On January 20, 2022, the Internet Archive and affiliated sponsors hosted a virtual ‘Celebration of Sound’ to recognize Public Domain Day. The event marked changes to United State copyright law passed by the Music Modernization Act of 2018, which have enabled new works to enter the Public Domain each year. Of particular note in 2022 is the entrance of pre-1923 sound recordings into the public domain for the first time in US history. Thus, the Celebration included selections of sound from early jazz and blues, classical, and spoken word recordings reflecting the political and social currents of their time. A full recording of the event and its associated features can be viewed at the Internet Archive website.
MLA member Maria Souliotis (Northeastern State University) kindly shared her reflections upon attending the celebration:
This was my first-ever time attending a Public Domain Day session and it was a blast! While I couldn’t stay for the breakout sessions, I enjoyed learning about some of the works that went into the public domain this year and hearing some great music. For example, I appreciated getting to hear the song “I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” for the first time. I had no idea how influential it was on later protest songs, nor how it inspired a multitude of parodies. A description from YouTube states that the song was first recorded in 1915 by the Peerless Quartet. During the presentation, I learned that this song has inspired countless other protest songs and parodies since its release, such as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Song” and Green Day’s “American Idiot.”
The event also highlighted Citizen DJ, an interactive database of audiovisual materials from the Library of Congress that allows users to create their own mixes of audio files in the public domain. The database and mixing tool was mind blowing–after trying it out myself, I will definitely share it with the aspiring composers I know! I experimented with “The National Jukebox: Folk Music” collection and found myself drawn to clips from “The Devil’s Dream Reel” and “Turkey in the Straw.” I played with both tunes using the remixing tool, which combines the chosen clips with rhythmic patterns from a drum machine. There are thousands of preset combinations to choose from, and adventurous users can also experiment with adjusting clip start/stop times, muting specific tracks, and adjusting the BMP playback rate. You can also record and download your patterns or click the share button to share them with others. Savvy composers, especially those interested in sound mixing and electronic music, would want to check out this resource for some inspiration, or to find new melodic and rhythmic grooves to use in their work.
Finally, although not music-related, I enjoyed a newly-public domain joke: “A man told his friend, ‘I lost my dog.’ The man’s friend said, ‘Why don’t you take out an ad for him?’ The man then said, ‘But my dog can’t read!'”
Thanks, Maria, for your reflections!
Photo credit: Israel-Palacio via Unsplash