Paco de Lucía is the only author of the song Between two waters and another 36 musical works. On the tenth anniversary of the artist’s death, as sentenced by section 32 of the Provincial Court of Madrid on Tuesday. The Court ratifies the resolution issued by the Commercial Court No. 3 of Madrid, which in April 2023 and after 14 years of litigation resolved the claim promoted by the heirs of guitarist against producer José Torregrosa (deceased in 2005), who appeared as co -author in flamenco issues.
The Court confirms in its brief that Torregrosa was limited to transcribing the works created by Paco de Lucía, a self -taught musician who lacked the preparation to do so, in addition to processing his record in the repertoire of the works composed in the sixties and seventies confident to the management of the SGAE. That this was registered as co -author of the 1973 song on the album Source and flow It is qualified by the audience as “an abuse of trust towards the true creator and author of the works”, which, as stated in the resolution, never dealt with this kind of efforts “until a younger member of his family, Specifically, his daughter worried about it and uncovered a situation to which this sentence has come to put an end. ” Lucía Sánchez is a lawyer and daughter of Paco de Lucía, and has been key in this process: “It has been very complicated, because intellectual property laws admit abundant nuances and are complex. Many people told me to leave, but I have continued, ”he said in 2023, after receiving the resolution of the Commercial Court.
Producer’s heirs have maintained during the lawsuit that it was not a mere transcription, since it was accompanied by multiple arrangements and modifications. The letter ratifies, however, that, attending to the recordings and the judgment of specialists, in those specific cases in which the presence of some kind of musical arrangement could be detected, he lacked the necessary importance required to generate a derived work. “The compositions of Paco de Lucía are of such a technical complexity (which includes chopped and rags of enormous difficulty) that could only be conceived by a guitarist, and in addition to flamenco style,” says the resolution to justify the authorship of Paco de Lucía and Not that of Torregrosa, who was a pianist and not flamenco musician. Their scores, object to “were made since the position of a pianist, and although it is true that in his curriculum the composition of a flamenco mass is listed, it is a choral work.” Among the 3 songs of Paco de Lucía are also included Canastera, from Madrugá, Feria Farolillo o Farruca de Lucia.
Already in the first instance the heirs of the producer were forced to return the amounts that had been perceived by virtue of the exploitation of these works for decades, as well as moral damage. This judicial decision, which can be appealed to the Supreme Court, contemplates the payment on costs to the appellant, in addition to confirming the compensation of 10,000 euros for moral damage. The magistrates stop, in fact, specifically in the moral damage caused to Paco de Lucía. “We are faced with a world -famous artist, considered a teacher in its kind, who has seen publicly denied the recognition of the exclusive authorship of a fairly significant number of his musical works. It is stated that the interested party showed his bitter complaint for this reason and that he tried to fight in life against that situation without giving him time to achieve success in his efforts. The affliction that necessarily had to cause in the person of Paco de Lucía the experience of a situation like this can be perfectly understood, when the artist looks helpless at the contumacy of the counterpart. ”