<<  -- 6 --  Jennifer Paull    A man of vision

Perhaps he suspected what lay ahead. At a time when commercial recording had hardly been conceived, and was in no way representative of the multi-billion dollar industry it has since become around the entire planet, his work for copyright protection carries on today through ASCAP and other such organisations throughout the world.

The musical budgets for films of the twenty-first century would have been beyond his wildest imagination. So too, the income from composer royalties collected today from commercial cinema and television productions. The popular music industry, as well as composers of all musical genres, remain safeguarded by the laws for which his instigating vision was so fundamental. This remarkable man, best known and loved for his light music, laid the building bricks of financial protection for artistic expression.

There have been many excellent composers for the 7th Art. From several points of view, Victor Herbert paved the way for them all. From The Fall of a Nation to the most recent, extravagant musical of the silver screen, Moulin Rouge (2001), not only the musical world has changed dramatically, and almost beyond recognition.