The “Bolero” by French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is the work of one or more co-authors? This is the question that a French court will have to decide on Friday, as part of the copyright case related to one of the most widely broadcast pieces of classical music in the world.
The stakes are high: if the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (Sacem), the organization that manages and collects copyright in France, recognizes the Russian painter and decorator Alexandre Benois as co-author, the “Bolero”which fell into the public domain in 2016, would be protected until May 1, 2039, Benois having died in 1960.
In France, copyright on a musical composition lasts for the life of its author and then for the next 70 years, it then falls into the public domain, and can be used freely.
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Historical Details
The “Bolero” was protected for 78 years and four months, as the law provides for extensions to compensate for the loss of earnings of French artists during the two world wars, which extended the protection until May 1, 2016.
During the hearing on February 14, the artist’s beneficiaries argued that refusing to recognize their ancestor as co-author of this global success is not a right that Sacem can claim.
“The music of Bolero was created especially for the ballet”asserted Me Edouard Mille, lawyer for the Benois estate.
On the Ravel estate side, we also estimate that the “Bolero” is a “work of collaboration” with the Russian decorator, supporting historical arguments.
These arguments include the presence of Benois’ name on the argument of two ballets performed on the evening of the premiere of Ravel’s work in 1928, the statements of Louis Laloy, secretary general of the Paris Opera, who wrote in Le Figaro that Alexandre Benois was the“auteur” of the three shows, or even a letter from a legal director of Sacem in the 1980s mentioning the collaboration with the ballet choreographer, Bronislava Nijinska…
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For Sacem’s lawyer, Josée-Andrée Bénazéraf, the plaintiffs’ claims fall within the scope of “historical fiction”.
Financial implications
Recognizing co-authorship would imply “having to tear up the 1929 declaration form signed by Ravel who claims to be the sole author of Boléro in order to replace him, (what) violates moral rights (from the composer) who always considered himself the sole author”she had pleaded at the hearing.
If the rights generated represented “for a time millions and millions of euros” annual, according to information provided to AFP by Sacem’s lawyer, Me Josée-Anne Bénazéraf, the amounts reached on average 135,507 euros per year between 2011 and 2016.
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