Messrs. Schuermann & Co.
Messrs. Schuermann & Co. were probably the first music publisher in the United Kingdom to start a Universal Circulating Music Library in 1855. [2] An announcement at the time stated: 'Many of our readers will be glad to have their attention directed towards the very comprehensive Music Library which has been formed by Messrs. Schuermann & Co., of 72, Newgate-street. The catalogue contains more than 42,042 separately numbered works, embracing almost every English and Foreign publication, under various headings and subdivisions.
Libraries of reference are of such absolute necessity to all students, especially to the musician, that several attempts have been made to satisfy the want; but most of these labor under the serious disadvantage of being confined to either one class of musical works, or—as in the case of the British Museum—of being available only to those who can go from home to study.
The British Museum, in the Bloomsbury area of London, United Kingdom, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. Its permanent collection of some eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence, having been widely sourced during the era of the British Empire. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. It was the first public national museum in the world.
Messrs. Schuermann’s arrangements allow of a very liberal supply of works at the subscriber’s private residence, And the small annual cost would be well bestowed even by those who ultimately intend to purchase a private library for their own use, because it affords so complete an opportunity of examining the merits of a work previously to purchase. A very handsomely printed catalogue may be purchased at small cost; its perusal will fully prove the great outlay at which the proprietors have got together this collection.' [3]
Novello, Ewer & Co.
The Universal Circulating Music Library provided by Novello, Ewer & Co. dates back to 1867/68. The preface of the first catalogue states:
The Universal Circulating Music Library:
This Library, which was established, and has been most successfully carried on since 1859, by Messrs. Ewer and Co., has been purchased by Messr. Novello and Co., and will be continued by them under the style of Novello, Ewer and Co.
In addition to the works named in the Library Catalogue, the whole of the publications of Messr. Novello, Ewer and Co. will be available to Subscribers; and neither expense nor exertion will be spared to make the Library still more complete.
A Supplement is now added to the present Catalogue, which makes the collection the largest and most valuable ever offered to the public. All New Music (Foreign or English) of merit will be added to the Library as soon as published, and every endeavour will be made to supply the wants of Subscribers immediately on application.
August, 1867. [4]
The terms of subscription and the regulations of use are given on the next page.
Charles Cowden Clarke, English author and Shakespearian scholar, was born in Enfield, Middlesex.
Vincent Novello, English musician, son of an Italian who married an English wife, was born in London. He was a chorister and organist, but he is best known for bringing to England many works now considered major standards, and with his son he created a major publishing house.
M. Witmark & Sons was a leading publisher of sheet music for the United States "Tin Pan Alley" music industry.
Sir John Stainer was an English composer and organist whose music, though not generally much performed today, was very popular during his lifetime. His work as choir trainer and organist set standards for Anglican church music that are still influential. He was also active as an academic, becoming Heather Professor of Music at Oxford.
Moritz Hauptmann, was a German music theorist, teacher and composer.
Charles Edward Mudie , English publisher and founder of Mudie's Lending Library and Mudie's Subscription Library, was the son of a second-hand bookseller and newsagent. Mudie's efficient distribution system and vast supply of texts revolutionized the circulating library movement, while his "select" library influenced Victorian middle-class values and the structure of the three-volume novel. He was also the first publisher of James Russell Lowell's poems in England, and of Emerson's Man Thinking.
Edward Francis Rimbault was an English organist, musicologist, book collector and author.
Napoléon Henri Reber was a French composer.
Ernst Pauer was an Austrian pianist, composer and educator.
The Répertoire International des Sources Musicales is an international non-profit organization, founded in Paris in 1952, with the aim of comprehensively documenting extant historical sources of music all over the world. It is the largest organization of its kind and the only entity operating globally to document written musical sources. RISM is one of the four bibliographic projects sponsored by the International Musicological Society and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres, the others being Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale, Répertoire international d'iconographie musicale, and Répertoire international de la presse musicale.
Fritz Spindler was a German pianist and composer, especially of works for the piano. His output of more than 400 opus numbers includes salon pieces, chamber music, symphonies and other large forms, and over 300 piano pieces, but is best remembered if at all today for a much-anthologized Sonatina. He published almost three hundred and fifty compositions.
Charles Harford Lloyd was an English composer who became a well-known organist in his time.
Thomas Oliphant (1799–1873) was a Scottish musician, artist and author whose works were well known in their day. He wrote the chorale for the wedding of the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Oliphant wrote the words to "Deck the Hall(s) with Boughs of Holly".
The Drexel Collection is a collection of over 6,000 volumes of books about music and musical scores owned by the Music Division of The New York Public Library. Donated by Joseph W. Drexel in 1888 to the Lenox Library, the collection, located today at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, is rich with materials on music theory and music history as well as other musical subjects. It contains many rare books and includes a number of significant 17th-century English music manuscripts.
Joseph Alfred Novello was an English music publisher. He was the eldest son of Vincent Novello, and the creator of Novello and Company Ltd as a revolutionary force in music publishing.
Berthold Tours was a Dutch-born English violinist, composer and music editor. His first music teacher was his father, Barthelemy Tours (1797-1864), who was organist of the Groote or St Laurens Kerk in Rotterdam for thirty years, a conductor, and a violinist of European wide reputation, while he studied composition with Johannes Verhulst. Later, he studied composition with François-Joseph Fétis at the conservatory in Brussels and then continued his studies in Leipzig.
Augener & Co. was a music-publishing business in London, established by George Augener (1830–1915).
Emma Wright Mundella was an English composer and arranger, recital pianist, church organist, choral conductor, teacher of music and hymnal editor. In her short life she published anthems, choruses and cantatas as well as songs, hymns, pieces for solo piano and for piano and other string instruments. As Director of Music Teaching at Wimbledon High School for Girls her particular interest was the encouragement of musical appreciation by young people, in pursuit of which she wrote many compositions for children and schools. Though her music is now seldom heard, her lasting achievement was her well-regarded editorship of The Day School Hymnbook, the expanded edition of which was published shortly after her early death and which brought her posthumously into national prominence.
