Analysis of Beethoven's works using Youtube Annotations

[Ed C]

I've been using Youtube's "annotations" feature to add commentary to videos of Beethoven's works. It's helped me very much in my own appreciation of his work to try and "figure them out". I've mentioned before that I did the first 5 symphonies this way. Today I finished Violin Sonata 9, "Kreutzer"....thought I'd start a thread where I'd just put links in one place for anybody interested.

Kreutzer Movement 1 analysis:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOaNzIH6JvQ
I didn't do much harmonic analysis for this one...it has a much more rhythmic core to me....also I'm lazy

The 5 symphonies can be found all on my blog post here:
Symphony 1 through 5 Analyzed

[Peter]

Your blogs are very well presented and interesting Ed. I have a concern though about the legality issue of presenting complete recordings for free - are you sure you're on safe ground there?

[Ed C]

Your blogs are very well presented and interesting Ed. I have a concern though about the legality issue of presenting complete recordings for free - are you sure you're on safe ground there?

That's a good question which I've thought about. My reasoning is that the videos I've presented were already on Youtube but without the annotations, and some have been there for upwards of 4 years - apparently without legal restrictions. My understanding is that when people upload works on Youtube, the software somehow "recognizes" that it's copyrighted and then proceeds to put advertisements on your video from time to time. A user can contest that it should not be considered copyrighted - and I have done that with my "guitar arrangements" of Beethoven's works, since based on my research I can consider that an "original reinterpretation".

I appreciate the question and am glad to be prompted to talk about this issue, thanks Peter!

..of course if the blog suddenly disappears, well...perhaps I would do a blog about Baytoben

[Chris]

My understanding is that when people upload works on Youtube, the software somehow "recognizes" that it's copyrighted and then proceeds to put advertisements on your video from time to time.

No, for things on YouTube to be flagged as copyrighted, someone must manually report it.

A user can contest that it should not be considered copyrighted - and I have done that with my "guitar arrangements" of Beethoven's works, since based on my research I can consider that an "original reinterpretation".

Do you mean someone filed a copyright claim against your own arrangement of Beethoven's works on YouTube? Obviously that won't hold up. All of Beethoven's music is in the public domain. So you are free to record your own arrangements or Beethoven's originals all you like. It's only the actual recordings that are copyrighted.

[Ed C]

This is what Youtube emails me seconds after I upload a Beethoven video:
------------------------------------------------------------

Your video, Beethoven Symphony 5 Movement I (Annotated Analysis) , may include content that is owned or administered by these entities:
* Entity: Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society Content Type: Musical Composition
What should I do?
No action is required on your part. Your video is still available worldwide. In some cases ads may appear next to your video.
What can I do about my video's status?
Please note that the video's status can change, if the policies chosen by the content owners change. You may want to check back periodically to see if you have new options available to you.
Under certain circumstances, you may dispute this copyright claim. These are:
* if the content is mistakenly identified and is actually completely your original creation;
* if you believe your use does not infringe copyright (e.g. it is fair use under US law);
* if you are actually licensed by the owner to use this content.
------------------------------------------------------------
When it's a guitar arrangement I get the same message. I then "dispute the claim" according to circumstance #2 above and all ads are removed from my video.

This reminds me that www.guardian.co.uk once posted a video of me performing (uncredited) in a jazz band...without my written consent