The Study of Songs and Songwriting

Subject: The Study of Songs and Songwriting
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 04:08 PM

I've seen a number of sites that make a significant contribution to the study of songs and songwriting. I think we can say that the Mudcat Cafe may well be the most significant site for the study of traditional music, but there are others, many listed on our links page. The Contemplator page and the Canadian Tunebook by Barry Taylor and the terrific work by Bruce Olson are just a few examples of fine scholarship by Mudcatters.
Click here to get to a terrific site with songs by 19th century songwriters, including Henry Clay Work. I would like to see such a site for the great songwriters of the first half of the 20th century, but it seems that copyrights get in the way. I don't want to get into a big discussion of the pros and cons of copyright protection, but I would like to know of sites on the Web that provide good information on works that are still under copyright protection. Is it possible to do the same kind of study of 20th century music, or do we have to wait until copyrights expire before we can freely study and publish studies of music?
Anybody have more links to share with us? Please post 'em here, and on our links page.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: The Study of Songs and Songwriting
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Jul 99 - 05:04 PM

From the european persepective the issues of copyright and E-commerce are being addressed in two EEC directives which are plodding their legislative progress at the moment. Not all will agree with the thrust, which may in some cases alleviate ISP's liabilities. I am supposed to be reviewing both for a composer organisation and may be back to post in more detail on this. Those who want to dig the stuff out should seek the E-Commerce directive and the COpyright directive, aka reprography directive (both drafts). I am having them push-delivered to me but I expect they are on the EEC site.