We hope people around the world suffering from the coronavirus will get well very soon. Also, many people must be under stress due to travel and other restrictions. I didn't plan to release this video yet, but I'm more than happy if our music can make your day even a little brighter. Thank you and stay safe!
Thank you very much for your warm comments and encouragement. Most of the pieces for YAMATO String Quartet are arranged by Kazuaki Kondo, whose works we love! Every day we receive many messages from people all over the world who have watched our performances on websites such as YouTube. Sorry for not being able to reply to all of your messages.
Most of the messages ask us to let you play, buy or photocopy the arrangements. We'd like to respond to those requests. Currently, there is no way to completely protect the copyright of sheet music, regardless of the mode of publication. In order to play the pieces, a hard copy is necessary. However, it's difficult for the publishers to secure revenue once the sheet is published, as it’s impossible to limit the number of photocopies made.
We pay copyright fees to protect composers' rights. And we believe arrangements by Mr. Kondo are worth as much as the creative works of composers. However, copyrights for arrangements are not recognized worldwide.
Even if we publish Mr. Kondo's works so that he can get a share of the revenue from sales, the copyright fees will go to the original composer when those pieces are played publicly. So instead, we compensate Mr. Kondo for his pieces out of the money raised from our stage performances. He then puts this payment towards his next arrangements, which in turn generate interest in our next performance. We’re concerned that this cycle will be broken if copies of his pieces escape onto the market.
We are happy that so many people love Mr. Kondo’s work, and want to continue performing his arrangements for you all to enjoy, so if you have any good ideas on how to solve this problem, please send us an email.
We receive requests such as \"We'd like to let children play the piece\" or \"We'd play the piece only at a particular event\". Although we’d like to make exceptions, we’re afraid we can’t, as doing so could result in unauthorized copies becoming available.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
May music bring happiness to all of you who cherish it.
