{"id":41964,"date":"2026-03-18T20:44:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/explorecatholic.nl\/nieuws\/jurors-given-piano-performance-crash-course-in-music-as-part-of-copyright-suit-over-catholic-hymns\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T20:44:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T19:44:00","slug":"jurors-given-piano-performance-crash-course-in-music-as-part-of-copyright-suit-over-catholic-hymns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/explorecatholic.nl\/en\/nieuws\/jurors-given-piano-performance-crash-course-in-music-as-part-of-copyright-suit-over-catholic-hymns\/","title":{"rendered":"Jurors given piano performance, crash course in music as part of copyright suit over Catholic hymns"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A years-old copyright lawsuit over Catholic hymns saw jurors in Oregon this week receive a crash course in music reading along with a livestreamed performance of the songs at the center of the dispute. <\/p>\n<p>The suit, originally filed by American Catholic composer Vincent Ambrosetti in May 2020, accuses songwriter Bernadette Farrell and Oregon Catholic Press of copyright infringement against Ambrosetti\u2019s 1980 hymn \u201cEmmanuel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=07hvWQICAZE&#038;list=RD07hvWQICAZE&#038;start_radio=1\" title=\"Embedded content\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The suit alleges that Farrell\u2019s 1993 hymn \u201cChrist Be Our Light\u201d illegally copied elements of \u201cEmmanuel,\u201d with Ambrosetti arguing for a \u201cstriking similarity\u201d between the two songs. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KMkfKXLcm5Q&#038;list=RDKMkfKXLcm5Q&#038;start_radio=1\" title=\"Embedded content\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Part of Farrell\u2019s work contains \u201cthe same notes, the same key, and the same time signature,\u201d the suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>The suit was dismissed in March 2024, with U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut arguing that Ambrosetti had not shown that the defendants had had \u201caccess\u201d to his song prior to writing their own song or that there was a \u201cstriking similarity\u201d between the two works.<\/p>\n<p>But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed that decision in August 2025, reviving the lawsuit and arguing that there were \u201cgenuine issues of material fact\u201d regarding the similarity of the songs.<\/p>\n<p>The appeals court noted that in 1985, Oregon Catholic Press then-publisher Owen Alstott allegedly met Ambrosetti at a convention, where Ambrosetti gave Alstott a copy of \u201cEmmanuel.\u201d Alstott would go on to meet and eventually marry Farrell.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The trial began anew on March 16. The Oregonian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/entertainment\/2026\/03\/music-copyright-case-in-portland-focuses-on-12-bars-from-two-catholic-hymns.html\">reported<\/a> that the panel of eight jurors were instructed on several basic principles of musical comprehension, including how to read music, \u201chow to distinguish between a quarter note and a half note,\u201d and \u201chow many beats each measure holds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lawrence Ferrara, a professor of music at New York University, also performed several musical samples of the disputed works via video during the trial. <\/p>\n<p>Ferrara has participated in court proceedings and copyright disputes for decades, including analysis and professional opinion. In a February preliminary report filed to the court he pointed to similarities in the two songs that he said provide \u201cstrong objective musicological evidence of copying.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Ambrosetti in his 2020 lawsuit said he had sent an infringement notice to the plaintiffs alleging the copyright violation but that they continued to use their song, leading to his filing the suit. The trial is expected to continue through the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A years-old copyright lawsuit over Catholic hymns saw jurors in Oregon this week receive a crash course in music reading along with a livestreamed performance of the songs at the center of the dispute. The suit, originally filed by American Catholic composer Vincent Ambrosetti in May 2020, accuses songwriter Bernadette Farrell and Oregon Catholic Press [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"bron":[41],"class_list":["post-41964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nieuws","bron-cna"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls":{},"appp_media":null,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jurors given piano performance, crash course in music as part of copyright suit over Catholic hymns - ExploreCatholic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/explorecatholic.nl\/en\/nieuws\/jurors-given-piano-performance-crash-course-in-music-as-part-of-copyright-suit-over-catholic-hymns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jurors given piano performance, crash course in music as part of copyright suit over Catholic hymns - ExploreCatholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A years-old copyright lawsuit over Catholic hymns saw jurors in Oregon this week receive a crash course in music reading along with a livestreamed performance of the songs at the center of the dispute. 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