Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 30
Scan 30
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
15 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 8. See the scan on archive.org.
1them himself. In this he seems to have been a forerunner of today's school music publications of operettas.
3As it is difficult to obtain information concerning publishers no longer in existence the material in this section is rather fragmentary. What has been gathered is presented in the following paragraphs.
5Four distinguished musicians who came to Boston just before 1800 were active in the city's musical life and were the forerunners of music publishing as it is today. They were Peter Albrecht von Hagen, Sr. and Jr., Francis Mallet and Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner.
7Peter Albrecht von Hagen, Sr. 2-3 was born in Holland in 1750 and died in Boston October 3, 1803. He first came to Charleston, South Carolina in 1774. The revolution drove him back to Holland, but in 1789 he came with his wife, daughter and son to New York City. In 1796 father and son came to Boston, he as leader of the orchestra at Haymarket Theatre, and the son as a violin player. Mrs. von Hagen, a pianist and teacher, joined them later. The senior von Hagen was an organist, pianist, violinist, composer, conductor and a publisher as well. He opened a "Musical Academy" at [address hidden] (later called [address hidden]) where he had a music shop and became the first established music publisher in Boston, as P. A. von Hagen & Co. He issued the first copy of his Musical Magazine in December 1797 from [address hidden], Boston. The company also had its "Warranted Imported Piano Forte Ware House" at the same location.
9Peter Albrecht von Hagen, Jr. 3 was born in Holland in 1781 and died in Boston in 1837. He was a pianist, violinist, composer, teacher and publisher, at first with his father. In May 1798 Benjamin Crehore, maker of violoncellos, basses, harpsichords and pianofortes, joined the firm, which became P. A. von Hagen Jun. & Co. In 1799 the company moved to [address hidden] (another section of [address hidden] then called Marlboro) and later that year to [address hidden] the firm remained, maintaining till 1802 a separate "Piano Forte Ware House at 4 old Massachusetts Bank, head of the Mall."
112 Spillane, Daniel. History of the American Pianoforte p. 49.
123 For sources of information see
13Boston Music Directory 1929, Significant names in Boston's Musical History—A Roll of Honor p. 9.
14Fisher, William Arms. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Music Publishing in the United States p. 36-7.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.