Choral work based on Robert Frost poem repurposed after copyright problems

Boing Boing pal Andrea James writes, "Interesting backstory. The original choral work "Sleep" was set to Robert Frost's 'Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.' Then came the legal tussle. Eric Whitacre explains..."

After a LONG legal battle (many letters, many representatives), the estate of Robert Frost and their publisher, Henry Holt Inc., sternly and formally forbid me from using the poem for publication or performance until the poem became public domain in 2038. I decided that I would ask my friend and brilliant poet Charles Anthony Silvestri ... to set new words to the music I had already written.

"So," Andrea writes, "Silvestri created a poem with the exact cadence of the Frost work. The result is this. I always love these kinds of crowdsourced art in response to these kinds of creative disputes!"

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Sagodjur

OMG! They admitted to stealing Robert Frost’s cadence! They must be held liable for this infringement. How are dead poets supposed to be incentivized to write more poetry if they know just anyone can steal their cadence?!?
John Mark Ockerbloom

I don’t know where they’re getting 2038 from. If the poem was published in 1923, the US copyright should run out at the end of 2018, when the current 20-year copyright freeze finally ends.

But perhaps the rightsholders are already thinking ahead to the next extension they hope to enact.
kityglitr

I’m surprised no one mentioned that this particular poem by Frost is ALREADY a choral piece. Look up the Frostiana Suite. I remember singing it in the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra & Choir as a high schooler. It was absolutely lovely.
- Yellow Hornet
  
  I do have to point out that Frostiana was written with Frost’s own permission before his passing. (I sang the suite, too!) I think estates and heirs tend to be more uppity than the actual author or creator.
sn00py

In 2018, when Congress passes the Lars Ulrich Copyright Term Extension Act, you’ll have to wait until 2058.
Then in 2038, when Congress passes the Justin Bieber Copyright Term Extension Act, you’ll have to wait until 2078.
Ad infinitum.
Gristle McNerd

And yet it’s “not available in my country”. Way to make a point about copyright law :D
- Ipo
  
  That’s what i thought.
  It’s a joke. Right?
Anonymous

Out with the old… In with the new!
Caleb

Interesting TED talk about the creation of the Virtual Choir here: http://www.ted.com/talks/a_choir_as_big_as_the_internet.html

It’s also useful to compare this performance to that of a more traditional venue, say http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9shXm0cIeEY The idea is excellent and has potential, but it’s got a long way to go yet. They had to add in massive amounts of reverb added in to cover up the poor blend, and the articulation of the consonants is as diverse as the geographical locations of the singers.

I expect it will be necessary to do this in real-time, so the performers can hear each other and make the adjustments. I’m excited to see the technical and logistical solutions that develop to make that possible.
Drang

Doesn’t everyone know that “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is best sung to the tune of “Hernando’s Hideaway“?
- Anonymous
  
  This is AWESOME!
billstewart

I can haz iambic pentameter? Or is it only iambic pentameters about sleep that are really owned by the dead hand of Robert Frost, sleeping these long years in R’lyeh? (Sorry, wrong Robert.)
lake15

Hear the original version of this same choral arrangement with the Frost lyrics. The Frost version is better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDH5R_BgheI
scifijazznik

This is one of those ideas that when I heard about it, I thought would be total crap. But it’s lovely and moving. It must have been quite some effort to synch up all 2,000+ tracks, but the effort has paid off. It’s much better than the previous one. There’s no denying the power of the human voice.

And fuck Frost’s estate. I’d like to think the man himself would have marveled at his poem receiving a treatment like this.
Anonymous

2038? Not if a certain mouse has any say in the matter.
Anonymous

It’s sad to see Frost’s heirs trying to take such a lovely poem out of our culture and hide it away where noone will experience it.

On the other hand, it’s wonderful that even such idiocy leads to the creation of new culture for everyone to enjoy.

What’s that, youtube? “This video is not available in your country”?
wnoise

The poem was published in 1923. In a sane copyright regime, it would be public domain already. (Granting from death of author is just a bizarre notion).
- manicbassman
  
  in a sane copyright regime, it would have passed into the public domain no more than 28 years after first being registered… 14 years, plus ONE extension of 14 more years…
Anonymous

Frost himself would not have approved: “From [rhythm and meter] rises what we call this tune that’s different from the tune of the other kind of music. It’s a music of itself. And when people say that this will easily turn into â€” be set to music, I think it’s bad writing. It ought to fight being set to music if it’s got expression in it.”
Anonymous

I realize I may be biased as I’ve loved “Stopping By Woods” since I was a young child (Frost is my favorite poet), but the “Stopping By Woods” text is so much more powerful than the “Sleep” text.

This whole thing is silly considering the Whitacre setting is no doubt ten times better than the “Frostiana” setting. I sang the “Frostiana” version in high school of “The Road Not Taken” and didn’t like it at all. Am kind of glad I didn’t hear the “Stopping By Woods” setting if there is one. You know how you’ll feel some musical settings ruin a text? It was like that.

Eric W., any time you want to write around anything at all that I’ve written, go right ahead. All I could hope is that my words would even remotely live up to your music.

Tdawwg….thank you. :)
Anonymous

Amen. Who wouldn’t want their poem set to Mr. Whitacre’s beautiful music?
Tdawwg

On stopping by this blog post on a not-snowy afternoon

Whose cadence this I think I know,
but meter’s free to copy, so
you will not hear me kneeling here
to give Frost’s pallid shade a blow.

My poet’s pen would think it queer
to write with unrhymed lawyer’s ear,
and worry ’bout litigious flakes
today, or any other day, this year.

I give my head a rueful shake
and ask if there is some mistake,
that we still treat ourselves like sheep
and do not simply steal and take.

Our culture’s lovely, writing’s cheap,
and we have liberties to keep,
and rights and freedoms strong and deep:
so fuck off, you rent-seeking creep.
- Rich Keller
  
  Standing ovation!
  - Tdawwg
    
    (Bows.) Thank you, kind sir.
- Andrea James
  
  @kityglitr: Whitacre explains in the post that there were at least 20 works released around the same time in 1997 based on Frost, so he thought they would be OK with his as well. While I love the Frost poem, I love Silvestri’s creative response to the legal problem just as much!
  
  @Tdawgg: nicely played, my friend!
  - Tdawwg
    
    (Bows again. Blushes.) Thanks, Andrea!
- Anonymous
  
  Wow, comments like this make me think BB needs a “comment of the year” contest.
  
  I purchased a rather sharp derby merely to tip it to you, sir.
  - Tdawwg
    
    (Blushing madly.) Wow, a tip of a newly-bought derby, and a sharp one! Yay, thanks!
- Municipal Hare
  
  One more standing O for Tdawwg. Boingboing comments really do need a +1/like/fave/props/This./reboing/thread over/Put a Hercules Ring On It/GOOOOAAALLLLLL/canonize button.