G. Schirmer, Inc. is an American classical music publishing company based in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, founded in 1861. The oldest active music publisher in the United States, Schirmer publishes sheet music for sale and rental, and represents some well-known European music publishers in North America, such as the Music Sales Affiliates
ChesterNovello
Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group.
In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...
,
Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf.
The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...
,
Sikorski and many Russian and former Soviet composers' catalogs.
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History
The company was founded in 1861 in the United States by German-born Gustav Schirmer Sr. (1829–1893), the son of a German immigrant. In 1891, the company established its own engraving and printing plant. The next year it inaugurated the Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics. ''The Musical Quarterly
''The Musical Quarterly'' is the oldest academic journal on music in America. Originally established in 1915 by Oscar Sonneck, the journal was edited by Sonneck until his death in 1928. Sonneck was succeeded by a number of editors, including Ca ...
,'' the oldest academic journal on music in the U.S., was founded by Schirmer in 1915 together with musicologist Oscar Sonneck
Oscar George Theodore Sonneck (October 6, 1873 – October 30, 1928) was a U.S. librarian, editor, and musicologist.
Sonneck was born in Jersey City. He studied philosophy and musicology in Germany at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich ...
, who edited the journal until his death in 1928. In 1964, Schirmer acquired Associated Music Publishers (BMI) which had built up an important catalog of American composers including Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...
, Henry Cowell, Roy Harris
Roy Ellsworth Harris (February 12, 1898 – October 1, 1979) was an American composer. He wrote music on American subjects, and is best known for his Symphony No. 3.
Life
Harris was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on February 12, 1898. His ancestr ...
, Charles Ives, Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University.
Life
Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter Ha ...
, and William Schuman
William Howard Schuman (August 4, 1910February 15, 1992) was an American composer and arts administrator.
Life
Schuman was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, son of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. He was named after the 27th U.S. ...
, adding to a Schirmer's ASCAP roster which had already included Samuel Barber
Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...
, Morton Gould
Morton Gould (December 10, 1913February 21, 1996) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.
Biography
Morton Gould was born in Richmond Hill, New York, United States. He was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities i ...
, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Virgil Thomson
Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclass ...
, as well as composers from the earlier part of the century such as Charles Tomlinson Griffes
Charles Tomlinson Griffes ( ; September 17, 1884 – April 8, 1920) was an American composer for piano, chamber ensembles and voice. His initial works are influenced by German Romanticism, but after he relinquished the German style, his lat ...
, Charles Martin Loeffler
Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (January 30, 1861 – May 19, 1935) was a German-born American violinist and composer.
Family background
Charles Martin Loeffler was born Martin Karl Löffler on January 30, 1861, in Schöneberg near Berlin to pa ...
, John Alden Carpenter
John Alden Carpenter (February 28, 1876 – April 26, 1951) was an American composer. Carpenter's compositional style was considered to be mainly "mildly modernistic and impressionistic"; many of his works strive to encompass the spirit of America ...
, and Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
.
The company was owned by the Schirmer family for over 100 years until Macmillan, a major book publisher, purchased it in 1968. Macmillan then sold G. Schirmer (except for its reference division, now part of Cengage Learning) to its current owner, Robert Wise, in 1986, the owner of popular music publisher, Music Sales Group
Wise Music Group is a global music publisher, with headquarters in Berners Street, London. In February 2020, Wise Music Group changed its name from The Music Sales Group.
In 2014 Wise Music Group (as The Music Sales Group) acquired French cla ...
, Inc. According to a spokesman, the purchase price was around US$7 million. The Music Sales Group changed its name to Wise Music Group in February 2020.
As the sale of Schirmer did not include ''The Musical Quarterly'', the future of the journal remained uncertain until its transition in 1989 to publisher 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 ...
. In 1986 Schirmer also joined with the Hal Leonard Corporation
Hal Leonard LLC (formerly Hal Leonard Corporation) is an American music publishing and distribution company founded in Winona, Minnesota, by Harold "Hal" Edstrom, his brother, Everett "Leonard" Edstrom, and fellow musician Roger Busdicker. Curre ...
, a print distributor of jazz and popular music, who became the sole distributors of Schirmer's printed music. The last member of the family named for the founder was Gus Schirmer the 4th, a theatrical director, producer, and agent, who died in 1992 at the age of 73.
Composers published by the company
The Schirmer/AMP catalog includes composers such as John Corigliano, Richard Danielpour
Richard Danielpour (born January 28, 1956) is an American composer.
Early life
Danielpour was born in New York City of Persian Jewish descent and grew up in New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida. He studied at Oberlin College and the New E ...
, Avner Dorman
Avner Dorman (Hebrew: אבנר דורמן; born April 14, 1975 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-born composer, educator and conductor.
Education
Dorman holds a doctorate in music composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied as a C ...
, Gabriela Lena Frank
Gabriela Lena Frank (born Berkeley, California, United States, September 1972) is an American pianist and composer of contemporary classical music.
Biography
Gabriela Lena Frank's father is an American of Lithuanian Jewish heritage and her mothe ...
, John Harbison
John Harris Harbison (born December 20, 1938) is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Life
John Harris Harbison was born on December 20, 1938, in Orange, New Jersey, to the historian Elmore Harris Harbi ...
, Aaron Jay Kernis
Aaron Jay Kernis (born January 15, 1960) is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Dir ...
, Leon Kirchner
Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Pr ...
, Peter Lieberson
Peter Goddard Lieberson (25 October 1946 – 23 April 2011) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His song cycles include two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: '' Rilke Songs'' and ''Neruda Songs''; the latter won t ...
, André Previn, Bright Sheng
Bright Sheng ( Chinese: 盛宗亮 pinyin: ''Shèng Zōngliàng''; born December 6, 1955) is a Chinese-born American composer, pianist and conductor. Sheng has earned many honors for his music and compositions, including a MacArthur Fellowship in ...
, Fannie Morris Spencer
Fannie Morris Spencer (August 15, 1865 - April 9, 1943) was an American composer and organist who wrote a collection of 32 hymns and was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists.
Spencer was born in Newburgh, New York, to Cynthia McCo ...
, Tan Dun
Tan Dun (, ; born 18 August 1957) is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and ...
, Augusto Brandt
Augusto Brandt (1892 in Puerto Cabello – 1942 in Caracas) was a Venezuelan composer and violinist.http://www.eldigoras.com/eom/2002/fuego08meb07.htm Augusto brandt at Eldigoras
Early life
The son of German immigrants, and younger brother of wr ...
, Du Yun
Du Yun (traditional Chinese: 杜韻, simplified Chinese: 杜韵) is a Chinese-born American composer, performer, vocalist and performance artist. She won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her opera ''Angel's Bone'', with libretto by Royce ...
, Robert Xavier Rodriguez, Joan Tower
Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New York ...
, Margaret Shelley Vance
Margaret Ann (“Peg”) Shelley Vance (30 July 1925 - 18 May 2008) was an American composer and music educator who is best remembered today for her compositions and arrangements for choirs.
Vance was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Dora Aldona Kidd ...
, and Mary Wiggins
Mary Wiggins (February 10, 1904 – April 17, 1974) was an American composer, educator, organist, and pianist, born in Indiana, Pennsylvania. She studied composition at Carnegie-Mellon University with Roland Leich, and privately with Gladys W. Fi ...
.
The company also publishes ''The G. Schirmer Manual of Style and Usage''. G. Schirmer is a member of the Music Sales Group of Companies, the Music Publishers Association
The Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA) is a non-profit music publishing organization based in New York City. Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States which addresses issues pertain ...
, the National Music Publishers Association
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and ...
, and the Church Music Publishers Association.
References
External links
Schirmer.com
official homepage
ArtistsHouseMusic.org
(interview with Peggy Monastra on G. Schirmer Music Publishers)
* (publisher page)
{{Authority control
Schirmer
Schirmer
Schirmer
Publishing companies established in 1861
1861 establishments in New York (state)
1968 mergers and acquisitions
1986 mergers and acquisitions