Birchall-Wesley-Horn-Well-Tempered-Clavier

Robert Birchall ('' c''. 1750 – 19 December 1819) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

music seller, publisher, and instrument dealer.

Biography

Scholars had originally placed his birthdate to be ''c.'' 1760, but Birchall's age in a 1772 deposition is given as "22 years or thereabouts".Rabin and Zohn, 126. Born in London, he may have been apprenticed by 1771 to William Randall, the cousin and one of the successors of printer John Walsh. In 1783, he partnered with a one "T. Beardmore" as Beardmore & Birchall before leaving for another partnership with Hugh Andrews that same year. He issued publications under the names Birchall & Andrews and Birchall & Co. from 1783 to May 1789 when the partnership was dissolved, Andrews taking on the business by himself.Kidson, Smith, and Jones. From 1789 onward, Birchall continued alone in publishing works, operating out of his address at

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

. Birchall enjoyed a collaboration with 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 ...

, which began in May 1805 with the publication of Beethoven's Violin Sonata in A major ( Op. 47). Birchall also published the original English editions of the piano adaption of ''

Wellington's Victory ''Wellington's Victory'', or the ''Battle of Vitoria'' (also called the ''Battle Symphony''; in German: ''Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria''), Op. 91, is a 15-minute-long orchestral work composed by Ludwig van Beethoven to comm ...

'' (Op. 91), the Violin Sonata in G Major (Op. 96), the Piano Trio in B flat major (Op. 97), and

Anton Diabelli Anton (or Antonio) Diabelli (5 September 17818 April 1858) was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote ...

's piano adaptation of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. He purchased the copyrights for these four works from Beethoven in 1815. During his later years, Birchall's correspondence with Beethoven also mentioned other possible projects, but these never came to fruition; this was partly a result of Beethoven's high fees and Birchall's declining health.Clive, 33. In addition to Beethoven's works, Birchall printed various glees, country dance books, and Italian vocal works. He also published works by

George Frideric Handel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque music, Baroque composer well known for his opera#Baroque era, operas, oratorios, anthems, concerto grosso, concerti grossi, ...

and

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

, including the first English edition of the ''

Well-Tempered Clavier ''The Well-Tempered Clavier'', BWV 846–893, consists of two sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach. In the composer's time, ''clavier'', meaning keyboard, referred to a variety of in ...

'' in 1810 edited by Samuel Wesley and

Charles Frederick Horn Charles Frederick Horn (24 February 1762 – 3 August 1830) was an English musician and composer. Born in Germany, he emigrated to London with few possessions and no knowledge of the English language, yet rose to become a music teacher in the ...

. After Birchall's death, his employee

Christopher Lonsdale Christopher Windley Lonsdale (1886 in Thornthwaite, Cumberland, England – 1952 at Parksville, British Columbia, on Canada's Vancouver Island), was the founder and first headmaster of Shawnigan Lake School in Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia o ...

took over the firm.

Notes

References

*Clive, Peter (2001). ''Beethoven and His World: A Biographical Dictionary''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. . *Kidson, Frank; Smith, William C.; and Peter Ward Jones. "Birchall, Robert".
Grove Music Online
' (subscription required). ed. L. Macy. Retrieved on May 14, 2008. *Rabin, Ronald J. and Steven Zohn (1995). "Arne, Handel, Walsh, and Music as Intellectual Property: Two Eighteenth-Century Lawsuits". '' Journal of the Royal Musical Association'' 120 (1): 112–145.

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Birchall 1750s births 1819 deaths English printers Businesspeople from London 18th-century English people 19th-century English people