Dictionnaire des éditeurs de musique français. Vol. 2: De 1820 à 1914 by Anik Devriès; FrançoisLesureReview by: D. W. KrummelNotes, Second Series, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Jun., 1990), pp. 945-946Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/941264 .

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Dictionnaire des editeurs de musique franmais. Vol. 2: De 1820 a 1914. By Anik Devries and Francois Lesure. (Archives de l'edition musicale fran;aise, IV/2.) Geneva: Minkoff, 1988. [510 p. ISBN 2-8266-0461-9. Sfr. 320.00.]

Cecil Hopkinson's Dictionary of Parisian Music Publishers, 1700-1950 (London: The author, 1954), while deservedly respected for its usefulness, has also tantalized read- ers: how nice it would be for scholarly li- brarians in Paris to tell us what more was buried in the rich music collections of the Bibliotheque nationale. Now we know. Thanks to burrowing that must have been as exhilarating as it was exhausting, we now have our successor to Hopkinson: Anik Devries and Francois Lesure's Dictionnaire des editeurs de musique francaise. The first volume, covering the period through 1820, appeared in 1979; volume 2, published in 1988, spans the years 1820-1914. The new set contains perhaps ten times as much in- formation as its predecessor, although such terms essentially distract one from appre- ciating the definitive nature of the Diction- naire. Hopkinson was a valuable landmark in its day, with brief historical notes and address lists for somewhat over 500 pub- lishers; the new set covers only half again as many firms, but in a detail that is both vast and conclusive, with several dozen new provincial firms thrown in for good mea- sure, along with portraits, facsimiles, charts, an index, and other features. This superb reference book, in sum, will supersede not only Hopkinson but also the directories by Charles Humphries and William C. Smith, Harry Dichter and Elliot Shapiro, Claudio Sartori, and all others as the measuring stick against which any future studies must be measured. Intimidating perhaps, but scholarship demands works like this.

Entries run up to seven pages, at their longest. Information is grouped in cate- gories that suggest the range of the source work: a general history of the firm (often over a thousand words long); addresses, mostly from the directories but often with precise moving dates gleaned from other sources; the firm's logo; collaborations with other publishers, including those whose catalogues were absorbed and those that inherited the assets; a brief characteriza- tion of the musical repertory; descriptions of the firm's catalogues and major listings;

and plate numbers. Many of Hopkinson's dates are now shaded earlier or later (e.g., Pierre-Honore Janet moved to rue St. Jacques in 1808, not 1805; Albert Noel to passage des Panormas in 1888, not 1894, and to avenue de Messine in 1910, not 1908; Alphonse Leduc to rue Le Peletier in 1866, not 1868).

One legend that can now be retired is Hopkinson's admonition regarding the in- ference of dates from the proposed chro- nological sequence of plate numbers: "The vagaries . . . in Germany are well known, but in France things are far worse" (Bibli- ography of the Musical and Literary Works of Hector Berlioz [Edinburgh: Edinburgh Bib- liographical Society, 1951], xii). Of nearly four hundred series set forth in Devries- Lesure, all but about twenty are clearly chronological; among those that are not are Antonio Pacini (who is almost as hopeless as some of the British firms delineated by Oliver Neighbour and Alan Tyson) and Si- mon Richault and his successors (whose complicated sequence needs the full-page chart on p. 369 to be elucidated). Estab- lishing a chronological sequence and infer- ring dates from that sequence are of course two different things-which is probably what Hopkinson meant to imply in the ex- amples that he subsequently cites. Even so, inferential dates from French plate num- bers seem quite justifiable in music cata- loguing, in the absence of evidence to the contrary. (The evidence to the contrary, of course, is extremely important, since it could return to haunt one: but this is where bib- liographical expertise enters the picture.)

Have Devries and Lesure missed any- thing? They provide an index that is im- pressively thorough, although I still wish that they, rather than Hopkinson, could have sent me from Renaud to Regnier- Canaux. The entry for Paul Dupont (p. 150) misses the transfer of his stock to Editions de la Sirene around 1918. (Devries and Le- sure claim to end their coverage at 1914, and while the book often extends further for the firms covered, those founded after 1914, like La Sirene or Senard, are ex-

Book Reviews 945

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NOTES, June 1990 NOTES, June 1990

cluded; Hopkinson, in contrast, claims to extend through 1950, although only about thirty entries include any information at all about events after 1910.) Nearly two dozen entries in Hopkinson do not appear in De- vries-Lesure, but most (e.g., Baudiot, Bi- dault, Cadot, Chantpie, Escoffier, LeRoux, Reck), were drawn from entries in the di- rectories, advertisements, or listings by Cesar Gardeton in his Annales de la musique . . . 1819-20 (reprinted Geneva: Minkoff, 1978): these firms probably issued very few titles, if any at all.

The Bibliotheque nationale no doubt has more French music than any other li-

cluded; Hopkinson, in contrast, claims to extend through 1950, although only about thirty entries include any information at all about events after 1910.) Nearly two dozen entries in Hopkinson do not appear in De- vries-Lesure, but most (e.g., Baudiot, Bi- dault, Cadot, Chantpie, Escoffier, LeRoux, Reck), were drawn from entries in the di- rectories, advertisements, or listings by Cesar Gardeton in his Annales de la musique . . . 1819-20 (reprinted Geneva: Minkoff, 1978): these firms probably issued very few titles, if any at all.

The Bibliotheque nationale no doubt has more French music than any other li-

brary-in fact, I can imagine few areas of

scholarship where so high a proportion of the primary source material is so centrally concentrated-although it cannot possibly have everything. The greatness of this set lies in nothing less than its reversing the basic agenda for French music bibliog- raphy of the period 1700-1914. Formerly we wondered what is in Paris, now we must ask what can possibly be anywhere else.

D. W. KRUMMEL University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign

brary-in fact, I can imagine few areas of

scholarship where so high a proportion of the primary source material is so centrally concentrated-although it cannot possibly have everything. The greatness of this set lies in nothing less than its reversing the basic agenda for French music bibliog- raphy of the period 1700-1914. Formerly we wondered what is in Paris, now we must ask what can possibly be anywhere else.

D. W. KRUMMEL University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign

Beitrige zur muisikalischen Quellenkunde: Katalog der Sammlung Hans P. Wertitsch in der Musiksammlung der Osterreichischen National- bibliothek. Edited by Gunter Brosche. (Publikationen des Instituts fur Osterreichische Musikdokumentation, 15.) Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1989. [xiv, 522 p. ISBN 3-7952-0587-5. DM 320.-).

Beitrige zur muisikalischen Quellenkunde: Katalog der Sammlung Hans P. Wertitsch in der Musiksammlung der Osterreichischen National- bibliothek. Edited by Gunter Brosche. (Publikationen des Instituts fur Osterreichische Musikdokumentation, 15.) Tutzing: Hans Schneider, 1989. [xiv, 522 p. ISBN 3-7952-0587-5. DM 320.-).

Here is a handsome reminder of the classic working relationship between collec- tor/donor and scholar/librarian. Wer- titsch, blessed with impressive financial re- sources and enlightened philanthropic instincts, expressed his thanks by assem- bling musical manuscripts of over eighty composers and presenting them to the Austrian National Library. Some of the composers are minor figures, but many are major and their autographs are very pricey (among them Bruckner, Chopin, and Mo- zart). From the call numbers one can infer that while about a dozen items are on loan, most are now in the library collection itself. The library in turn expressed its thanks through Gunther Brosche, who as head of the music collection arranged for the es- says on the manuscripts that appear in this volume.

The publication is awesome, befitting the occasion: among over one hundred facsim- iles, sixteen are in color. The essays range from a single page for lesser items to twenty pages for groups of manuscripts or partic- ularly important works. They come from both major scholars outside Vienna (Laszl6 Somfai on Bart6k, Sieghard Brandenburg on Beethoven, Folke Lindberg on Ber-

Here is a handsome reminder of the classic working relationship between collec- tor/donor and scholar/librarian. Wer- titsch, blessed with impressive financial re- sources and enlightened philanthropic instincts, expressed his thanks by assem- bling musical manuscripts of over eighty composers and presenting them to the Austrian National Library. Some of the composers are minor figures, but many are major and their autographs are very pricey (among them Bruckner, Chopin, and Mo- zart). From the call numbers one can infer that while about a dozen items are on loan, most are now in the library collection itself. The library in turn expressed its thanks through Gunther Brosche, who as head of the music collection arranged for the es- says on the manuscripts that appear in this volume.

The publication is awesome, befitting the occasion: among over one hundred facsim- iles, sixteen are in color. The essays range from a single page for lesser items to twenty pages for groups of manuscripts or partic- ularly important works. They come from both major scholars outside Vienna (Laszl6 Somfai on Bart6k, Sieghard Brandenburg on Beethoven, Folke Lindberg on Ber-

wald, Donald Mitchell on Britten, Horst Leuchtmann on Bruch, Krystyna Ko- bylanska on Chopin, Eberhardt Klemm on Eisler, Georg Feder on Haydn, Rudolf Elvers on Mendelssohn, Rudolph An- germiiller on Mozart, Arnold Feil and Walther Diirr on Schubert, Paul Brainard on Tartini-to single out a few notable in- stances), and local contributors, among them Otto Biba on Brahms and Leopold Nowak on Bruckner. Their emphases include the biographical, the codicological, or the tex- tual-critical, but their common goal inev- itably reflects the spirit of Heinrich Schenker, whose analytical studies were based in composers' holographs, and whose pupil and patron, the scholar-collector An- thony van Hoboken, founded the library's Photogrammarchiv and provided its great complementary collection of early pub- lished editions. The Wertitsch catalogue is not one that many libraries can afford, but those that acquire it will find it handsome and enviable testimony that the angels often still smile on music libraries.

D. W. KRUMMEL University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign

wald, Donald Mitchell on Britten, Horst Leuchtmann on Bruch, Krystyna Ko- bylanska on Chopin, Eberhardt Klemm on Eisler, Georg Feder on Haydn, Rudolf Elvers on Mendelssohn, Rudolph An- germiiller on Mozart, Arnold Feil and Walther Diirr on Schubert, Paul Brainard on Tartini-to single out a few notable in- stances), and local contributors, among them Otto Biba on Brahms and Leopold Nowak on Bruckner. Their emphases include the biographical, the codicological, or the tex- tual-critical, but their common goal inev- itably reflects the spirit of Heinrich Schenker, whose analytical studies were based in composers' holographs, and whose pupil and patron, the scholar-collector An- thony van Hoboken, founded the library's Photogrammarchiv and provided its great complementary collection of early pub- lished editions. The Wertitsch catalogue is not one that many libraries can afford, but those that acquire it will find it handsome and enviable testimony that the angels often still smile on music libraries.

D. W. KRUMMEL University of Illinois,

Urbana-Champaign

946 946

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