Page 131 - Weiss, Jernej, ur./ed. 2026 Skladateljska društva nekoč in danes.../Composers’ Societies Past and Present...

How Music Works: Film Composers, Labour, and the Screen Composers Association …
of the producer’s music subsidiary. The ASCAP catalog, including for-
eign societies for which ASCAP has acted, is estimated to include a mil-
lion musical compositions. 47
By noting that “film music was never printed or sold” and therefore
would not fit into the traditional copyright categories overseen by perform-
ing rights societies, the SCA Bulletin identified a fundamental media-spe-
cific problem of film music.

Published or Not-Published, That Is the Question
A central issue for film music, as also noted in the ASCAP Film Composers’
Request for Improved Classification from March 5, 1943, was that “[o]ur sco-
48
res are not published”. Unlike other musical works, symphonic film music
exists primarily as recorded sound rather than as a published written sco-
re, except for popular theme songs. A SCA press release framed this pro-
blem as an injustice, arguing that the lack of publication meant that film
composers were inadequately represented at ASCAP, resulting in financi-
al disadvantages:

Picture music is rarely published (i.e. printed) and thus a film score of
great importance and heard by millions would rate less weight, in the
opinion of ASCAP, than a meritless ‘pop’ tune which happens to be
published. As a result, many film composers are excluded from mem-
bership in ASCAP. 49
Since ASCAP recognised performing rights for manuscript works in
concert halls and on the radio – following the example of the British Per-
forming Rights Society – the SCA argued that manuscript motion picture
scores “should be credited with performance” by ASCAP, which apparent-
ly was not yet the case at the end of the 1940s. Records in the SCA files sug-
gest that this lack of acknowledgement of film music as an artwork that was
subject to performing rights was influenced by persistent prejudices against
the artistic value of film music, which was described as

merely compilations and arrangements of ‘mood’ music; [and in de-
scribing the production process] that the composer goes to a file labelled

47 SCA Bulletin, August 1948. [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 22. Bulletins].
48 [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 37. Film Composer’s Committee].
49 SCA Press Statement [1943?] [MHL, SCA Collection, Folder 62. Press Releases and
Publicity].

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