Street map of Leipzig (extract) from 1929
During the course of the 19th century Leipzig advanced to one of the leading European musical metropoli. Of great significance in this development was the presence in the city of several of the preeminent specialist publishers of the day.
The oldest of these institutions, in fact the longest established music publisher in the world, is Breitkopf, founded in 1719 by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. Gottfried Christoph Härtel took over the publishing house in 1795 (named since then Breitkopf & Härtel), establishing a close working relationship with, among others, Ludwig van Beethoven. Breitkopf & Härtel became the trusted publisher of many of the luminaries of the romantic epoch: e.g. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner.
The publishing house C.F. Peters is similarly rooted in Leipzig. Founded in 1800 by Franz Anton Hoffmeister and Ambrosius Kühnel as Bureau de Musique, it published highly significant editions of works of J.S. Bach during the first half of the 19th century. Edvard Grieg, who studied at the Leipziger Konservatorium (Leipzig Conservatoire) from 1858 to 1862, was later promoted vigourously by C.F. Peters.
The third institution surviving to this day is the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag, dating from 1807, named after its founder. Hofmeister learnt his trade at Breitkopf & Härtel before gathering experience working for Kühnel and Hoffmeister's Bureau de Musique. Having established his own company, he published early works of both Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck, as well as the output of lesser known composers such as Ignaz Moscheles and Heinrich Marschner.
In addition to these three leading lights of the branch, numerous other institutions which played an active role in the evolution of music publishing were based in Leipzig well into the 20th century.
The Grafisches Viertel (Graphic Quarter) was all but destroyed by the bombing of Leipzig in the Second World War. The advent of the socialist era in East Germany in 1949 subsequently led to the migration of numerous publishers to the west.
Present day Leipzig is home to wings of both Breitkopf & Härtel and C.F. Peters; the Hofmeister Verlag has returned to the place of its foundation in its entirety.
Internet:
Breitkopf & Härtel Musikverlag
Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag
C.F. Peters Musikverlag
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Station 7, Schumann-Haus / Schumann House |
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Grafisches Viertel - Musikverlage / Graphic Quarter - music publishers (Music Trail station 8) |
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Station 9, Wagner-Denkmal / Wagner Memorial |
