The beneficiaries of Maurice Ravel and the Russian decorator Alexandre Benois demanded that the latter be recognised as the author of one of the most performed and broadcast works in the world.
Ravel’s famous “Boléro” is not the “Boléro” of Ravel and Benois. So decided the Nanterre court which dismissed this Friday, June 28, the rights holders of Maurice Ravel and the Russian decorator Alexandre Benois. The latter asked the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (Sacem) to recognize Alexandre Benois as co-author of the famous “Boléro”.
The court “rejected the requests of the rights holders of Maurice Ravel and Alexandre Benois regarding Boléro, one of the most performed and distributed works in the world”, detailed the court in a press release, the work “consequently remains in the public domain.
Concerning the hypothesis of a co-authorship of Alexandre Benois, the court considered that “the documents provided did not demonstrate his quality as author of the argument (short summary, editor’s note) of the ballet”.
“A very reasoned decision”
The thesis of another injured co-author, the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska, was also dismissed by this judgment, the artist having “never appeared on the documentation of ‘Bolero’ as co-author”.
“It is a very well-argued decision, which took care to examine all the elements brought to the attention of the court and which validates Sacem both in its approach (…) and in its position regarding of safeguarding the interests of its members”, reacted to AFP Me Yvan Diringer, who defends Sacem with Me Josée-Anne Bénazéraf.
“The action of the estates and publishers (also parties to the case, editor’s note) has been rejected by the court, we are calmly analyzing the decision before responding to the press,” Gilles Vercken, lawyer for the Ravel estate, told AFP.
Maurice Ravel’s heiress, Evelyne Pen de Castel, is also ordered to pay one euro to Sacem “in compensation for her loss resulting from the abuse of the author’s moral rights”, the decision states.
In the public domain since 2016
This judgment ensures that at this stage, the “Boléro” remains in the public domain as it has been since 2016. That Sacem, which manages and collects copyright in France, recognizes Alexandre Benois as co-author would have had the consequence of protecting the work until May 1, 2039, Alexandre Benois having died in 1960.
In France, copyright on a musical composition lasts for the life of its author and then for the next seventy years. It then falls into the public domain and can be used freely.
The “Bolero” was protected for seventy-eight years and four months, as the law provides for extensions aimed at compensating for the loss of earnings of French artists during the two world wars, which extended the protection until May 1, 2016.
