Edition Peters is a
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
publisher
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...
founded in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, Germany in 1800.
History
The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when the
Viennese Viennese may refer to:
* Vienna, the capital of Austria
* Viennese people, List of people from Vienna
* Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna
* Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city
* Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance
* V ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
Franz Anton Hoffmeister
Franz Anton Hoffmeister (12 May 1754 – 9 February 1812) was an Austrian composer and History of music publishing, music publisher.
Early years
Franz Anton Hoffmeister was born in Rottenburg am Neckar (Further Austria) on 12 May 1754. At ...
(1754–1812) and the local organist Ambrosius Kühnel (1770–1813) opened a concern in Leipzig known as the "Bureau de Musique." Along with publishing, the new firm included an
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ...
and
printing
Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...
works and a retail shop for selling printed music and instruments. Among its earliest publications were collections of
chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
works by
Haydn and
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
. When Hoffmeister departed for Vienna in 1805, the firm had already issued several works by the then new Viennese composer,
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
(Opp. 19-22; 39-42). Kühnel continued publishing new works, adding those of composers
Daniel Gottlob Türk
Daniel Gottlob Türk (10 August 1750 – 26 August 1813) was a German composer, organist, and music professor of the Classical period.
Biography
Born in Claußnitz, Saxony, Türk studied organ under his father and later under Johann Adam Hille ...
,
Václav Tomášek
Václav Jan Křtitel Tomášek (in German: Wenzel Johann Tomaschek; 17 April 1774, Skuteč, Bohemia – 3 April 1850, Prague) was an Austrian-Bohemian, by other accounts a Czech composer and music teacher. He was known as the Musical Pope of P ...
, and
Louis Spohr, all of whom went on to have a long relationship with the firm.
After Kühnel's death, the enterprise was sold to Carl Friedrich Peters (1779–1827), a Leipzig bookseller. Despite difficulties arising from the aftermath of the
War of the Sixth Coalition
In the War of the Sixth Coalition (March 1813 – May 1814), sometimes known in Germany as the Wars of Liberation, a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, and a number of German States defeated F ...
and depression, Peters added new works by
Weber
Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'.
Notable pe ...
,
Hummel,
Klengel, and
Ries Ries is the German word for a unit of paper ream, derived from the Arabic word ''rizma''.
The term can refer to:
Geography
* Nördlinger Ries, a large circular depression in western Bavaria, Germany.
* Ries (Graz), a district of the city of Graz ...
to the catalog along with his name (now "Bureau de Musique C. F. Peters") before his death. The next owner was a manufacturer, Carl Gotthelf Siegmund Böhme (1785–1855), who published many works of J. S. Bach after the revival of interest in his work with the assistance of
Carl Czerny,
Siegfried Dehn,
Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl and
Moritz Hauptmann
Moritz Hauptmann (13 October 1792, Dresden – 3 January 1868, Leipzig), was a German music theorist, teacher and composer. His principal theoretical work is the 1853 ''Die Natur der Harmonie und der Metrik'' explores numerous topics, particular ...
. Ownership of the company was transferred to a charity run by the City of Leipzig for a short period after Böhme's death (1855–1860).
The company was then sold to a Berlin music and book retailer, Julius Friedländer, on 21 April 1860. By 1863, Friedländer took on a partner, Dr. Max Abraham (1831–1900). Abraham employed many of the improvements to music printing that were introduced by the Leipzig engraver Gottlieb Röder, and launched the "Edition Peters" imprint in 1867. This series competed with
Breitkopf & Härtel's similar ''Volksausgabe'' ("People's edition") series, launched at the same time. Two color schemes were used for the covers of this inexpensive series: a light green cover for works of earlier composers not affected by copyright restrictions; and pink covers for new, original works acquired by Peters or licensed from other publishers. By 1880, the year Abraham took over the directorship, Peters had begun issuing new works by contemporary composers of the era. By 1900, new works from composers including
Brahms,
Bruch,
Grieg,
Köhler
Köhler is a German surname, referring to a man making charcoal from wood.
Geographical distribution
As of 2014, 96.2% of all known bearers of the surname ''Köhler'' were residents of Germany (frequency 1:641) and 1.5% of Austria (1:4,238).
In ...
,
Moszkowski Moszkowski may refer to:
* Alexander Moszkowski ( pl, Aleksander Moszkowski; 1851–1934), Jewish Polish-German writer and satirist
* Moritz Moszkowski ( pl, Maurycy Moszkowski; 1854–1925), Romantic-era composer and Alexander's brother
** List of ...
,
Reger,
Sinding and
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
were included in the catalog.
Abraham's successor was his nephew,
Henri Hinrichsen, who added works of
Mahler,
Pfitzner, Reger,
Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...
, and
Hugo Wolf
Hugo Philipp Jacob Wolf (13 March 1860 – 22 February 1903) was an Austrian composer of Slovene origin, particularly noted for his art songs, or Lieder. He brought to this form a concentrated expressive intensity which was unique in late Ro ...
. The works of
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...
that were originally issued by
Joseph Aibl (later
Universal Edition
Universal Edition (UE) is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, they originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market (which had until then been dominated by Leipzig-base ...
) were acquired by Hinrichsen for Peters in 1932. Hinrichsen's sons Max (1901–1965), Walter (1907–1969), and Hans-Joachim (1909–1940) all entered the business in the 1930s.
Following the advent of the
Nazi German government in Germany, Max Hinrichsen moved to London, where in 1938 he founded Hinrichsen Edition (renamed Edition Peters London in 1975), and his brother Walter moved to New York where he founded C. F. Peters Corp. (including the subsidiary Henmar Press) in 1948. By 1940, the Nazi regime forced Henri and
Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen to turn over the company to Johannes Petschull (1901–2001), who later established the Frankfurt company in 1950 in partnership with the Hinrichsen heirs Walter and Max Hinrichsen.
In spite of suffering a similar degree of damage as other Leipzig publishers from the
Allied bombing of Germany during the war, the Leipzig facility was re-opened in 1947, and transferred to state ownership of the
East German government by 1949. Its first director was Georg Hillner, who was succeeded by
musicologist Bernd Pachnicke in 1969. During the communist era, Peters Leipzig issued contemporary works of composers including
Paul Dessau
Paul Dessau (19 December 189428 June 1979) was a German composer and conductor. He collaborated with Bertolt Brecht and composed incidental music for his plays, and several operas based on them.
Biography
Dessau was born in Hamburg into a ...
,
Hanns Eisler, and
Christian Geisler
Christian Peder Wilhelm Geisler (28 April 1869 – 19 August 1951) was a Danish organist and composer.
He graduated at the Conservatory of Music in the years 1887-90 of, among others, Niels W. Gade, J.P.E. Hartmann and Gottfred Matthison-Hansen ...
along with those of
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
composers including
Khachaturian and
Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throughout his life as a major compo ...
in addition to a number of
urtext editions of works by Beethoven,
Chopin,
Fauré, Mahler,
Scriabin,
Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...
and others. Following
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990, the Leipzig concern was absorbed by the Frankfurt firm, who had acquired the catalogues of
M.P. Belaieff in 1971,
Schwann in 1974 and
C.F. Kahnt in 1989.
The Peters Edition Ltd. (London), the C.F. Peters Corporation (New York), the C.F. Peters Musikverlag (Frankfurt/Main) and the Leipzig firms of the Edition Peters merged in August 2010 to form Edition Peters Group. In July 2014 the headquarters was moved from Frankfurt back to Leipzig.
[ (headline: "Music Publisher Edition Peters has its headquarters in Leipzig again")]
References
External links
*
Stanton Family Collectionat the
Leo Baeck Institute New York
The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking ...
{{Authority control
1800 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
Peters
Peters
Mass media in Leipzig