Is Debussy, Claude Clair de lune (Moonlight sonata) copy righted or not?

Question

I have been listening to this music for quite sometime now and I have been thinking I want to use it in a project of my. But I don't know if Debussy, Claude Clair de lune (Moonlight sonata) is copied righted or in the public domain. I have been wanting to use ether the piano or the orchestra version from Ocean's Eleven. So, tell me world, is it copy righted or not?

Answer 1

Moonlight Sonata, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C# Minor, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is public domain.



Clair de lune, from Suite bergamasque, by Claude Debussy, is also public domain.



Stokowski's orchestration of Clair de lune is NOT yet public domain.

Answer 2

There are actually three types of copyrights that pertain to music like Clair de Lune.



The song itself is copyrighted, but having been published in 1905, Debussy's work is now in the public domain. However, that is not all you need to know.



Any time the work is printed, that printed sheet music is also copyrighted. It is okay to distribute your own reproduction of any original manuscript from the 1900s, but if you buy a manuscript in a music store that was printed recently, you cannot legally distribute it.



Any recording of a performance made recently is also protected by a "phonorecord" copyright. And to further complicate things, the recording presented in the movie and that found on the soundtrack album are two different works. I don't know if you're talking about the 1960 version or the recent film, but both are new enough that any music in the soundtrack is still protected.



You can, by the way, get free audio recordings and sheet music of this work. Clair de Lune is part of the mutopia project, and there are several very good performance recordings made under the creative commons license.

Answer 3

Moonlight Debussy

Answer 4

Listen, if you go looking for "Moonlight Sonata" by Claude Debussy you aren't going to find it, are you? They once corrected me when I misspelled one of my FAVORITE composer's name. Anyway, your question. Basically James is correct, but I wanted to clarify something. You cannot use any recording or published sheet music arrangement from the Ocean Eleven's soundtrack, because it is under copyright. Any fairly modern recording is under its own copyright even if it's a recording of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Any recording of the piece you could use would be so old it would probably date back to the Victrola days, and sound terrible. If you can get a sheet music arrangement that is no longer under copyright, you can make your own recording--either by playing the piano yourself or hiring musicians. Then you can actually copyright that recording.



There may be some sheet music arrangements that allow you to use it in rather generous terms without royalties (though you usually have to buy the music itself). You might want to check. Some arrangers allow for personal or educational use, but draw the line at anything commercial.

Answer 5

The work by Debussy is a completely different work than the "Moonlight Sonata," which is a work by Beethoven. These pieces are in public domain, but copyright issues really depend on what you want to use them for and in what format; the various editions, I believe, may be copyrighted still.

Answer 6

Debussy's Claire de lune is NOT "Moonlight Sonata"





Yes Claire de lune means "Moonlight", but when you add the word "Sonata", it is incorrect. "Moonlight sonata" is a piece by Beethoven.













So its just Claire de lune(Moonlight)

Answer 7

The original piano composition is PD. The orchestrations are arrangements by other people that are copyright in the U.S.

Answer 8

With the sheet, of course it no longer is subject to copyright.



With the orchestration, unless it is stated that it is not, it is, in fact, copyrighted.