You have to add line shifts - “carriage returns” - yourself, manually.

Finale does not do it for you automatically.

Tip:

If you switch to the Page Layout Tool, you can see the margins, and thus see where a line shift is needed, in order to stay within the margins.

Thanks. It worked!

Do you own the copyright to all the tunes and lyrics in your medley or are they in the PD?

I wrote one song and arranged the other four.. Those which I wrote should be in the public domain.  One of the other four was written in the 11th Century; one was an old French Canadian melody; one is the old English Carol (Wexford) dating back to the 11th Century; the other was written in the 16th Century.  Shouldn't the four which I didn't write, be in the public domain now?

The lyrics probably are not PD since the English language isn't as old as any of those tunes. All this is easily checked but you should do so. Just because something is old doesn't mean it was first published in the US before Jan. 1, 1923. 

And what about the arrangements used in your medley? If you didn't do them from scratch, those must also be researched.

I found it interesting that your notice would be attempting to give away rights that may belong to others. This is why I asked. Congregational singing is exempt from copyright in the US but the materials used (sheet music, lyric sheets, song books, hymnals, projections etc.) certainly are not. Most hymnal publishers now require a license fee every five years even though the congregations own the books.

I managed hymnal, CCLI and onelicense.net licenses for the last churches I worked for.

I do my arrangements totally from scratch. I take the tune only and write all the harmony. They are piano arrangements and so no lyrics. I sometime even change the tune slightly.

Uhhh... that makes no sense at all. How can your medley be used in congregational singing if there are no lyrics? Of course it can't because for that to happen, you must put the words to your arrangement. If the lyrics are under copyright, you are not allowed to do this without express, written permission from the rights holders. 

In the US, this is easy. If the lyrics were in a song/hymn published before 1/1/1923, you're cool. If between 1/1/23—12/31/77, it's 95 years after date of first publication. From 1/1/78, we follow the same rules as most of the rest of the world. Again, this is the US only—there are hymns that are PD in the US because of the date of publication but are still under copyright in other parts of the world due to the death date of the last surviving composer or author.

I always get get uneasy when I read home-brewed copyright notices. I am not an attorney nor am I trying to do your due diligence for you. I am suggesting that you do your own.

The curious thing for me is why, if you own all the rights, you would not want to monetize your work by trying to license it through CCLI and onelicense.net? I am certain that they will insist you use a standard copyright notice that protects you and doesn't infringe on others.

Mike Halloran,

As Far As I Can Tell, Ivan Burnett wrote “congregational worship”.

Not “congregational singing”.

I suppose that the medley is composed to be played alone, by itself, with no singing.

Copyright protecting the composition might be a good idea.

You're right. I missed that—which makes the home-brewed notification even worse as "congregational worship" is a meaningless term in this context. 

Copyright notices are legal statements. They should conform to the standards of the Library of Congress. Any deviation should be done by an attorney experienced in these matters. 

Since performance other than congregational singing is protected by copyright and there are two PROs who license these performances and the materials, it's a good idea to discuss this with both of them. I've mentioned both of them twice, now.

A prelude or offertory is usually a part of congregational worship in my tradition, possibly not in yours.

IT DOESNT MATTER. There. Do capital letters make a difference?

An offertory etc. is a performance that it is subject to copyright. You can't change that. If you wish to be paid for those performances, join one of the PROs that licenses worship (BMI, ASCAP and SESAC do not).

You can certainly grant a license to let someone print materials free of charge—if you're the publisher, that's your right.

The problem with your made-up notice is that you are trying to grant terms of a license as part of your copyright notice. A license should be separate and use terms that make sense and not vague, ambiguous terms like "congregational worship". Use a minimum of two spaces below the Copyright notice if you are going to use that box in Finale or use a separate text box.

Your Copyright notice should conform to the Library of Congress, www.copyright.gov.

I'm just the messenger.

Thanks.  I now have the Copyright separate from any other comments.  I am not interested in being paid for the performance of this.  I am using the same copyright format that my denomination uses for all of its hymns.  MINE, however, has NO lyrics.

You comments have been helpful.