Happy Birthday to you

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Happy Birthday to You (often abbreviated in Happy Birthday ) is a congratulatory song for the birthday . Although the composition dates back more than a hundred years, the piece is still today one of the most famous and most sung songs in the world. It was not until 2015 generally considered public domain (public domain) edited.

In addition to the original English version, there are translations in numerous other languages. A widespread German-language version begins with: "Happy birthday to you ..."

History of origin

The song comes from Mildred J. Hill (1859-1916) and Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946) from Louisville, Kentucky, USA . Both worked in the Louisville Experimental Kindergarten, Patty Hill as the director, her sister Mildred as an educator. Mildred wrote the melody that is now part of Happy Birthday to You as a welcome song for kindergarten, her sister Patty wrote the original text Good Morning to All . To that extent it is originally a nursery rhyme . It was first published in 1893.

Robert H. Coleman published a version with a second verse in the Harvest Hymns song collection in 1924 , which is now sung as the well-known birthday song Happy Birthday . It was published on June 27, 1924 without the consent of the original authors, which resulted in a lawsuit by the Hill family against Coleman. In 1935 the court ruled in favor of the authors. In the same year the copyright for melody and text was registered with the ASCAP . In 1989 the music publisher Chappell Music Publishing acquired the rights for a payment of £ 15 million . In 1996 alone, the music publisher generated revenues of £ 625,000 from the song.

A manuscript of the piece from the 1890s was discovered in the library of the University of Louisville in 2015. It is an early version of Good Morning to All in the handwriting of Mildred J. Hill.

Copyright protection

Until September 2015, Happy Birthday to You was protected by copyright almost worldwide and not in the public domain.

Largely international, with the exception of the United States, there is a standard protection period of 70 years from the death of the creator of a work. Since both sisters are considered co-authors, this period is calculated from the date of death of the last deceased author Patty Smith Hill ( § 64 UrhG ), who only died in 1946. Thus, in states that apply a standard protection period of 70 years from the end of the year of death and do not use a comparison of protection periods for US citizens, the song was generally protected by copyright at least until December 31, 2016.

In the US, the melody has been in the public domain since 1949, while the music publisher Warner / Chappell Music has been collecting license fees for the public use of the lyrics for decades after it was said to have acquired the rights in 1988. On September 22, 2015, a Los Angeles court ruled that Warner / Chappell did not own the lyrics to the lyrics in the United States. Up until this point, Warner / Chappell had collected around 1.8 million euros in license fees per year. Judge George H. King determined that Warner / Chappell Music did not have any rights to the lyrics, but it remains open whether these rights belong to someone else. In December 2015, a settlement was reached between Warner / Chappel Music and class action plaintiffs who had brought claims against the music publisher in the Federal District Court for Central California (Rupa Marya v Warner / Chappell Music, CV 13-4460, US District Court Central California). Accordingly, Warner pledged to reimburse $ 14 million from its related earnings. Of this, a third will go to the plaintiffs' attorneys, while approximately $ 10 million will be put into a fund to compensate those injured in the publisher's earlier actions. The settlement was approved by the court in June 2016. The proceedings concern the legal situation in the United States only; In the EU, the rights to the song were held by the Warner / Chappel Music publishing house until the end of 2016.

Filmmaker Jennifer Nelson from New York, who made a documentary about the song and its origins in 2013 and demanded a $ 1,500 license fee (or a $ 150,000 fine) from Warner / Chappel, filed a lawsuit against Warner / Chappel. It proved that Warner / Chappel had illegally acquired the copyrights, as Coleman had already illegally acquired the rights, and presented new evidence in July 2015 in the ongoing process.

alternative

Monk Turner + Fascinoma: It's Your Birthday!

Due to the unclear copyright protection and the associated hurdles for public performances, the Free Music Archive, in cooperation with the American radio broadcaster WFMU, organized a competition to create a free alternative piece, the winner of which was announced in February 2013. The piece, written by Monk Turner + Fascinoma , is entitled It's Your Birthday! and is under the Creative Commons license CC-BY 3.0 .

Monroe's interpretation

Monroe (2nd from left) and Kennedy (3rd from left) at Kennedy's birthday gala, May 19, 1962

An interpretation of the serenade presented Marilyn Monroe († August 5, 1962) a few months before her death. She sang the song on May 19, 1962 - ten days before the actual birthday - at a gala by John F. Kennedy in Madison Square Garden in front of television cameras and 15,000 spectators. Because of Monroe's see-through dress and her lascivious voice, rumors of her alleged affair with Kennedy were fueled.

Arrangements and processing

In addition to the a cappella version (mostly as monophonic singing), numerous arrangements are known, ranging from simple to virtuoso instrumental versions on piano or guitar, to chamber music duets, trios, string quartets, to string orchestra versions, to sophisticated arrangements for large ones Wind and symphony orchestras are enough:

  • Andrew Holdsworth - Happy Birthday! (Piano solo)
  • Peter Heidrich - Happy Birthday Variations (small string orchestra)
  • Ralf Ford - Happy Birthday Around the World (concert band)
  • John Williams - Happy Birthday Variations (large symphony orchestra)

The melody of the piece was also used outside of the actual context. Dmitri Shostakovich quoted the first five notes of the melody in his second symphony on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution .

Web links

Commons : Happy Birthday to You  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ASCAP entry for Happy Birthday To You
  2. ↑ digitalmusicnews.com Original 1890s Manuscript of “Happy Birthday” Found In a Filing Cabinet
  3. ↑ Sensational find: The very first “Happy Birthday”. In: Spiegel Online . September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 .
  4. ↑ First "Happy Birthday Version" discovered. In: FAZ online. September 3, 2015, accessed September 3, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Thomas Hoeren: Happy birthday to you - copyright issues around a birthday serenade. In: Klaus Peter Berger u. a. (Ed.): Festschrift for Otto Sandrock on his 70th birthday. 2000, ISBN 978-3-8005-1242-3 , pp. 357-372, p. 363, without specifying the year.
  6. ^ A b Daniel AJ Sokolov: US judgment: Warner has no copyright on "Happy Birthday" . September 23, 2015. Accessed September 23, 2015.
  7. ^ Leonhard Dobusch: Judgment on "Happy Birthday": a case by Copyfraud, not copyright. In: netzpolitik.org. September 23, 2015, accessed September 23, 2015 .
  8. ↑ "Happy Birthday to You" belongs to everyone. In: sueddeutsche.de . September 23, 2015, accessed September 23, 2015 .
  9. ^ Legal dispute in the USA: "Happy Birthday" is common property. In: Spiegel Online , September 23, 2015, accessed on the same day.
  10. ^ Daniel AJ Sokolov: Copyright to "Happy Birthday": Warner gives up. In: heise online. December 10, 2015, accessed June 28, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Daniel AJ Sokolov: Presumption of Copyright: Warner Offers $ 14 Million "Happy Birthday" Repayments. In: heise online. February 10, 2016, accessed June 28, 2016 .
  12. ↑ Daniel AJ Sokolov: Happy Birthday text becomes public domain. In: heise online. June 28, 2016. Retrieved June 28, 2016 .
  13. ↑ orf.at "Happy Birthday to You": dispute over profitable kindergarten song, ORF.at June 15, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015
  14. Jump up in the process to the “Happy Birthday” song: Klagwar turns into a music thriller . ORF.at, July 28, 2015, accessed July 29, 2015.
  15. ↑ Winner list of "The New Birthday Song Contest"
  16. ↑ Free Music Archive: Monk Turner + Fascinoma - It's Your Birthday! , accessed February 26, 2012
  17. ↑ youtube.com Andrew Holdsworth - Happy Birthday !, accessed November 26, 2019.
  18. ↑ youtube.com Peter Heidrich - Happy Birthday Variations, accessed November 26, 2019.
  19. ↑ youtube.com Ralf Ford - Happy Birthday Around the World, accessed November 26, 2019.
  20. ↑ youtube.com John Williams - Happy Birthday Variations, accessed November 26, 2019.