Scan 9
Musical Courier 1906-09-05: Vol 53 Iss 1380, 1906
16 lines. Read by computer on 23 September 2026. Printed page 10. See the scan on archive.org.
1Friedrich Hofmeister (1782-1864) began music publishing in Leipzig in 1807, and in the ninety-nine years since then the business has known no interruption. The founder's sons, Adolph (1802-70) and Wilhelm (1824-77), remained in the business throughout their lives. Adolph left no heirs. The firm's affairs are now in possession of the heirs of Wilhelm Hofmeister, with his grandson, Carl W. Günther, acting as managing partner. At the death of Wilhelm Hofmeister in 1877 the management was intrusted to Albert Röthing, but Mr. Röthing was compelled to retire in 1905 on account of failing health. Before proceeding to speak of the firm's music catalogue it should be noted that while very young Wilhelm Hofmeister began the study of plant life as a pastime. His remarkable enthusiasm, his voluminous writings and the value of his original research in the principles of plant life gave him such standing that at the age of thirty-nine, in 1863, he was called to the professorship of physiological botany in Heidelberg University. He accepted, and lectured there for some years. As Hofmeister had never studied in any university, his case is said to be the only one wherein a non-university man was ever called to a chair in Germany.
3The very first composition issued by Friedrich Hofmeister was a song by Bergt, entitled "Der Abschied." Mr. Günther has kindly furnished a copy of the original edition for reproduction with this letter. Observe that the accompaniment may be played by guitar, harp or piano. The reader is reminded hereby that the guitar was a much used instrument in those decades. Paganini (1782-1840) wrote twelve sonatas for violin and guitar, also three "grand quartets" for violin, viola, guitar and violoncello. On the other hand, Spohr (1784-1859) complimented his first wife and the harp as an instrument by writing three sonatas and a concert fantaisie for harp and violin. Part of the then popularity of the harp and guitar may be finally attributed to the fact that the deadly piano had not yet grown to be so purchasable. The Hofmeister catalogue shows a number of guitar sonatas and other pretentious forms, many of which were produced early in the firm's history. There is sign of a present day revival of the guitar and lute. A Leipsc man is giving attention to the manufacture of lutes and the Hofmeister firm is just issuing a two volume collection (1905-6) of songs for accompaniment of lute or guitar. The old Hofmeister records are not in such form as to fix the exact date of all publications, but it is known that 'cello duos by Dotzauer (1783-1860), four and six hand piano sonatas by Methfessel (1785-1869), a group of eight piano rondos by J. B. Cramer (1771-1858), and a three voice mass by Cherubini (1760-1842) were brought out in the first two or three years. The overture to the opera "Ariadne," by Vincenzo Righini (1756-1812), must have appeared from the Hofmeister press as early as 1810.
5The Hofmeister catalogue now numbers about 9,000 compositions. It would be impossible to trace in the brief scope of a newspaper letter all the important lines of development. But in 1819 Hofmeister first interested himself in a work which has been practically under the firm's editing or protection ever since, and is to this day the largest single music literary enterprise of the firm, just as it is one of the monumental works of the music publishing interest. This is the Hofmeister "Handbuch der Musikalischen Literatur." In 1817 the Leipsc publisher, C. F. Whistling, compiled and issued the first annual volume, aiming to show all music known to be published in Germany. The price of each composition was given. Hofmeister bought Whistling's right to the annual publication in 1819, but resold to him in 1825. The retransfer to Hofmeister was made in 1829, in company with all of Whistling's publications. The second general compilation, embracing the compositions from 1817 to include 1828, was issued in 1828. In 1829 the further compilation was assumed by Adolph Hofmeister, who had the work personally in charge for a great many years thereafter.
7The "Handbuch der Musikalischen Literatur" is still compiled and issued on the same general plan as at the beginning in 1817. This includes the separate annual publication for the compositions of any year, and every five or six years a single volume containing a list of the several years' output. For convenience the first three general volumes are bound in one and dated 1844. The next volumes respectively embrace the compositions of 1845 to 1851, 1852-59, 1860-67, 1868-73, 1874-79, 1880-85, 1886-91, 1892-97 (the last in two large volumes, A to K and L to Z). The next compilation, 1898-1905, is now in press, though the separate year books to 1905 are already issued. In connection with the Hofmeister handbook service, it must be noted that in 1830 there was begun a series of monthly bulletins of new publications, and this service continues to the present time. In the eighty-nine years of the handbook compilation there have been many typographical and lexicographical improvements introduced, but these cannot be indicated here.
9Coming further to a view of the present publishing by Hofmeister, a striking example of the vitality of a 'cello school is shown in that by F. A. Kummer, first published in 1839. The employment of this book is still so large as to warrant new editions in 1904 and 1906, latterly edited by Bernhard Schmidt, of Halle, and supplied with beautiful illustrations for the position of hands, fingers and arm. Five piano sonatinas by Theodore Kirchner, newly edited in English and German by H. Vetter, of Dresden, and the 1901 and 1906 editions of Popper's "Hohe Schule des Vio-linclospiels" are among other important revivals.
11The entirely new compositions for 1906 embrace the three act opera, "La Legende de Rudel," a piano concerto, op. 22, and solo piano pieces by the young Mexican, Ricardo Castro; a sonata in G major and another in C major for two pianos, comprising the op. 275, by Carl Reinecke; a string quartet by Richard Fricke; a piano serenata by Eugen d'Albert; two concert pieces for contrabass by Johan Geissel; a piano and violin sonata by Johannes Shinicks; a serenade for string orchestra by Rudolph Swiderski, and smaller choral and piano works by August Mignon and Emil Söchting. Other vital works in opera, symphony, chamber music and solo forms have recently appeared by such composers as Georg Schumann, Peter Gast, Theodore Otterstrom, David Popper, Ernst Mielck, Bruno Oscar Klein, M. Sieveking, R. Joseffy, Max Vogrich and August Enna. Mr. Klein's opera, "Kenilworth" (Hamburg, 1895); his piano and violin sonata, op. 10; a lieder album and two piano concert pieces are issued from the Hofmeister press.
13When a firm has reached an age within a year of a century it is natural to expect the archives to contain correspondence from some who have been men of affairs in their time. The Hofmeister house has eight unpublished letters of Robert Schumann to the Berlin critic, Herman Hirschbach. These bear dates of 1828 and 1829. There are six from Friedrich Wieck to Hofmeister, 1821; sixty or seventy from Carl Loewe; many from Liszt, whose op. 1 was first published by Hofmeister; five letters of 1866 from Joachim Raff, then at Wiesbaden; a number from the erratic composer and conductor, Ludwig Böhner (1787-1869); a great many from the late Theodor Kirchner, and hundreds of others that would require much time to classify and enumerate.
15Auber's five act grand opera, "Die Stumme von Portici," first given in 1828 in Paris, was put on again in Leipsc August 19, after some years' absence from the repertory. It was received by this public with much enthusiasm, as it deserved to be. Parts of it are scored very thinly, but almost throughout the work there is a certain thought stamina in the themes which earns unqualified respect. Only in the crashing second act duet between the tenor and baritone, Masaniello and Pietro, is there an exception.
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