Page 130 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes | Composers’ Societies Past and Present
to the first edition of Clifford McCarty’s Film Composers in America from
1953, which remains a standard reference on Hollywood film music to this
day. 44
Although Hollywood films were distributed internationally, their orig-
inal scores were not always preserved. The Hollywood Reporter cited SCA
member Daniele Amfitheatrof, returning from several weeks in Europe, not-
ing that Hollywood musical films shown in Italy had their scores replaced
with newly composed Italian music. This was not due to governmental reg-
ulation but cost: apparently the licensing fees for performing American cop-
yrighted music, collected by the Italian Society of Authors, were so high that
45
producing new music in Italy was cheaper. This example highlights the
striking differences in the enforcement of national performing rights laws
between Italy – and other European countries – and the United States.
The music distributed internationally via film faced challenges from
these differing national performing rights laws. In Italy, performing-rights
societies segregated receipts from licensing fees, paying composers each
time their music was ‘performed’ in a film. In contrast, American film stu-
dios often owned music publishing houses. This meant that ASCAP profits
from foreign distribution went directly to these publishers – and the studi-
os – rather than to the composers. Between 1938 and 1953, the SCA pressed
ASCAP on foreign royalties, using Roy Webb’s case, where he reportedly
46
received insufficient foreign royalties, as a legal precedent. The 1948 SCA
Bulletin highlighted this disparity and further underscored an additional
challenge for film music composition:

The motion picture producers employed talented composers to write the
background music for their motion pictures. These musical composi-
tions were never printed or sold, but as a rule they became the property

44 Clifford McCarty, Film Composers in America: A Checklist of Their Work (New York:
Valentine, 1953). The book was reviewed by Frederick W. Sternfeld for Notes. In his re-
view the discrepancy between film music composition and concert hall-composition
is clearly stated, revealing the bias in the reception that prefers concert hall compos-
ers that write film music (see: Frederick W. Sternfeld, “Review of Film Composers in
America: A Check List of Their Work by Clifford McCarty,” Notes 11, no. 1 (1953): 105.)
45 See: Anon., “‘Made in Italy’ Sound Tracks Hurt U.S. Musicals There,” The Hollywood
Reporter, 30 June 1949, 10 [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 5. ASCAP–Foreign Distri-
bution]. For thematization of the problem at SCA a few years earlier see letter from
M. Curci to Bornstein [Bourne Music Publishers], 14 June 1943 [MHL, SCA Collec-
tion, Folder 5. ASCAP–Foreign Distribution].
46 See the extensive records on the case in [MHL, SCA Folder 5. ASCAP – Foreign Dis-
tribution].

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