Max Brockhaus music publisher

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The Max Brockhaus music publisher is a publisher for classical music with an emphasis on musical theater , vocal and orchestral music based in Remagen district Rolandswerth . He represents in particular works by Engelbert Humperdinck , Hans Pfitzner and Siegfried Wagner .

history

The publishing house was founded on May 1, 1893 by Max Brockhaus (1867–1957) in Leipzig . Max Brockhaus, the great-grandson of the book publisher Friedrich Arnold Brockhaus (1772–1823), was related to the Wagner dynasty through the wife of his great-uncle Hermann (1806–1877), Ottilie Wilhelmine Brockhaus (1811–1883), Richard Wagner's sister .

Since his brother Rudolf had already joined the publishing house, Max Brockhaus embarked on the career of a music publisher. He spent his apprenticeship with the book and music dealer Ludwig Staackmann and in the family business FA Brockhaus in Leipzig, after which he completed traineeships with Emil Hug in Zurich, Schlesinger (Lienau) in Berlin, Schott Frères (Otto Junne) in Brussels and Stanley Lucas, Weber & Co. in London.

At the beginning of 1893 Brockhaus took over the catalog from Hermann Haessel (Leipzig), Eduard Wedl (Vienna) and part of the catalog from Joseph Roth (Stuttgart). With this basic stock, which u. a. consisted of works by Jakob Ils, Ignaz Brüll , Jacob Dont, Robert Fuchs , Carl Reinecke , Rudolf Bibl and Franz Schubert , he founded the “Max Brockhaus Musikverlag” in May, which was initially housed at FA Brockhaus in Querstraße in Leipzig. In the past, the addition " Musikverlag " was always mentioned in order to avoid confusion with the "big" Brockhaus. In July 2009, however, after the sale of the Brockhaus brand to Bertelsmann in December 2008, the Bibliographical Institute in Mannheim announced the expiry of the FA Brockhaus designation in the company name, making Max Brockhaus Musikverlag the sole bearer of this name for the first time.

In the founding year Brockhaus made the acquaintance of Engelbert Humperdinck during the world premiere of " Hänsel und Gretel " in Weimar and in 1896 was able to include the melodrama " Königskinder " in his publishing program, which was premiered a year later in Munich. With this decision, an important step was taken towards the stage publishing house, which Brockhaus expanded further in the following years through the targeted inclusion of music theater works.

The collaboration with Humperdinck was to be one of the most intensive and fruitful in publishing history. Over the years numerous works by the composer have been published by Max Brockhaus (the Volloper “ Königskinder ”, “ Sleeping Beauty ”, “Marriage against Will”, “Moorish Rhapsody”, plays for Shakespeare's dramas, songs). In 1906 the theater on Nollendorfplatz in Berlin was opened with Humperdinck's play music for "Sturm". Around the turn of the century, works by Eugen d'Albert (“Departure”, “The Mermaid”), Ruggero Leoncavallo (“Serenade” and others) and Alfredo Piatti were added. Around this time the publisher's logo , the god Pan in front of a lyre, was created by Fritz Schumacher (1869–1947).

In 1898 a close collaboration with Hans Pfitzner began , through which the opera “Der arme Heinrich”, the adaptation of Heinrich Marschner's “Templer und Jüdin”, some symphonic works and a large number of songs could be included in the catalog. In 1906 the publisher also took over the works originally published by Feuchtinger (including "Die Rose vom Liebesgarten" and the incidental music for Ibsen's drama "Das Fest auf Solhaug"), so that Max Brockhaus can be counted among the largest Pfitzner publishers. At the same time, he contacted the distant relative Siegfried Wagner , whom Brockhaus met in 1898 on the occasion of a visit to his aunt in Bayreuth . In the following years he published several operas by the composer (including " Der Bärenhäuter ") and in 1930 also included the works of S. Wagner, originally published by Carl Giessel, in his catalog. In 1910, at the special request of the Wagner family, the youth symphony in C major by Richard Wagner was published by Max Brockhaus.

At the beginning of the century there were operas by Karel Weis (“The Polish Jew”), Richard Heuberger (“ Barefooted ”), Anselm Götzl (“Zierpuppen”), Bodo Sigwart (“The Songs of Euripides”) and Hans Hermann Wetzler (“The Basque Venus ”). In 1890 the publisher's catalog contained thirty operas. In addition to his publishing activities, Max Brockhaus devoted himself to music on a voluntary basis and was appointed to the Gewandhaus College in November 1906 , which he chaired from 1920 to 1932. In 1931 he played a decisive role in the conclusion of the Gewandhaus agreement with Leipziger Rundfunk . In 1940 the daughter Elisabeth "Lilli" Gruner, née. Brockhaus, the publishing house and continued it with her husband Friedrich Gruner. Shortly after the 50th anniversary of the publishing house in May 1943, the publishing house and the private house were completely destroyed in a hail of bombs like so many other Leipzig publishers in December 1943. After the war, the publishing house was not given a license in Leipzig, so it was rebuilt in Lörrach / Baden. Although contact was initially maintained with the authorized signatory in Leipzig, with his death in 1950 the connection to the East was completely broken.

In 1976 the Bonn publisher Joachim von Roebel took over the business and moved the publishing house to Bonn - Bad Godesberg . The widow, Sophie von Roebel, has been running the publishing house since 2005, and its headquarters were relocated to Remagen-Rolandswerth in 2006. A fundamental revision took place in 2006/07, as a result of which numerous out-of-print works were newly published, such as the melodrama version of Humperdinck's “ Königskinder ” or the opera “ Sleeping Beauty ”, which was performed again in Munich in December 2008 for over 50 years.

In 2020 the publishing program was taken over by Bärenreiter-Verlag .

literature

  • Max Brockhaus 1893-1943. Festschrift. o. O., o. J.
  • Brockhaus, Max Br. In: Carl Dahlhaus, Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (Ed.): Brockhaus Riemann Musiklexikon in four volumes and a supplementary volume 1. Mainz 1998, p. 179.
  • Max Brockhaus: From my memories. Typescript in private ownership, 121 pp.
  • Hans-Martin Plesske: Brockhaus, Max. In: DW Krummel (Ed.): The New Grove Handbook in Music. Music Printing and Publishing. P. 188.
  • Curt von Westerhagen: Brockhaus, Max. In: aMGG. 15, col. 1100-1101.
  • The Max Brockhaus publishing house. In: Thomas Keiderling (Ed.): FA Brockhaus 1905-2005. Mannheim 2005, pp. 260/261.

Web links

Coordinates: 50 ° 38 ′ 49.28 "  N , 7 ° 12 ′ 20.29"  E