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 An Edition Peters title page of an old bound volume ofBeethoven's piano sonatas. | |
| Founded | 1800 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Franz Anton Hoffmeister andAmbrosius Kühnel |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Headquarters location | Leipzig |
| Publication types | sheet music |
| Official website | www |
Edition Peters is aclassical musicpublisher founded inLeipzig, Germany in 1800.
The company came into being on 1 December 1800 when theViennesecomposerFranz Anton Hoffmeister (1754–1812) and the local organistAmbrosius Kühnel (1770–1813) opened a concern in Leipzig known as the "Bureau de Musique." Along with publishing, the new firm included anengraving andprinting works and a retail shop for selling printed music and instruments. Among its earliest publications were collections ofchamber music works byHaydn andMozart. When Hoffmeister departed for Vienna in 1805, the firm had already issued several works by the then new Viennese composer,Ludwig van Beethoven (Opp. 19–22; 39–42). Kühnel continued publishing new works, adding those of composersDaniel Gottlob Türk,Václav Tomášek, andLouis Spohr, all of whom went on to have a long relationship with the firm.[citation needed]
After Kühnel's death, the enterprise was sold to Carl Friedrich Peters (1779–1827), a Leipzig bookseller. Despite difficulties arising from the aftermath of theWar of the Sixth Coalition and depression, Peters added new works byWeber,Hummel,Klengel, andRies to the catalog along with his name (now "Bureau de Musique C. F. Peters") before his death. The next owner was a manufacturer, Carl Gotthelf Siegmund Böhme (1785–1855), who published many works of J. S. Bach after the revival of interest in his work with the assistance ofCarl Czerny,Siegfried Dehn,Friedrich Konrad Griepenkerl andMoritz Hauptmann. Ownership of the company was transferred to a charity run by the City of Leipzig for a short period after Böhme's death (1855–1860).
The company was then sold to a Berlin music and book retailer, Julius Friedländer, on 21 April 1860. By 1863, Friedländer took on a partner, Dr. Max Abraham (1831–1900). Abraham employed many of the improvements to music printing that were introduced by the Leipzig engraver Gottlieb Röder, and launched the "Edition Peters" imprint in 1867. This series competed withBreitkopf & Härtel's similarVolksausgabe ("People's edition") series, launched at the same time. Two color schemes were used for the covers of this inexpensive series: a light green cover for works of earlier composers not affected by copyright restrictions; and pink covers for new, original works acquired by Peters or licensed from other publishers. By 1880, the year Abraham took over the directorship, Peters had begun issuing new works by contemporary composers of the era. By 1900, new works from composers includingBrahms,Bruch,Grieg,Köhler,Moszkowski,Reger,Sinding andWagner were included in the catalog.
Abraham's successor was his nephew,Henri Hinrichsen, who added works ofMahler,Pfitzner, Reger,Schoenberg, andHugo Wolf. The works ofRichard Strauss that were originally issued byJoseph Aibl (laterUniversal Edition) were acquired by Hinrichsen for Peters in 1932. Hinrichsen's sons Max (1901–1965), Walter (1907–1969), and Hans-Joachim (1909–1940) all entered the business in the 1930s.
Following the advent of theNazi German government in Germany, Max Hinrichsen moved to London, where in 1938 he founded Hinrichsen Edition (renamed Edition Peters London in 1975), and his brother Walter moved to New York where he founded C. F. Peters Corp. (including the subsidiary Henmar Press) in 1948.[1] By 1940, the Nazi regime forced Henri and Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen to turn over the company to Johannes Petschull (1901–2001), who later established the Frankfurt company in 1950 in partnership with the Hinrichsen heirs Walter and Max Hinrichsen.
In spite of suffering a similar degree of damage as other Leipzig publishers from theAllied bombing of Germany during the war, the Leipzig facility was re-opened in 1947, and transferred to state ownership of theEast German government by 1949. Its first director was Georg Hillner, who was succeeded bymusicologist Bernd Pachnicke in 1969. During the communist era, Peters Leipzig issued contemporary works of composers includingPaul Dessau andHanns Eisler, along with those ofSoviet composers includingKhachaturian andShostakovich in addition to a number ofurtext editions of works by Beethoven,Chopin,Fauré, Mahler,Scriabin,Vivaldi and others. Since the late 1960s the publisher also developed an internationally performednew music line, with composers such asFriedrich Goldmann andGeorg Katzer. FollowingGerman reunification in 1990, the Leipzig concern was absorbed by the Frankfurt firm, who had acquired the catalogues ofM.P. Belaieff in 1971,Schwann in 1974 and C.F. Kahnt in 1989.
The Peters Edition Ltd. (London), the C.F. Peters Corporation (New York), the C.F. Peters Musikverlag (Frankfurt/Main) and the Leipzig firms of the Edition Peters merged in August 2010 to form Edition Peters Group. In July 2014, the headquarters was moved from Frankfurt back to Leipzig.[2] In April 2023, theWise Music Group acquired a controlling interest in Edition Peters Group.[3] Shortly after,Faber Music announced an agreement between Wise Music Group and them for the printed music business, making Faber Music the worldwide representative of the entire sales catalogue of Edition Peters.[4]
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