802.6 (C) (2) Instrumentation
Musical instrumentation or orchestration is the distribution or redistribution of harmonic elements among different instruments. Instrumentation authorship may be registered as a derivative work if the author added sufficient original authorship to the preexisting work. Simply assigning entire lines from a preexisting work to new instruments would not be considered sufficient new authorship, such as a four-part choral work assigned without change to four brass instruments.
Examples of sufficient original authorship:
• An orchestration of a work originally composed for piano, such as Debussy’s “Reverie.”
• A marching band arrangement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in G Major, Opus 18, No. 2.
• A hip hop arrangement of a famous pop ballad.