Maurice Ravel is indeed the sole author of “Boléro”, his beneficiaries condemned for “abusive use of moral rights”

Any ambiguity is removed: Maurice Ravel is indeed the sole author of Bolero, ruled the Nanterre judicial court on Friday, June 28. For this commissioned work, the patron Ida Rubinstein, star dancer of the Ballets Russes, had asked her friend Maurice Ravel in 1928 to create a “Spanish character ballet” that she could perform with her troupe at the end of the same year. At the premiere, on November 22, 1928 at the Opera in Paris, the sets and costumes were designed by Alexandre Benois and the choreography designed by Bronislava Nijinska.

This work by Maurice Ravel fell into the public domain on 1^is May 2016 since in France, the copyright inherent in a musical composition lasts 70 years after the death of its author; a duration to which have been added 8 years and four months, corresponding to the artist’s loss of earnings during the two world wars.

However, in March 2016, the beneficiaries of Maurice Ravel and the Russian decorator Alexandre Benois, who died in 1960, asked the Society of Authors-Composers and Music Publishers (Sacem) to recognize the latter as co-author of the Bolero. Twice, Sacem has refused to do so. Such a decision would have had the effect of postponing the date on which this work would have fallen into the public domain until May 2039. And would have allowed the heirs to be granted a financial windfall for a longer period.

A very well-reasoned judgment

A global success, the Bolero has indeed generated floods of gold, up to several million euros per year during the most prosperous years. According to Sacem, between 2000 and 2010, the Bolero still generated nearly 240,000 euros in royalties each year. A source that was running out but still provided some 135,000 euros per year to the beneficiaries until 2016. At his death, Maurice Ravel, unmarried and childless, had bequeathed to his brother Edouard Ravel all of his moral and patrimonial rights over his entire work and through successive transmissions, Evelyne Pen de Castel is today the composer’s sole heir.

In a well-reasoned 42-page judgment, the court “rejected the requests of the beneficiaries of Maurice Ravel and Alexandre Benois concerning Boléro, one of the most performed and broadcast works in the world”Who “therefore remains in the public domain.”

The court rejected the hypothesis of a co-authorship, considering that “the documents provided did not demonstrate authorship [d’Alexandre Benois] of the ballet argument ». Especially since Maurice Ravel always considered himself the sole author of this work, as shown by his declaration form to Sacem or his publishing contract. Furthermore, this request for recognition of co-authorship arrived very late, in 2016, when no claim had been made since 1928.

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