Truncating a song = copyright infringement? [closed]

Question

In music, there are certain things considered to be under the control of the conductor's "artistic license" (exact performance tempo, dynamics, and variations thereof such as rubatos). Other things must technically remain unchanged; you can't make small changes to lyrics, for example.

Background: Say there is a single concert piece for a capella choir. Its length as written is beyond the needed time frame, and simply speeding it up to make it fit isn't an option (it's neither technically possible nor allowed by good artistic sense). However, there is a point in the piece that is a natural stopping point; the conductor could simply lower his hands from the fermata and the casual audience would consider the piece complete. This point is not a written break that would normally be considered to define a "movement" or other severable part of the piece. The piece would be performed exactly as written and instructed in the composer notes until this point.

The question: Is this legal from a copyright perspective?

Answer 1

First, I don't see why other things should remain unchanged. I sometimes add or remove a note here and there if I feel like so. And what about mistakes? Sometimes the acoustics may force you to do certain modifications. Problems arise when the modifications are "significant", which is of course impossible to define exactly.

But to the point. Many times only one movement of a multi-movement piece is performed and/or repetitions are omitted. Why would this be that much different? All of the movements of a symphony are usually meant to be played in a row. Here you would only break the piece at a place in which it would perhaps "want" to continue more than between movements.

I think the most important thing is that the composer gets the credit (and the money) for the work. Of course it might be that he doesn't like what you do and to make sure people know that the real thing is better, you should inform the audience that you've been tinkering with the piece. Anyway, even a partial performance increases the composer's audience, and a good partial performance should certainly be better than a bad complete (like an accelerated) one.

Of course, this is from a common sense perspective. Often copyright laws agree with common sense, but not always, and it differs from country to country. Besides, legal issues are off-topic on this site...