Chapter 400
COPYRIGHTABLE MATTER:
WORKS OF THE PERFORMING ARTS
AND SOUND RECORDINGS
401
Musical works: in general. Musical works, including any accompanying words, are registrable without regard to aesthetic standards. The range of registrable works consists of music produced by traditional and electronic means, including works whose production involves the use of a computer. An electronic composition utilizing tones produced by synthesizer or altered by omitting characteristics of its timbre, such as omitting decay or attack, may be registered. A discussion of the elements of musical works, criteria for copyrightability, forms of embodiment, and derivative musical works follows.
402
Music defined. Music is a succession of pitches or rhythms, or both, usually in some definite pattern.
403
Elements of music. The elements of music are melody, rhythm, and harmony. They are defined below.
403.01
Definitions. Melody: a succession of single tones; rhythm: a grouping of pulses according to emphasis and length; harmony: the combination, simultaneously, or nearly so, of different pitches. These tones are spaced at certain prescribed distances from one another in related progressions. Although a musical work will be registered if any of these three elements can be considered to constitute a work of authorship, melody, the predominant element by which a work is perceived, usually determines whether a work is copyrightable. Even melody, however, may be too minimal for copyright protection, as it is in "Johnny One-Note," (excluding the "break"), while other elements, such as the rhythm and harmony in this composition, supply all or substantially all of the copyrightable content.
[1984]
