Re: Hava Nagilah Rights

[Jordan Hirsch <trombaedu...>]

on 4/18/02 7:05 PM, Lori Cahan-Simon at l_cahan (at) staff(dot)chuh(dot)org 
wrote:

We had a discussion about this subject a few years ago.  In a book written
by one of his students, Nathanson is put forth as the author of the lyrics
for Hava Nagila, written when he was around 10 and himself a student of
Idelsohn, as I remember.  This "fact" is in dispute.
Lorele

Joshua Horowitz wrote:
The tune of Hava Nagila was collected by Idelssohn, not penned by him. If my
memory is correct, he called it a Nign from Sadigora (Ukraine). If someone
reprinted the exact original lead sheet of the publisher, Friedrich
Hofmeister, Leipzig  1932 (?) they would be infringing upon the "mechanical"
rights. But the tune itself (falling under intellectual rights) is public
domain, meaning anyone can publish it using different fonts, etc and can
record, arrange and defile. There is often confusion about the difference of
mechanical rights and intellectual rights, and most of us get lost in this.
Josh Horowitz

At 09:46 AM 4/18/02, ALANEFALK (at) aol(dot)com wrote:
check out SongFile.com - the website of the Harry Fox Agengy - they take
care
of all ASCAP song rights. A quick check on my part shows that Hava Nagilah
does have copyright protection.
http://www.songfile.com/
A particular =arrangement= of the song may have copyright protection, but
the tune definitely does not.

_____________________________________________________________
Cantor Sam Weiss === Jewish Community Center of Paramus, NJ






Hava Nagila is in fact a nigun of the Sadigurer Chasidim, although it might
have been even pre Chasidic. Which led to the odd happenstance of it being
played at a Chasidic Wedding in New Square at a Sadigurer wedding. To say
the least, it is probably never played at any kind of orthodox weddings, so
to play it there was kind of funny.

Jordan Hirsch