MUSIC PUBLISHING AND PATRONAGE

C.F. Peters: 1800 to the Holocaust:

by

Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen

With a Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin OM. KBE.

MUSIC PUBLISHING AND PATRONAGE
C.F. Peters: 1800 to the Holocaust

Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen
With a Foreword by Yehudi Menuhin

Publishing music requires intuition, sensitivity, patience and a love of music. It is an act of faith. It is also a business. This is the story of a business motivated by a concern for humanity. It tells of composers: their personalities, their conflicts and their music. It describes how music is published through the story of two men, Dr Max Abraham and Dr Henri Hinrichsen and reveals how they developed the small music publishing company: C. F. Peters Leipzig, to achieve world wide stature.

The book gives insight into the different aspects of music publishing. Quotations from correspondence illustrate the co-operation of the owners with the wider society. The company was founded in 1800 as Hoffmeister and Kühnel, Bureau de Musique, with the publication of music by Bach, Beethoven and Louis Spohr and was involved with the birth of copyright legislation. C.F. Peters himself, only owned it from 1814-1827.

1863 saw Dr Max Abraham's acquisition of the company, followed by his founding of the 'Edition Peters' and the Peters Music Library. A chapter covers his remarkable relationship with Edvard Grieg. The main thrust of the book is the period 1900 to 1940, when Abraham's nephew, Henri Hinrichsen became sole proprietor. He was, in due, course joined by his three eldest sons.

The complexities of society and politics are set side by side with the process of translating a composer's inspiration into sheet music and performance. The personalities and creativity of several composers and some musicologists are explored and the sponsorship of Edvard Grieg and Max Reger is emphasised. There is a detailed description of the traumas surrounding the publication of two major works - Schönberg's Five Orchestral Pieces and Mahler's Fifth Symphony.

Henri Hinrichsen was also a benefactor, patron of the arts and major supporter of Leipzig institutions. He was the founding benefactor of the first all women's college in Europe and he donated the Music Instruments Museum to Leipzig.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, his and his family's world was destroyed. The Hinrichsens were Jewish and suffered the fate of so many under the brutal new laws enacted to deprive the Jews of all their rights and possessions. You can read the horrifying account of the confiscation and 'Aryanization' of C.F. Peters and the total marginalisation of Henri Hinrichsen who, in 1942, was gassed in Auschwitz.

C. F. Peters, Leipzig survived the Nazis, became DDR State owned and flourishes today in London, New York and Frankfurt, to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2000.

About the Author

"So, I suppose your name is Peters" is what many people say to the author, when she tells them that she is part of the family who has owned this world famous publishing house for more than 150 years. There are many misconceptions about who C.F.Peters was and why the company is named after him. This book sets the record straight and shares with the reader many intriguing and little known facts.

Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen, BA is well qualified to write about C.F. Peters. The granddaughter of Henri Hinrichsen, she is an experienced music publisher, music journalist, author and lecturer. Her career commenced with the family firm, Hinrichsen Edition Ltd. and Peters Edition, London. After 27 years as Editor, she is now Consultant Editor of The Baton, and has contributed to a wide range of publications in Great Britain and Germany, including The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.

Approx. 350 pp. 32 illustrations. Hardback. ISBN 0-9536112-0-5

Price £25.00 or €43.00 or US$50.00 (bills please NOT $ check). Post free.

Published by Edition Press, 22 Bouverie Gardens, Kenton, Middx. HA3 0RQ, UK.

Send cheque in favour of I.Lawford to:
Edition Press, 22 Bouverie Gardens, Kenton, Middx. HA3 0RQ, UK.

Tel/Fax: 020 8907 2790.