Commisioning a Work

Assemble the Musicians, the Composition is complete.

On October 2, 2009, our  Michigan Society of the American Institute of Building Design held a reception at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. I was co-chair with two other designers, Marla Bruemmer of Design Evolutions, and Richard White of RDW Design. Not only did we have the privilege of hosting the event at an outstanding venue, we were also honered to have the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra  (aka, KMGO) perform for us. In addition to exposing Kalamazoo to what we as residential designers do, we were  surrounded by a stimulating atmosphere of  the visual and performing arts. (Please don't be overwhelmed by having four links in one, short paragraphs. It was also Art Hop night, which is coordinated by the Art Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Which now gives us six links in one paragraph). This was a perfect meeting ground for artists, musicians and designers. Many thanks to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra.



The Kalamazoo Guitar and Mandolin Orchestra Performing at the Michigan Society of American Institute of Building Design October 2, 2009 at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

The Orchestra played many works from traditional to popular to classics. They also played for the first time in entirety the complete suite of five pieces called "Passages Through Mexico" by composer Victor Garcia. It was a piece commissioned by the Orchestra which was completed in 2008.

The process of the orchestra commissioning a composition and a client engaging a Residential Designer to design a home are strikingly similar. I asked the co-founder of the Orchestra, Jacquelyn Zito, about the process:

"We knew Victor's composition style from previous pieces that he has done (but not for the KMGO).  He came in to rehearsal to hear the group and get ideas for sound and capability. 



We played for him the instruments and their ranges.

We worked together to edit and refine the scores.

We wanted a new piece for the mandolin orchestra repertoire.  As for the process, Victor would finish a movement and then bring it to us to play and get input about any possible changes that needed to be made. 

A very similar dynamic happens in the designing and building of a home. A client will approach a designer and commission a home to be designed. Input from the Patron (the client) will be sought. Time and effort will be required of the Designer to get the details right. The designer's expertise and experience will flush out details that perhaps may have bypassed the casual observer, or the client themselves. This is what the client is paying for when they seek a designer.

The legalities of the composition is remarkably the same as is a home design. This is what the Orchestra has licensed by agreement with the composer, Victor Garcia: Victor retains all of the rights, we have performance exclusivity for a while.

This is an important point. One of the conversations that we as designers had that night was regarding plans being copied, and built without contacting the designer (and there by infringing on the designers rights).  This has happened to one of the designers at least two times. Worse yet, one the designs was copied by a local lumberyard and passed off as an original design. This is without a doubt a violation of copyright law. The courts have ruled that the designers retain the rights to their designs, unless they have in fact signed them away.

The protection in the copyright law is the intellectual property of the designer or the composer. Just as the orchestra was granted an exclusive performance even though they paid for the composition, the composer retained the rights. It was his intellectual property that he created, using his experience, expertise as well as input from the orchestra. That is what we as Residential Designers do as well.




Posted by COASTLINE BUILDING at 10/17/2009 1:24 PM
Categories: Design
Tags: Design Copyright Custom Building Design Build Planning
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