The Musical Public Domain in 2026
Thursday, January 22, 2026
Every year, the public domain grows, enriching the pool of works that can be drawn upon to inspire creativity. In law, the “public domain” refers to works without copyright, usually because copyright has expired. In most of the European Union, the works of people who died in 1955 are now in the public domain.
This means that people died long enough ago that copyright protection has expired for their works and there is no law prohibiting the use, reuse, publishing, or otherwise building upon their creative ideas. Since copyright varies by country, national laws dictate what has entered the public domain. Throughout most of Europe and in other countries where copyright expires after the death of the author plus 70 years, composers who died in 1955 are now in the public domain in those countries. Note that this refers to a composer’s music, and other elements of any given creative work, such as the lyrics to a song, may still be under copyright.
The United States is different: in the US, anything published in 1930 or before is in the public domain there, regardless of date of death of the composer or lyricist. This might lead to potential confusion if a digitized score is found on an American website, even though the composer’s works or the author’s lyrics are still under copyright in the European Union. It is important to be aware of and respect copyright laws, even in the digital environment.
Whether in the EU, the US, or elsewhere, this all means that libraries and archives have a new slate of composers whose works they can scan and add to their digital collections.
In 2026, we welcome these 58 composers with sources in RISM to the public domain in the EU. The table can also be viewed and downloaded here. The most prominent in RISM in terms of number of sources is German composer Otto Kirschenhofer with 230 sources (RISM Catalog | RISM Online). Other people to look out for include:
- Isaak Osipovič Dunaevskij (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
- George Enescu (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
- Arthur Honegger (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
- Francesco Balilla Pratella (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
The music of three women is now in the public domain:
- Lenore Kühn (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
- Berta Luschin von Ebengreuth (RISM Catalog | RISM Online)
- Mira Wereszczyńska (RISM Catalog | RISM Online).
If we find out about initiatives to digitize their works, we will of course link to the digital copies in the RISM records.
Further resources:
- Duke University, Public Domain Day 2026
- Wikipedia, 2026 in Public Domain
Image: Photograph of George Enescu with handwritten dedication to oboist Boris Zelinski, 1943. George Enescu National Museum (RO-Bmnge) 5718, from Europeana. CC BY-SA 4.0.
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