Books › Music directory of early New York city; a file of musicians, music publishers and musical instrument-makers listed in New York directories from 1786 through 1835, together with the most important New York music publishers from 1836 through 1875, 1941 › scan 20
Scan 20
Music directory of early New York city; a file of musicians, music publishers and musical instrument-makers listed in New York directories from 1786 through 1835, together with the most important New York music publishers from 1836 through 1875, 1941
14 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1Valuable information, such as the above, is not indicated in the directories, but is only to be found by careful perusal of the early newspapers.
3Parts II and III comprise the names of the publishers, printer-lithographers, dealers and musical instrument makers for the first fifty years after the beginning of directory publishing in New York. Since many persons engaged in more than one field of music, their names have been listed in that section in which they were most active, with appropriate cross references from the other sections. The names are arbitrarily dropped after the 50th year (1835) except where a name continued as an engraver, printer or publisher or where a firm, which originally combined publishing and instrument making, continued as a piano-making establishment. The connections and ramifications of these names were carried through 1875.
5The list also includes selected music publishers who started after the year 1835 and are brought up to the year 1876.
7This work cannot attempt to give the full history of any of the music-publishing firms mentioned, except in so far as their dates and addresses in the directories bear witness to their beginning, development and decline.
9Wherever in this guide, a name connected with music appears, it has been traced back at least two years, to ascertain if the same business was carried on by the same person. Economic pressure was evident, as shown by the frequent dropping of names from the list of musicians into the ranks of industry. These names were carried along, since some of them reappear in subsequent music activities. It has been thought advisable to list not only the business address, but also the residence of these musicians.
11It appears, therefore, that music-publishing was done by musicians, musical instrument-makers, organbuilders, professors, teachers of music, lithographers, printers, engravers, booksellers, "depositories of art" and stationers, as well as by music publishers. Some, as in the cases of Benjamin Carr, James Hewitt and George Geib were composers as well as music publishers, but these were the exception rather than the rule, and were not indicated in the directories.
13Part IV, that of the dancing masters, up to 1836, reveals the place that dancing and dancing instruction took in the community. Noah Webster has written an engaging description of New York, in the introduction to the directory of 1786, in which he quotes from Smith's History of New York (1757): "New York is one of the most social Places on the Continent. The Men collect themselves into weekly Evening Clubs. The Ladies, in Winter are frequently entertained either at Concerts of Musick or Assemblies and make a very good appearance. They are comely and dress well, and scarce any of them have distorted Shapes."
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.