Pro edition

Commission Agreement.

The public page says what a commission buys. This is the document that makes it true. Not legal advice — a list of what to decide, which is the part that costs nothing and prevents most of the arguments.

4 fee stages, not two

On signature: 30%; Nothing yet. It is the commitment, and a commission with no signature payment is a conversation rather than a commission.
On short score: 30%; A complete piece in reduced form. This is the last stage where a large structural note is cheap, and the stage most agreements omit.
On delivery: 30%; Full score and parts, in the agreed format, by the agreed date.
After premiere: 10%; A small tail, deliberately. It keeps both parties invested in the performance actually happening.

Four stages rather than the usual two. The short-score stage is the one worth adding: it puts the structural conversation at the point where changing something costs a week rather than a month, and it gives a nervous commissioner a real look at the piece before the final payment.

Delivery

What is delivered, in what form, and who pays for it
Item	Spec	Why it is in writing
Full score	PDF, A3 or B4	Concert pitch or transposed, stated in the agreement. Assuming is how a conductor gets the wrong one at the first rehearsal.
Parts	PDF, extracted and checked	Extracted is not the same as checked. Page turns, cues and rehearsal marks are the work, and this line decides who does it.
Who pays for parts	Named in the agreement	The single most common gap. Professional copying is a real cost and somebody is paying it either way.
Delivery date	A date, and a fallback	Plus what happens if it slips — usually a reduced fee rather than a cancellation, agreed while everybody is calm.
Errata window	30 days after premiere	Corrections found in rehearsal are normal. Fixing them is included; rewriting is not.

What exclusivity covers

The first public performance The thing the commissioner is really buying, and the thing worth naming explicitly rather than implying.
A stated period after it Twelve months is normal. During it nobody else may perform the work. It protects the investment without permanently freezing the piece.
Programme and publicity credit "Commissioned by" in perpetuity, on every future programme note. Free to give and genuinely valuable to receive.
Not the copyright Unless separately agreed and separately paid. The default in concert music, and the reverse of the default in film — which is where the confusion comes from.
Not a recording Commercial recording is its own consent and usually freely given. It is not automatic and it should not be assumed.

When it goes wrong

Four situations, three of which happen to somebody every season.

The ensemble loses its season before the premiere: Fee stages already earned stay earned; the exclusivity clock starts on the original premiere date rather than never. Without this line, a delivered piece can be frozen indefinitely by an event neither party caused.
The commissioner wants a substantially different piece: That is a new commission, priced as one. Say so at the short-score stage, kindly, in writing.
The composer delivers late: A stated reduction rather than a cancellation. It keeps the piece alive and it keeps the relationship, which is worth more than the fee.
The premiere goes badly: Nothing in the agreement changes. This is worth writing down precisely because it is the moment people want it to.

6 ways a commission sours

Two fee stages, so the first structural note arrives on a finished full score.
Nobody named as paying for parts, discovered three weeks before the first rehearsal.
Transposed or concert pitch left unstated, and a conductor with the wrong score.
Exclusivity with no end date, and a piece nobody else may ever play.
Copyright assumed to transfer with the fee, discovered when a label wants to record it.
No clause for a cancelled season, and a delivered work frozen for years.

Percentages and norms differ by country and by funder, and a commission paid from a public grant usually carries terms of its own that override several of these. Nothing here is legal advice.

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