7. The birth of the lithographic technique, in direct relationship with sheet music printing
A. The first essays of Aloys Senefelder, inventor of the lithographic technique
The art of lithography was developed in 1796 by Aloys Senefelder, a professional theater writer born in Prague, who studied in Munich and who was active in this city until 1834. Because he lacked financial resources to have his plays printed on a scale, Senefelder conceived the idea of looking for a new way of printing, a cheaper one, and of associating with a friend who owned a printing press, to etch his works on copper, and then print them in the ordinary way. Senefelder used a very thin and elastic steel nib, which he had learned so well to handle, that, although it is more difficult to write on copper than on paper, he was soon in a state of quickly and accurately paint each character molded separately. However, from his first attempts, he saw that it would be impossible to write an entire page without making a few mistakes, which he would have to correct, if he did not want to make incorrect copies.
To facilitate and simplify the corrections, Senefelder imagined taking equal amounts of wax and soap with a little black smoke, a carbon based powder, mixing everything together, and dissolving this mixture in rainwater. This composition met his expectations perfectly. Thus was born this chemical ink so important for lithography, and which, later amalgamated with other ingredients, in suitable proportions, was further improved. By continuing his tests, Senefelder soon found that it was easier to write on stone than on copper, and that characters were formed much better and more easily on stone; this made him think about the means he had to use to achieve printing using an etching stone. He remembered around this time that, at the age of five or six, he had seen a musical printing press in Frankfurt or in Mainz, where the notes were engraved on a black slate.
Senefelder assumed that the attempt that had been made at that time to engrave the music on tin plates, was regarded as a secret, and had perhaps given someone the idea of testing on clay stone, but that this process had probably been abandoned, because of the extreme fragility of this material and the difficulty one may experience in engraving it, because it is a kind of stone which very quickly wears out all the tools, while tin is easier to engrave.
One day, when Senefelder was waiting for paper, Senefelder wrote on the stone he had just brushed up, serving for this purpose with its ink composed of wax, soap and black smoke. When he wanted to wipe away what he had just written, it suddenly occurred to him to see what would become of the letters he had traced with his wax ink. He coated the board with etching, and also wanted to blacken them as one blackens movable fonts, to then print them. He mixed a dose of etching with ten doses of water, and poured this mixture onto the writing board. Senefelder then examined the effect of the etching, and found that the letters had acquired a depth of about a quarter of a line. All the tests which he then made for the writings on the stone succeeded him much better than those which he had previously made in hollow. It was much easier to ink and, for printing, it did not take a quarter of the force required by the hollow method; which made besides that, in this way, the risk that the stones did break was greatly reduced.
B. Partnership between Aloys Senefelder and the composer Franz Gleissner
This way of printing was a whole new discovery, which no one had made before Senefelder. So he could hope it would get him a patent, maybe even subsidies. At the same time it occurred to him that his discovery could also be successfully applied to the printing of musical notes. He showed a few proofs to a Munich court musician named Franz Gleissner, who told him on the spot that he was ready to form a musical printing establishment with him. Senefelder eagerly accepted his offers, and they established a lithograph in 1796. The first printed work was a composition by Gleissner. Senefelder and Gleissner successfully printed different musical compositions with unequal success, both for their own account and that of a music publisher named Falger, based in Munich. This work made them imagine several kinds of presses, among which we can especially distinguish the branch press. Lithographic printing, at that time, cost five times less than copper engraving.
An educational officer responsible for publishing educational books named Steiner contacted Senefelder to print various church hymns for schools; he asked him if he could not engrave or carve in stone the music of these hymns, so that they could be printed by the ordinary printing press. Senefelder promised to try, but the depth required by the intervals and sides was much more difficult to dig on stone than on wood. In the meantime, Senefelder and Steiner decided to print the lyrics first, using a regular press, and then the musical notes, with stone boards and the lithographic press.
Experience had taught Senefelder, when he was making musical notes, that the best way to succeed was to start by tracing them back on the stone with a pencil: it was the business of Franz Gleissner, who, as a skillful musician, had acquired great perfection in this genre. A symphony composed by Gleissner was ready before Senefelder discovered a new printing method, only the title was missing, which was then engraved in stone. It produced a good effect.
Let us remark, on the technical level, the existence, in Senefelder's lithographic technique, of the note instrument, a small copper or silver pipe having, at the bottom, the shape of musical notes, and which may contain enough chemical ink to make about twenty bodies of notes. This instrument is used to draw the five lines of the notes.
C. Partnership between Aloys Senefelder and the music publisher Johann Anton André
In 1800, Senefelder had already obtained a patent in London for his invention, and a few lesser known ones. In 1802, he obtained a patent in Paris. He sent one of his brothers to this city to direct a lithograph, which however did not have the expected success. In 1803, Senefelder also requested a patent in Lower Austria, after receiving a privilege there. He had discovered the branch press the previous year, with which he could print several thousand copies of the same work in one day. This new press, combined with the new way of using stone, enabled him to expand his establishment. Senefelder took two of his brothers with him, he taught them how to write and engrave on stone, he also took two apprentices to train them in printing. At the same time, in 1799, Maximilien Joseph, IV of Bavaria granted Senefelder and Gleissner an exclusive privilege for fifteen years.
Then Johann Anton André arrived in Munich. He was a music publisher active in Offenbach and had just acquired, from his widow, Constance, the rights to print 270 handwritten compositions by Mozart, including that of the Magic Flute. This publisher read in the Munich Gazette the announcement of the privilege received by Senefelder and Gleissner; he inquired about the nature of the new method of printing with them. Senefelder and Gleissner showed him different pieces of music they had printed, and offered to visit their lithography. There, Johann Anton André could examine things himself in a little more detail. The publisher, who was one of the most key figures in the music score industry in his country at the time, and owner of a beautiful musical printing press, was delighted with the results obtained by means of lithography, and especially that by passing his hand over the notes, his fingertips were not dirty, as it often happened then with the engraving method.
The special attention with which Johann Anton André learned the smallest details made Senefelder see that he took a particular interest in his way of printing. Plates that were already written were engraved and printed in front of him, and worked perfectly. The skill with which the members of the lithography operated made it possible to print seventy-five pages in a quarter of an hour, and two at the same time. The speed with which the leaves dried, and the little color they used, all revived the interest of Johann Anton André to the highest degree.
In his enthusiasm, the publisher asked Senefelder to teach him his art in its full extent, in exchange for a substantial payment. Senefelder accepted his proposal, and agreed with him to go a few months later to Offenbach in order to establish a lithograph there. Johann Anton André used a special ink that kept particularly well there, a mixture of shellac, filler, soap made with beef fat, crystallized and purified lye and smoke black.
Senefelder left Johann Anton André to form a new establishment in Vienna with his first partner. He obtained in this capital an exclusive privilege, which he left in 1806, to a person with whom he had made a very disadvantageous contract for him, because he preferred to work tirelessly for the improvement of the lithographic technique.