A JUDGE ON JAZZ.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19906, 28 September 1926, Page 2

A JUDGE ON JAZZ.

PIRATED SCORES. COPYRIGHT OF POPULAR TUNE. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 24. Mr Justice Eve, who recently confessed that he had “no ear for music,'’ admitted in the Chancery Division that he was now acquainted (in court, at least) with the saxophone. At the opening the action he asked: “Is this a musical easel” Mr Cover, K.C.: Yes, but it does not involve any knowledge of music. An application was made by Harms, Incorporated, New York, and Shappell and Co. (Ltd.), music puolishers, of New Bond street, for an ' 'unction to restrain the Embassy Club from infringing the copyright in the musical work “That Certain Feeling,” from the play “Tip Toes,” by performing it in public without permission. Mr Gover aaked the judge if be had ever seen “No, No, ’’anette." The judge said he had not, and Mr Gover remarked, “Then it is difficult to explain the play, but such plays produce -fames which are whistled by the errand bonys on the street. Messrs Chappell, said Mr Gover, so regulated the sales of the music “Tip Toes” that until th play was produced copies of the score were practically unobtainable. If' the music were played at the Embassy Club it must have been jplayed from pirated copies, or from it having been heard in America. Mr William Boosey, managing director of Chappell and Company, said Americans were as familiar vith “Tip Toes" as we were with “No, No, Nanette.’’ One could not get a number of “Tip Toes” played except from pirated band parts, which the Customs might intercept. Mr Justice Eve: Oh, yes you could; you could whistle it to the first violin and then to the nan who plays that other instrument which we all know now—the saxophone. —(Laughter.) Mr Cover: But the harmony, my lord; you cannot ~ct that without the score. “PERFORMED IN PUBLIC.” Mr Vnisey, K.C. : An instrumentalist can •’ it at once. W histlc a tune and 1 will undertake to eo into the witness box and do it at once. . The Judge: “Performed in public” must he a matter of degree. If I assemble the members of the Bar, who number 1800, and sing to them, can ft be said to he in private? You may assemble all the members of the Athemeum and play it, but I should think it would he lost on them; they would not be able to whistle it afterwards.—(Laughter.) Mr Vaisey said that the Embassy Club was as much private as was a private house. Judgment was reserved.