
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994                   TAG: 9407030101
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MADRID, SPAIN                                LENGTH: Medium

EX-MONKS ASK ROYALTIES ON GREGORIAN CHANT CD

Two former Benedictine monks who say they scored the music on a hot-selling CD of Gregorian chants claim they are entitled to some $5 million in royalties.

The two-disc CD, entitled "The Best of Gregorian Chants," unexpectedly soared to the top of the Spanish music charts this year and subsequently gained worldwide sales of more than 3 million.

The CD of medieval Latin plainsong was released in March in the United States under the title "Chant." It made it to No. 1 on the American classical charts - then shocked the pop charts by breaking into the top 10.

The album was compiled from recordings in the 1970s and early 1980s by monks in a Benedictine monastery in northern Spain. Previous sales of chants recorded by the same choir never exceeded several thousand records or CDs.

The ex-monks - Ismael Fernandez de la Cuesta and Francisco Lara - both served as directors of the choir at the Santo Domingo de Silos Abbey, a small monastery near the northern city of Burgos. De la Cuesta was director during a 1973 recording and Lara held the post during recordings in the early 1980s.

Both left the monastery more than 10 years ago. De la Cuesta teaches at the Madrid Conservatory. Lara's current occupation was not immediately available.

The two have just published their scores and registered their arrangements with the General Society of Spanish Authors, claiming they and the society are entitled to royalties from the CD sales.

"Besides the marketing, we think it was our arrangement that contributed to the success," the two said in a statement last week. "If something is owed to us, we want to collect it."

Music company officials claim the chants are in the public domain, so are not protected by copyright. They also say such chants can't be arranged; they are simply what the monks have sung seven times a day for hundreds of years.

"This is part of a larger worldwide frontal attack on the public domain," said Juan Mestres, attorney for EMI-Odeon, which issued and distributed the CD. "My personal opinion also is that claiming to arrange this 1,000-year-old chanted music is not realistic."

He said EMI-Odeon had not received official notice of the claim.

by CNB