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Issues of 2008
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Music printing in Russia
By the end of the XVIII century there were two equal technological processes for the production of the form for printing. One of them was sticking of the notes with the help of separate printing characters, simulating all the elements of musical graphic art. The second technology was the chase on metal base. The impressions were decorated with painted titles with vignettes, created in engraving technique. They had independent artistic value. The first music printing in Russia issued in 1679 was the comparative table of ancient and modern note symbols. The “Hirmologyi” is considered to be the first book with printed notes, created with the typesetting note print in Lvov in 1700. During the reign of Caterine II four editions of spiritual music compositions were published: “Oktoih”, “Irmologue”, “Feast Days”, “The Christcross of the note singing”. The reasons of their appearance were the needs of the church, therefore the government financed them. In the sphere of laic music there are also the musical printings of the period — the prologue for the crowning of the impress Elisabeth I “Clemenza di Tito” (1724) and the opera “Selevk” (1744). Private music printing developed step by step. Primarily it was in the sphere of folk song and training literature. For example, in 1773 they issued “The methodic experience, or how to teach children to read music”. The authors financed several editions, the album “Idleness and action”. They began printing of authorial production in 1773, when Christian-Louis Wever printed “The curious musical doing of mister Schobert”. In 1774 Wever began printing of note magazine under the name “Music amusements”. The genre of Russian song developed at the time. The success of Russian composer Trutovsky made St. Petersburg bookseller F. Meyer publish the note issue “The collection of the best Russian songs” (1781). He also published the creations by the composer I.E. Hadoshkin. That was the first publication of the composer in Russia. Since 1780 music editions begin to appear in St. Petersburg. In the end of XVIII century they begin to put up theatrical and musical performances in the theatres of the royal court. St. Petersburg became the center of Russian musical life. The company of I.D. Herstenberg founded in St. Petersburg in 1791 became the monopoly among the publishing houses of the XVIII century. The company had its own metallography. The publishing house issued a lot of musical compositions by Pratch, Kozlovsky, Haydn, Mozart, the almanacs “St. Petersburg musical shop”, and “Pocket books for the music amateurs”. Alexander I ordered to open private publishing houses closed in the reign of Catherine II and Paul I. A new kind of print, the lithography, was created. Both the facts contributed to the further development of musical printing. A polished up flag-leaf render to paper a printing copy of a painting or notes laid onto the surface of a stone with lithographic ink by dint of a pen or a paint-brush.
When they used the lithographic technology the etched base was kept, and they could use it for new editions of popular compositions. The etched bases became the property of musical publishers. The publishers bought each other the etched bases. In the beginning of the XIX century there were some musical printing houses, that sold notes in their own shops. In St. Petersburgin there were Herstenberg and Ditmar, Dalmas, Petz, Bernard. In Moscow — Reinsdorp and Lengold, Kestner, Gresser and Miller. They published different manuals on fingering. As for serious musical compositions, the main part of them was created by foreign composers, but there are some Russian names. In 1826 the publishing house “Petz” printed for the first time a composition by Glinka. In XIX century the publishers used the metallographic technology for musical printing, there weren’t Russian masters, the specialists were invited from foreign countries. The prime cost of Russian production was very heavy, Russian music printing houses couldn’t compete with foreign publishers, illegally importing their editions to Russia. The result was that the issuance of Russian editions grew down. Russian companies issued very few orchestral scores, they were limited to romances, Bohemian songs, and dances. The main music publisher of the period was Hurskalin. His firm “Odeon” published the main part of compositions created by M.I. Glinka, including the operas “Life for the tsar” and “Ruslan and Ljudmila”. Commercial music publishing activity began in Russia no sooner than from the middle of the XIX century. The publishing houses of Denotkin, Petz, Hurskalin (“Odeon”) with all their etched bases were taken over by Saint Petersburg music publishing house of Ph.T. Stellovsky. Stellovsky soon became one of the main publishers of compositions by Glinka and some other Russian composers. In the 80-es of the XIX century all the publishing firms passed to the firm of A. Gutheil. The democratic movement of the 60-es originated the type of a new publisher, communicator of Russian composers. In 1861 P.I. Jurgenson (he published compositions by P.I. Tchaikovsky) founded a publishing house in Moscow. In 1869 V.V. Bessel (the main publisher of The Five) began his publishing business in St. Petersburg. Both the publishers did a lot for the popularization of Russian compositions. The publishers worth detailed telling about their activity. We should remember one more publisher, M.P. Belyaev. He was an amateur, who chuck up the forest industry for social activity connected with music. In 1885 he founded the company “M.P. Belyaev in Leipzig”. The editions of his publishing house came out in the best publishing house of Leipzig. N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.K. Glazunov, A.K. Lyadov joined in with Belyaev. He not only published the compositions of famous composers and newcomers, but also got up concerts, appointed annual “Glinka’s awards”. Belyaev gave his fortune to Russian musical organizations. By the beginning of the XX century music publishing became profitable business, because the notes became cheaper, but the demand for it became higher. Adventurous merchants found new publishing houses in different towns. They sold notes and just appeared gramophones and records. The ancient proverb of Bessel “A talented creation is a good one” was changed by the principle “A fashionable creation is a good one”.Even the heavy companies began to publish ordinary music. For example, the publishing house of N.H. Davingof flood the market with numerous the reprints of romances and operettas.
Only the publishing houses of Jurgenson, Gutheil, Iogansen and Zimmermann continued the traditions of the publishers of the end of the XIX century. The competitive struggle involved the reduction of music publishing by the greatest publishing houses.According to official figures the publishing house of Jurgenson was on the first place in amount of published items (418) and in its total print (262, 000 exemplars). The next was Zimmermann’s publishing house (220, 000 and128, 000 concordantly), than — the publishers Gutheil, Davingoff. The relations of composer and publisher began to be built on the base of profit of publisher. Beginning composer issued the compositions on his own account. In the event of success, the publisher assumed some part of expences. The editor agreed to pay all the expences of composer only in case of great demand. Only famous master received fee. On the 1 December, 1918 all the publishing houses and their collections were nationalised according to the decree signed by V.I. Lenin, A.V. Lunacharsky, and V.D. Bonch-Bruevich.They were transmitted to People’s Commisssariat of Education. That was the beginning of a new perid of music publishing in Russia.
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