In the days leading up to our concert, Together We Sing, the author of our programme notes provides an alternative look at the pieces featured on Saturday 6^th June.  The series may be interspersed with other posts but will be more or less daily!  We hope you enjoy it.

Locus Iste

How do you mark an anniversary or a birthday?  Before 1893 you certainly wouldn’t have sung Happy Birthday not least because it hadn’t been written yet.  Traditionally attributed to American kindergarten principal, Patty Hill, from Louisville, Kentucky, and her sister, Mildred, the words and melody of what was to become the most recognised song in the English language, were chosen because they were easy for young children to sing at the start of the day.

Good morning to you,
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all!

The melody and lyrics of Happy Birthday first appeared in print in 1912 but were copyrighted in 1935 by the Summy Company and eventually ended up in the hands of Warner Brothers who claimed that unauthorized public performances of the song were illegal unless royalties ($700 for a single use in 2010) were paid.  It wasn’t until 2014 that the American courts decided that in this case the copyright only applied to the specific piano arrangement and not to its lyrics and melody and that Happy Birthday was, therefore, in the public domain.

Anton Bruckner didn’t have the same problem with Locus iste.  Work on building the New Cathedral in Linz, Austria, began in 1862 and in 1869, Bruckner, who had been organist at the Old Cathedral and composed a Festive Cantata for the laying of the first stone (and performed on the building site) was asked to write a piece for the dedication ceremony of the Votivkapelle (votive chapel).  

The choice of text was obvious: Locus iste is the (uncopyrighted) Latin gradual (chant or hymn) used to celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of a church whose opening words – Locus iste a Deo factus est – translate as This place was made by God. 

The New Cathedral, with room for 20,000 people, was completed and consecrated as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in 1924 while Bruckner’s setting of Locus iste has become one of the most famous.

And as for Happy Birthday, the copyright in the European Union expired on January 1, 2017, so if you sang it before then …