Music Publishing Business

Categories / Literature. Book Publishing/Publishing Houses
MUSIC PUBLISHING BUSINESS. Printed music was more expensive than handwritten in the 18th century to the first halа of the 19th century. Initially it was only printed for special occasions, later - only for a small number of followers. The printing office of the Academy of Sciences started to print secular music in the form of either as unbound leaves or collections of plays devoted to Empress Anna Ioannovna, in 1730, a cantata by V. K. Trediakovsky was printed. The printing office of the Academy of Sciences kept a monopoly for printing music by means of handmade engravings up to the 1770s, it published several collections of sonatas by Italian court musicians, the first collections of songs were: Idleness during Breaks in Work by senator G. N. Teplov (1751) and the Collection of Simple Russian Songs with Music by V. F. Trutovsky (4 issues, 1776-95). The printing office of the Mining College printed music in 1789-91, the Collection of Russian People's Songs with Music by Ivan Prach was published in 1790, the masterpiece of Russian musical printing art: vocal-instrumental score of the music for the play by Empress Catherine II, The First Government of Oleg, was published in 1791. The decree about free printing offices was published in 1783, and the publishing house of B. T. Breitkopf was opened in 1785. His printing office (the corner of Bolshaya Meshchanskaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue) printed claviers of ballets from the repertoire of the court ballet company, romances by Petersburg authors, including those by D. S. Bortnyansky, Princess N. I. Kurakina by typing notes on a mechanism similar to a typewriter. In 1795-98 he published the Musical Journal of the Italian Theatre in St. Petersburg (the name in Italian) by subscription. In 1793-1809, an important role was played by the publishing house of I. D. Gerstenberg, from 1796 - by the publishing house of Gerstenberg and A. F. Dietmar In Gote and St. Petersburg; it published music by composers from Vienna and St. Petersburg: F. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, K. Dittersdorf, I. Pleyel, O. A. Kozlovsky, I. E. Khandoshkin, A. F. Tietz, it published collections of people's songs, music journals. The number of music publishers increased from the beginning of the 19th century. Publishing houses of J. Dalmas (1800), I. K. Petz (1810), K. Lisner, K. F. Richter (1825) were opened, the publishing house of I. Bernard (1829-85), a pianist, composer, student of J. M. Field, was the biggest one of the time. Enlargement of music publishing houses in the 19th century was caused by the fact that they either inherited or bought the business of their predecessors thus acquiring already type set plates of previous publications. Bernard purchased the company of Dalmas and in 1840-50, he became the leading trader of printed music in Russia, his publications were also sold in Europe. He was the first to publish the romances by M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, A. A. Alyabyev, A. L. Gurilev, P. P. Bulakhov, from 1842, he published the musicical journal Nuvellist. The publishing house of F. T. Stellovsky was opened in 1830; he was followed by music publishers L. K. Snegirev, P. I. Gurskalin, V. D. Denotkin whose business was later bought up by Stellovsky. Publishing music of Russian composers Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, A. N. Verstovsky and A. N. Serov was the main work of Stellovsky. In 1885 the company of Berngard passed onto the Moscow publishing house of P. I. Yurgenson, and the company of Stellovsky was taken over by the Moscow publishing house of A. K. Gutheil. The big music publishing house V. V. Bessel and Co. specializing in publishing opera scores with voices was opened in St. Petersburg in 1869. The Bessels published many operas by A. G. Rubinstein, M. P. Musorgsky, P. I. Chaykovsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, in addition to the journals Muzikalny Listok (1872-77) and Muzikalnoe obozrenie (1885-88). In 1875-1915, the publishing house of Y. G. Zimmerman worked successfully, the publishing house M. P. Belyaev in Leipzig worked in 1885-1917. The process of transferring old plates to zink plates enabling the printing of music on high-speed presses was invented in the second half of the 19th century and became widespread. Moscow became the leader of the music publishing industry at the beginning of the 20th century. Music publishing was nationalized by decree in 1918. In 1921, all the music printing offices and publishing houses were united in the Music Sector of the State Publishing House. The Music Sector was rearranged as an independent publishing house The Music Publishing House with a department in Leningrad in 1930. In addition to it, the cooperative publishing house Triton publishing light music functioned in Leningrad in 1925-35. The publishing house Soviet Composer (with a department in Leningrad) intended for popularisation of the contemporary music was established in 1957. In the 1960s-80s, these publishing houses published music from graphic sheets; they fell behind European ones in quality and layout of the text, not entirely satisfying the demand which was covered by importing many cheap musical publications from Poland, Hungary and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The music publishing houses Composer (45 Bolshaya Morskaya Street) and Music (17 Ryleeva Street) functioned in St. Petersburg in 2003. Music is printed by computer typing. The production is mostly oriented for teaching. Contemporary music is printed in limited quantity.

References: Вольман Б. Л. Русские печатные ноты XVIII века. Л., 1957; Его же. Русские нотные издания ХIX - начала ХХ века. Л., 1970; Иванов Г. К. Нотоиздательское дело в России: Ист. справка. М., 1970.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Alyabyev Alexander Alexandrovich
Anna Ioannovna, Empress
Belyaev Mitrofan Petrovich
Bernard Matvey Ivanovich
Bessel Vasily Vasilievich
Bortnyansky Dmitry Stepanovich
Breitkopf B.T.
Bulakhov Peter Petrovich
Catherine II, Empress
Dalmas J.
Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich
Denotkin V.D.
Dietmar A.F.
Dittersdorf Karl
Field John
Gerstenberg Iogann Daniel
Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Gurilev Alexander Lvovich
Gutheil A.K.
Haydn Franz Joseph
Khandoshkin Ivan Evstafievich
Kozlovsky Osip (Iosif) Antonovich
Lisner K.
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Petz I.
Pleyel Ignaz Joseph
Richter K.F.
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Rubinstein Anton Grigorievich
Serov Alexander Nikolaevich
Snegirev L.K.
Stellovsky Fedor Timofeevich
Tchaikovsky Peter Ilyich
Teplov Grigory Nikolaevich
Tietz Anton Ferdinand
Trediakovsky Vasily Kirillovich
Trutovsky Vasily Fedorovich
Verstovsky Alexey Nikolaevich
Yurgenson Peter Ivanovich
Zimmerman Yuly Genrichovich
Bolshaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 45
Kazanskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Ryleeva St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 17
Voznesensky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city
Вольман Б. Л. Русские печатные ноты XVIII века. Л., 1957
Иванов Г. К. Нотоиздательское дело в России: Ист. справка. М., 1970
Вольман Б. Л. Русские нотные издания ХIX - начала ХХ века. Л., 1970