary author, but then why did Wood show up when I put in the touchstone?

Example 2: (Now it gets fun.) "The Yellow Rose of Texas," listed as "copyright 1955 by Planetary Music Publishing Corp." This is described, with no qualifications whatsoever as "by Dan George." Which it isn't. We don't know who wrote "The Yellow Rose of Texas," but the earliest known sheet music was published in 1858 by Firth, Pond & Co. George may well have written the piano arrangement, and changed some words, but he didn't write the song. So who is the author? FWIW, a proper attribution, I would say, is "Traditional, arranged by Dan George."

Example 3: (Now it gets really fun.) The Prisoner's Song, Words and Music by Guy Massey, Shapiro Bernstein & Co, 1924. This was recorded by Vernon Dalhart, and Dalhart credited Massey, a family member, as author. Later there was a copyright dispute, and Dalhart wanted more credit; I don't have sheet music with his name on it, but I believe it existed. And neither Dalhart nor Massey actually wrote the song (although Dalhart may have learned it from Massey); it is founded upon "Meet Me Tonight in the Moonlight" by Joseph A. Wade (who died in 1875), and very likely mixed with "Here's Adieu to All Judges and Juries," which was published in a broadside c. 1820, with a tune from perhaps yet a third source. Such is oral tradition! So who should list as author? Correct attribution would probably be "Traditional, adapted and arranged by Guy Massey and Vernon Dalhart."

Now in Examples 2 and 3, you could list it as by the listed author, but then all the versions of "The Yellow Rose" or "The Prisoner's Song/Meet Me Tonight" would not file together, and there isn't a particularly good relationship to link them (we need one for "traditional song, public domain, with a bunch of bogus copyright claims" :-).

So suggestions welcome. If there is a good answer, I might even start doing my sheet music. :-)

>3 waltzmn: I do not have an answer for sheet music (because I have none...) but with co-authors and weird credits, I usually stop and think which of the authors I would expect to find the book/thing under if things are physically ordered by author name. Whatever makes the most sense to me becomes the primary author. Everyone else gets secondary chairs.

Of course, that decision may be different for other people but at least it allows me to list my own books the way I want them...

>4 AnnieMod: I do not have an answer for sheet music (because I have none...) but with co-authors and weird credits, I usually stop and think which of the authors I would expect to find the book/thing under if things are physically ordered by author name.

Thanks for this. It seems like a reasonable suggestion, and it's been long enough that, if it were contrary to some policy, we'd have heard about it by now. :-)

For songs like The Yellow Rose of Texas, I would use the same procedures* we use for books like Beowulf that don't have a known author either but often do have a translator or compiler or editor.

And I'd say a lyricist/composer combo where one isn't consistently listed as the primary writer could similarly use the methods* we use to determine primary author for books with equal co-authors.

All the sheet music I've entered is compiled into books, though, I haven't cataloged my loose sheets. With the books I usually just go by whatever comes up for author* in the best library record I can find.

*chaos