Happy New Year to all! And today is the first day in twenty years
that a year's worth of copyrighted material has come into the public
domain -- today, January 1st, all works copyrighted and published
in 1923 have come into the public domain!

And 1923 being a big year for pop music of the sort that many MMD
readers love dearly, this means that we no longer need worry about
finding and reimbursing copyright owners for a large cache of material.
For a few examples, as of now the songs by James P. Johnson from the
show "Runnin' Wild", including the dance hit of the show and the
theme song of the Roaring Twenties "The Charleston" and the ballad
"Old Fashioned Love", are in the public domain.

I am celebrating by sharing with MMD readers a transcription and
arrangement of the interlude from James P.'s roll of "Don't Tell Your
Monkey Man" (QRS 1338, issued in May 1921).  Although the roll was
issued in 1921 and the song itself, composed by Lukie Johnson (no
relation to James P.) has been public domain for more than two decades,
the interlude that James P. plays in the middle of the roll is clearly
"Old Fashioned Love", which was not copyrighted and published until
1923.

You might think that the issuing of the roll automatically copyrighted
the arrangement, but in fact that was not the case under the law at
the time.  In fact, it is fairly clear that selling the roll did not
constitute 'publication' of the underlying music in those days.

Strangely, rolls were considered in the same category as phonograph
records at the time, though really the player piano roll should be
considered a form of music notation, in that either conventional music
notation or a player piano roll can in fact be 'read' by a skilled
practitioner of the art (without the aid of a mechanical device, as
in the case of phonograph records.)

This transcription, in which I have written out the tremelo effect in
measures 5, 6 and 9, is meant to be played in triplet swing, whereby
pairs of eighth notes are to be played in a ratio of note lengths of
2 to 1, in both hands.

As in most fox-trot rolls of the period the roll has a step length of
0.050" per perforator step and is arranged with 12 steps per quarter
note.  Hence the suggested tempo in half-notes per minute is numerically
equal to the marked tempo in feet per minute times 10, which is 80 (for
dancing, 70 for singing).  Considered in 4/4 time, then, the metronome
mark is 160 quarter notes per minute.

This transcription is excerpted from the complete transcription of QRS
1338, which will be included in the 2nd edition of my 2010 folio "James
P. Johnson: Piano Roll Arrangements 1917-1922".  The new edition will
also include "I've Got My Habits On" and "Don't Mess With Me" in
addition to the 13 roll transcriptions that were part of the first
edition, from "After To-night" (1917) through "Buzz Mirandy" (1922).

Again, Happy New Year 2019 to all, and a very Happy Public Domain Day!
"Old Fashioned Love" is free to all!

Best regards,

Bob Pinsker
San Diego, California

 [ Transcription of interlude from QRS 1338, JPJ's "Old Fashioned Love"
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/19/01/01/190101_120242_Interlude%20from%20Dont%20Tell%20Your%20Monkey%20Man%20QRS%201338.pdf 

 [ See also
 [ https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjek4z/a-massive-amount-of-iconic-works-will-enter-the-public-domain-on-new-years-eve