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5. Music printing in North America during the 17th and the 18th centuries
a. Colonial period: first edition of the Bay Psalm Book (1640), the first American music book
In their initial form, the United States of America exist since 1783. With the help of France, they acquire their independence during the long American Revolutionary War, which, after eight years, end the existence of British America, an ensemble of thirteen colonies governed by Great Britain from 1607 to 1783. What does it imply? That, until the end of the eighteenth century, American colonists are highly dependent on their mother countries, mainly Great Britain, France and Spain. Including for printing. But not totally. Giovanni Paoli, the first generalist printer in the Americas, originally coming from Italy, establishes a printing house in Mexico in 1539. He prints some dozens of books and, amongst them, in 1546, a book of spiritual songs. It is not said if this book contained sheet music or only lyrics, though.
In North America, the first publishing house is created in 1639, in Cambridge, Massachussets. In 1640, a psalter is printed there, the Bay Psalm Book. It is actually the first book printed in America. It was not printed by professional typographers and, therefore, contains errors. How dit this work happened? Actually, Joseph Glover, a Puritan pastor, decides to leave London to reach Cambridge and launch a printing business there. He partly raises money amongst friends staying in Great-Britain and the Netherlands to buy a printing machine. He pays the rest. Finally, he hires a locksmith, Stephen Daye, to do the future printing work. With his wife, Elizabeth, the locksmith and several other persons, Glover leaves London. Unhappily, he dies during the travel, yet his wife, with the help of Daye, establishes the printing house, which becomes active within the thirteen colonies of British America.
As psalms are sung, the Bay Psalm Book is obviously a music book, however, it contains no sheet music. For two reasons. The first cause is that the worshippers are supposed to know the songs all by heart. The second motive is that the settlers, present in Massachussets from the beginning of the century, brought with them psalters printed in Europe, like the Ainsworth Psalter, manufactured in the Netherlands in 1612.
b. Colonial period: ninth edition of the Bay Psalms Book (1698), the first American sheet music book
The Bay Psalm Book knows numerous reprints. The ninth edition includes for the first time the sheet music associated to the spiritual songs. Two printers must be credited for this work, Bartholomew Green, born in Cambridge and installed in Boston, and his associate, John Allen. Several specialists say that the sheet music were printed with woodblocks, others talk about copperplates. What everyone can see is that all the sheet music appear at the end of the book, after the texts of the various psalms and a table of contents. And that only fourteen psalms have an associated sheet music. The first ones are psalms 4, 69, 23 and 73. Thus they are not classified in numerical order. Each sheet music of course contains staves made of five lines, but the notes heads are still lozenged ones, like those contained in European sixteenth century sheet music.
Even if several ones may be longer, the average sheet music printed in the book is short, containing tunes written on 4 lines of staves. These tunes have different geographical origins which give them their title. The first one is said to be an Oxford tune, the second one a Lichtfield tune, etcetera. Sometimes, the title of the tune is just a reference to a specific saint. A certain number of the tunes also contain printed textual data related to the musical content. For instance, a tune is said to be a Cambridge short tune. The three last tunes have no real title, they just give a musical indication, first metre, another tune mentioning second metre. These data are, as their name say it, related to the metrical structure of the tune.
The Bay Psalm Book is the first sheet music book printed in America, but, of course, as the collections of sheet music shared by the Library of Congress still show it, numerous music books travelled by boat from Europe to the United States. The most ancient one is a book printed in a benedictine monastery during the tenth century.
c. Towards musical independence: the first printed music composed by composers born in America (1761)
Let us notice here that the first piece of secular music composed by an American born composer, My Days have been so wondrous free, was written by hand in 1759 by a friend of George Washington named Francis Hopkinson, who will co-sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Francis Hopkinson is a prolific composer who notably wrote Seven Songs for the harpsichord of forte piano, originally dedicated to George Washington. But the first printed music book containing songs composed in America is Urania, a book of sacred music printed in 1761 by a Princeton graduate, the publisher James Lyon. James Lyon himself could have been one of the composers. though it contains tunes composed in Europe, and its music is dedicated to the military glory of Great Britain.
Various psalters, with or without corresponding sheet music, are printed, for instance Songs of America, published in 1766 by Josiah Flagg and which includes the first sacred compositions written by composers born in America. In 1770, The New England Psalm singer is published in Boston. Printed by Gil and Edes, it contains hymns which are all written by William Billings and, therefore, it is the first book of sacred music entirely composed by a composer born in America. Its title mentions that it contains music never published before. It is made of more than 150 pages and contains pieces of music theory. Its musical content is thus much more complex than the tunes contained in the Bay Psalm Book. An original edition shows that the musical notes of the sheet music are rounded and that musical information were written between the staves.
A book entitled The American Singing Book, printed in 1775 by Daniel Read, contains sheet music composed by the first American composers seen as classical composers, notably William Billings, Supply Belcher, Jeremiah Ingalls and Daniel Read himself, all of them living in different towns located in Massachussets, while being part of a same movement named First New England School, known for the composition of numerous a cappella hymns sung on elementary folk airs. The First New England School, mainly composed of self-taught musicians, developed a new musical style, nearly independent of any European influence. They mainly wrote compositions for the sacred music choirs they were involved in. The American Singing Book, printed in Connecticut, where Daniel Read had moved, knew five reprints during the years following its publication. One of the tunes contained in the book, Windham, composed by Read, shows rounded head notes and these notes have the rhythmic values that we are used to see today.
d. Independence period: American Revolution War Songs
During the decades preceeding the Independence War, the first patriotic songs lyrics are written, associated to English tunes, in response to tragic events . Some of them are printed, like The Liberty Song, using an air named the Heart of Oak and published in 1768. The first significant American military tune is written in 1775 by Sylvanus Ripley. Its title, Bunker Hill, commemorates a battle. It is first printed on a broadsheet. The Independence War has begun. Until its end, various music booklets are printed, containing the first American military music, sometimes mixed with sacred music, like in The Chorister's companion, printed in 1783. It contains amongst others, Virginia, composed by a certain Oliver Brown.
After the War, this type of publications stays popular. For instance, a booklet named Federal Harmony, published in 1790, includes a piece named Montgomery, by Justin Morgan. Its original edition shows that the sheet music notes is a mix of rounded, squared and triangled notes and that the staves are followed by corresponding lyrics.
We must of course mention here The Star Spangled Banner, composed in 1773 and which is the National Hymn of the United States since 1889, however, the most ancient sheet music conserved until nowadays was printed much later, in 1814. Its author, John Stafford Smith, was actually a British composer. But happily, music may travel thoughout frontiers, as it was the case for numerous Irish and Scottish folk tunes played in America until today. Actually, the first conserved exemplary of The Star Spangled Banner's sheet music is printed in 1814, two years after the bombardment of an American fort in Baltimore by British troops. At this time, the Independence War is thus not really totally finished. The printer, Thomas Carr, installed in Baltimore, prints thousand copies of the sheet music. Later, in 1821, he makes a reprint which mentions the bombardment and which is embellished with an illustration in the header and which evokes the presentation of the sheet music books printed for music teachers.
The musical nineteenth century is now running which, happily, will not exclude the insertion of non American composers in the musical history of the country. For instance, in 1791, a composer born in Denmark, Hans Gram, writes The Death Song of an Indian Chief, which is the first orchestral sheet music published in the United States. But the main American sheet music publishers will appear during the twentieth century, developing the industry throughout the dedaces, following technological progress.
4. Germany, 16th century: the development of sheet music printing from the Reformation
a. Historical and musical context
During the sixteenth century, Germany is still part of the Holy Roman Empire, which means that the power is in the hands of local princes as well as church prelates like Archbishops. There, music printing is a reality from the fifteenth century and, as church music occupies an important place, fonts for the gregorian notation exist, which include complex symbols associated to groups of notes called neumes. Every local church has its own songs books to celebrate specific saints and thus its local editors, like for instance a music printer named Ehrard Ratdolt, who, in 1479, obtains a monopoly to print music from a Bavarian Bishop. Music is not only the affair of the Catholic Church, though. The German Renaissance is on the move and, for instance, in 1507, a printer named Ehrard Oglin prints latin poems put in music by a humanist, Petrus Treibenreif. These musical poems are part of an anthology of polyphonic music printed with the help of movable types, used on this occasion for the first time in German territory.
Moreover, important historical events happen, favoring the development of the sheet music industry in the country. Originally a catholic monk, Martin Luther, in 1517, initiates a doctrinal and social movement which rapidly leads to the creation of a new Christian branch, separated from catholicism and which takes his own name in 1522. Lutheranism is born, along with early modern Germany. More largely known as Reformation, the new cult rapidly needs new music books to initiate the Lutheran rite and the first ones are printed in 1524. Those books follow the publication of single sheets containing musical poems dedicated to Luther and his work.
Besides the books printed for the cult, the development of the sheet music industry during the Reformation goes along with the birth of the music business education. The quality of the sheet music printed in this context is mediocre, but for printers, this is necessary for a decent return on investment and they know it. It is obvious that the Reformation favored, in Germany, competition. Where catholic prelates were according privileges like their Italian colleagues or French and English suzerains, all printers, in German territory, are free to launch a business, to publish what they want, when they want and where they want.
b. Christian Egelnoff
It is in this context that the first significant German music printer, Christian Egenolff, launches his business, first as a generalist publisher. Where? In Frankfurt-am-Main, still known by music industry professionals for welcoming yearly an international music trade fair. Born in 1502 in this region, Egenolff begins to print music books during the 1530s, practicing unique printing, a type of printing where all the elements of a sheet music are printed in a single operation with the use of removable characters in metal. To get fonts, Egenolff works with a French type maker named Jacques Sabon.
Each character of a music font comes from a matrix. How is it made? Plumb is poured in a mould made of steel. Once cooled, the plumb, which, of course has the shape of a music symbol in three dimensions, can be used with other ones. It is generally a composer who, following an original manuscript, is charged to assemble all the plumbs together and to insert them line by line in the printing machine. The first model of machine conserved until nowadays is named the Constance Gradual and it was made during the eighteenth century. All in all, around ten music fonts will be used by music printers in early modern Germany.
Regarding the repertoire, Egenolff, like other European printers of the sixteenth century, publishes polyphonic music. For instance, in 1535, he prints a book containing tenor lieds, which, despite the name of the genre, are polyphonic lieds. In such musical publications, the place of the lyrics could vary, sometimes they were printed under each line of notes, sometimes together at the bottom of the page. By passing, let us notice that lieds do not always designate pieces of music containing vocal parts, but that in tenor lieds, the voice is the basis of the polyphonic construction.
Egenolff makes reprints and prints original works. He publishes secular music as well as sacred music. Reprints include German translations of songs whose lyrics were originally written in Latin. Egenolff is notably followed by Hieronymus Andreae, who designs his musical font himself and prints, amongst others, two volumes containing around hundred secular motets and an anthology of nearly 400 sacred motets, most of them being composed by a significant Renaissance composer, Heinrich Isaac. Let us remark that, generally, early German music books are more consistent than Italian ones, making room for less known composers. Also, German printers are less interested than Italian ones in classifying music by tonality or by mode, but their books can include a table of contents.
c. German printers in Italy and Spain
During this period, an increasing number of German music printers become active in Italy or establish partnerships with Italian printers, notably because Venetian polyphony is highly appreciated by Germans at least until the seventeenth century. It is in that framework that the German printer Johann Emerich becomes a partner of an Italian one, Lucantonio Giunta, and, in his work, he uses woodcut blocks as well as metal types. Together, Emerich and Giunta print numerous books of polyphonic. A part of these books music written in gregorian notation, using metal characters. Other books are printed following the mensural notation, a sort of intermediary notation between gregorian notation and modern notation. In mensural notation, the rhythmic value of the notes takes more importance.
Johann Hamman is another German music printer active in Italy and there is a reason to that situation: the Venetian printer Ottaviano Scotto finances his works. Hamman prints around 90 books, two of them being made with the collaboration of Johann Emerich. He uses three different music fonts for plainchant, each one having a specific size corresponding to a precise format of missal.
A third German music printer active in Italy, the printer and type designer Stephan Planck, improves the first music type for plainchant used in German territory, adding twelve characters of his own. We see by this example that a music type was not always made in one go.
Other German printers move to Spain, for instance Juan Parix during the fifteenth century or Hans Gysser who, in 1503, prints the first book of polyphonic music in Spanish.
d. German printers in Eastern countries
Amongst German music printers who migrate to Poland at the end of the fifteenth century, we may mention Jan Haller, a generalist printer who gets a privilege from the King of Poland, the first of the genre. Haller, active in Krakow, prints music in gothic notation, which, as its name tells it, is a sort of gregorian notation adapted for the eye familiar with gothic letters. Another German music printer, Florian Ungler, is active in Krakow at the beginning of the sixteenth century. He is the first music printer to introduce mensural notation in Poland. A third printer of German birth, Maciej Szarfenberg, launches a business in Krakow too. He prints both secular and sacred music; mainly liturgical books in gothic notation, though. He uses both woodblocks and movable types, practicing impression in 2 operations.
Let us remark that Eastern European countries have their own printers during the Renaissance too. We may mention the Romanian printer Johannes Honterus, educated in a dominican school but who becomes a protestant teacher. Honterus prints the first polyphonic secular music in Transylvania.
3. England, 16th century: sheet music publishing as a side activity for generalist publishers
a. John Rastell and the broadside format
John Rastell or Rastall lives between 1475 and 1536. Probably born in Coventry, he learns philosophical and grammaticals at Oxford University. Married before 1910, he is Thomas More's brother in law. Rastell is an eclectic personality and he has several professional activities. Amongst others, he is a lawyer, an entertainer of the royal court and, around 1509, he becomes a generalist publisher, interested in law and theater. He also writes a chronicle related to English history in his latter days.
During the 1520s, he adds music printing to his business and, following various sources, it seems that he finds a personal way to practice unique printing, like Pierre Attaingnant in France. Let us remember what music printing is. It is a type of printing where all the elements of a sheet music are printed in a single operation. How is it technically possible? In practice, each single removable character includes a fragment of the staff line and a musical note; the same for each of the following characters. It is not nothing, as a music type generally includes more than 400 characters.
In this context, John Rastell is the first English publisher to print polyphonic music. Only two pieces of music are conserved. One of them, named one wey mornynge, was printed around 1526, but it seems that Rastell published many musical works, for the internal English market. The font used to print the conserved works, less regular and advanced at the technical level than the one used by Petrucci in Italy, would have been the work of Rastell himself. Otherwise, these two pieces of printed music are in a large format named broadside.
Broadside is, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, printed on one side. Inexpensive and easy to distribute, it is a cheap form of entertainment, at least for those who can read music. It is gradually replaced by chapbooks and newspapers, but in the middle of the sixteenth century, around 400 000 of them are printed yearly and, during the eighteenth, the well-known collection of music ballads assembled by Francis James Child is still printed in this format.
It is unclear if Rastell was successfull at the financial level in his activities of music printer and he apparently lived in poverty at the end of his life. In fact, he was also a member of the Parliament and he fought against the payment of the tithe by the crowd to the clergy. For this reason, he was thrown in prison.
b. Sheet music printing as a side activity for generalist publishers
John Gough, who acquired the music font of John Rastell after Rastell's death, was apparently a generalist printer interested in music, he printed psalms around 1540. Along with several other generalist printers like William Seres and John Day, he would have printed some dozens of sacred and secular music books between the 1530s and the 1570s. Let us notice that William Seres in 1552, under Edward the Sixth, and John Day in 1557, under Mary the First, both receive a royal licence to print psalters. Of course, these licences, whose principle was initiated by Henry Eight and which are an elementary form of musical copyright, reduce competition in a market whose contours are less sharp than those of the Italian or the French sheet music industry during the same period.
During the second half of the 16th century, the printing of sacred music is prominent in England, notably psalms and spiritual songs. The first book of secular music is printed in 1571 by John Day. It consists in a collection of songs written by Thomas Whythorne, a composer and music tutor who frequented Oxford University. Actually, we see that, in England, sheet music printing is the fact of generalist printers who have other sources of revenue and who are concurrenced by foreigners, for example Ruremond, a Dutch publisher who prints around 40 music books for the English market in double impression, the staves being printed in red. Another foreigner, the French Thomas Vautrollier, prints an English edition of Orlando de Lasso's works.
c. William Byrd and Thomas Tallis, royal printers under Elizabeth I
If there is no early specialized music publisher in England, the three countries, Italy, France and England, share similar systems of royal privileges granted to printers and, regarding John Day, the privilege is renewed, his son Richard taking advantage out of it.
Well-known composers, William Byrd and Thomas Tallis are both members of the royal chapel and, in 1575, they both receive a special privilege from Elizabeth the First, to print music and import sheet music in England, during twenty-one years. However, unlike the Ballards in France, Byrd and Tallis do not try to prevent others to print music and they even make a partnership with the French Thomas Vautrollier to publish their own compositions. With them, music books containing madrigals become more frequent.
d. Thomas Morley and the emerging of recreational music practice in England
A student of William Byrd, made Bachelor of music in 1588 and also a member of the royal chapel, Thomas Morley, author of sacred music and profane pieces like madrigals or ballets, is also patented by Elizabeth the First to print music. A church organist, Morley is active as a music printer during the last quarter of the sixteenth century, until 1602, in a period during which music practice as a serious leisure begins to emerge. It is one of the various factors which explain the success of Morley, who is conscious of that situation and, therefore, brings sheet music to another type of audience, to a broader audience.
In Morley's context, what is recreational music practice? It is a type of practice whose main target is not to express devotion and religious feelings. That practice becomes more frequent at the end of the century, notably amongst the members of cultivated classes, and it requires music teachers employed in that framework. Therefore, there is a real development of the sheet music market during the last ten years of the sixteenth century, development which includes an increasing number of reprintings.
e. Thomas East's crafty business model
Another printer is active in the field of music, until the end of his life in 1608. It is Thomas East, born in Cambridgeshire and active in London. He is first a generalist publisher. In 1587, he acquires the music type of Thomas Vautrollier, recently deceased and who had himself acquired the type from a Dutch printer. Thomas East is known for his use of paper decorated with fleurons forming arabesques, in fashion from the 1560s. Thomas East publishes, amongst others, a collection named Music Transalpina, in 1588. In 1590, he prints a music book written by Thomas Whythorne, Duos or songs for two voices. Thomas East is also known for his business skills. With ability, he ran a viable business model in which single-sheet printing at scale assured revenue to finance more ambitious printing projects like book publishing. Therefore, he is considered as the first consistent English music printer and publisher.
Under Elizabeth the First's reign, we may finally mention the prolific activity of another generalist publisher, Peter Short, who, in 1597, prints, amongst others, a book of songs composed by John Dowland. Peter Short is also an innovator; he is the first printer to use movable characters to print strings instruments tablature, notably for the lute, contributing to create a standard format for lute songs books.
2. France, 16th century: sheet music printing with removable characters, in 1 operation
a. Multiple printing, from Venice to Paris
We saw previously that, while sheet music were first printed using woodblocks, the Venetian Ottaviano Petrucci had innovated by printing sheet music using metal characters and in three stages, the words of the sheet music being printed, then its staves and finally its musical notes and symbols. This was called multiple printing.
The story could have ended there. Indeed, the printing techniques spread by Gutenberg for printing general texts had hardly changed since 1450. However, sheet music printing was the subject of numerous iterations during the sixteenth century. The reason for this situation is easy to understand. Ordinary texts require only the letters of the alphabet to be printed, to which are added some punctuation marks and special characters, all the elements being printed at the same height. For music, it is more complex. To the words are added the staves and the pitch of the notes is constantly changing. In addition, many special symbols can go along with the notes and the heads of the notes can vary. Petrucci had, from his beginnings, imitators of his technique everywhere, including in Paris, where a certain Michel Toulouze had printed sheet music by means of multiple printing.
b. Attaingnant practices unique printing
The first French innovator to change the situation was, however, an individual named Pierre Attaingnant. Little is known about the beginnings of his life, except that he was born in 1494. He is originally from Douai. He received training at the college of Dainville, a college of the former University of Paris founded in 1480. He was a chorister there. Then he became the apprentice of a renowned printer, Philippe Pigouchet, whose he married the daughter.
Attaingnant acquires, from the font founder Pierre Hautin, removable characters that Hautin has developed and which will allow Attaingnant to practice unique printing. What is unique printing? It is a type of printing where all the elements of a sheet music are printed in a single operation. How is it technically possible? In practice, each single removable character will include a fragment of the staff line and a musical note; the same for each of the following characters.
c. Interest of this new innovation for the sheet music market
Attaingnant is head of a team that includes inkers, apprentices and daily paid workers, as well as composers. We do not know to what extent Attaingnant is himself an editor and a proofreader. What is certain, however, is that with him, sheet music printing truly becomes printing with removable characters stricto sensu and that the technique helps the sheet music market to evolve. Indeed, the printer no longer worries about the position of each note on the staff. This position, calculated in advance, can only be correct and, therefore, no printed book will be unsellable for technical reasons, especially because unique printing is sharper. This unique printing also necessarily takes less time than printing in 3 operations, therefore, profitability is increased. The cost is reduced, in terms of workforce to employ and ink to buy. The cost of paper, which remains an important factor, does not decrease. Attaignant published a first collection of sheet music in 1527. It is the first volume in a series of 35, published between 1528 and 1533. These chansonniers present a small format, 10 centimeters by 15. From 1530, we notice a change in the typography, which has been renewed. This second typography would be the work of Attaingnant himself, who then used characters made by the character founder Robert Granjon.
d. Attaingnant, undisputed leader of the French market
Attaingnant's career is remarkable; the music he prints spreads throughout France. However, this is not only due to the technical innovation developed by Hautin, nor to the printing skills of Attaingnant. There is a legal reason. Indeed, from 1531, Attaingnant was named printer and bookseller of the King in music, thus royal printer, by Francis the First, then King of France. To this title is associated a privilege. Attaingnant is the only printer who is authorized to print music. During this period, the concept of intellectual property was still informal, so the best way to protect yourself from piracy was to receive a royal privilege. Attaingnant is, therefore, thanks to this privilege, protected from all competition, since all competition is, by its existence, made illegal.
Attaingnant is very proactive. Between 1527 and 1551, he prints about 170 music books containing thousands of scores. With the prints estimated, a posteriori, between 1000 and 1500 copies per volume, that makes a total of at least 170 000 books put into circulation. Attaingnant publishes previously printed music as well as unpublished scores; and this of all kinds. Certain re-editions group the pieces of music by tone, probably for didactic reasons. Of the 170 volumes, 5 are dedicated to the work of Clement Janequin. Clement composed a wide variety of music, religious as well as secular pieces: for example, he set songs by Pierre de Ronsard and Francis the First, who also was a poet, to music. Attaingnant prints instrumental music, including two organ books and also a volume containing the compositions Josquin des Pres, composer of sacred music.
e. Other printers active during the lifetime of Attaingnant
Let us remark that, despite the privilege of Attaingnant, Jacques Moderne, originally from the Istrian Peninsula and a trained printer, published sheet music in Lyon during the life of Attaingnant. Moderne is probably too far from Paris to worry Attaingnant. Moderne, active until 1557, notably published the music of the composer Francesco Layolle, who was also his music publishing advisor, before being replaced, after his death, by another composer, Pierre de Villiers. Moderne practiced single printing using three unique fonts. He thus published over one hundred books. Like Attaingnant, he printed both sacred music and secular songs, including the production of Layolle. His publications also include instrumental music, notably for the lute and finally Christmas music.
In addition, Nicolas Du Chemin, a generalist printer who married the daughter of Pierre Attaingnant's brother-in-law, converted to sheet music printing music. In 1547, he bought characters to Hautin and in 1548, he received a royal privilege for 6 years, privilege which was renewed twice. Eight hundred scores printed by Du Chemin still exist, including works by Clement Janequin.
f. The Ballards and the stagnation of the printing technique in the 17th century
From the death of Pierre Attaingnant in 1551, Adrian Le Roy, musician of Henri the Second, joined forces with his brother-in-law Robert Ballard to publish sheet music. Both receive a royal privilege this year, for a period of 9 years. Only them can print and sell books of instrumental and vocal music and it is forbidden for anyone else to do the same, under penalty of a fine, damages to be paid and forfeiture of what they would print. The message is clear. During the seventeenth century, the situation worsened for competition. While the Ballards have been music printers for three generations and the domain of their privilege has extended from sheet music to music fonts. Letters granted by Louis the Thirteens in 1637 forbid any other printer to melt musical characters. In 1555, Ballard and Le Roy had acquired characters from the founder Guillaume Le Be, who had also equipped some other modest printers. However, neither Robert Ballard, nor his descendants, made any progress in the field of printing and therefore, between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, technical innovation in the field of sheet music stagnated, with no real financial profit for the Ballards, by the way.
Furthermore, the Ballards, even if they printed music in large quantities, including masterpieces such as Lulli's operas, unfortunately limited themselves to the publication of court music, which contrasted with the position adopted previously by Attaingnant. They also prevented Lulli's son from editing the music composed by his father. Unable to really innovate in the first sense of the term, that is to combine an original commercial model with a new technique, the Ballards endeavored above all to acquire characters from various founders, acquire exclusivity for these characters and bring legal action to condemn all those who tried to print on their side. In addition, the Ballards refused to replace overly used music characters. Finally, they wanted to prevent certain founders from changing the shape of the notes and also from setting up as printers. This situation did not end until 1675, when the Ballards could not legally prevent the use of the note in intaglio, rounded and whose use was gradually imposed.
1. Venice, 16th century: sheet music printing with removable characters, in 3 operations
LIST OF THE PRESENTATIONS ACCESSIBLE ON THIS PAGE:
The first cycle of presentations reveals the main lines of technical and technological evolution, namely innovation in the sheet music industry, from the beginning of printing.
CYCLE I: GENERAL INTRODUCTION
To allow sheet music lovers to appreciate the work of sheet music publishers, we offer them, in a few cycles of presentations, to discover the wonderful story of innovation within the sheet music industry.
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION WITHIN THE SHEET MUSIC INDUSTRY
1. Venice, 16th century: sheet music printing with removable characters, in 3 operations
a. The innovator and his time: Ottaviano Petrucci and the Venice of the Renaissance
This technique is associated with the name of Ottaviano Petrucci. Petrucci was born in Italy, more precisely in Fossombrone in the Marche, in 1466. His parents belonged to a family of the local nobility. During his youth, Petrucci was introduced to the liberal arts, at least in the trivium, that is to say in the three arts of the time, grammar, rhetoric and dialectic. And obviously, part of his education was done at the court of the Duke of Urbino, Guidobaldo the First. We also know that, in 1490, Petrucci settled in Venice, where he was a dominant printer on the emerging market of the sheet music industry, using removable characters.
It was long believed that the first musical scores printed with removable characters were by Ottaviano Petrucci. Actually, a German printer, Ulrich Hans, had preceded him by printing, using this technique, songs for a missal entitled Missale Romanum, in 1476. However, it was Petrucci who strongly marked the spirits, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, in particular by printing an important collection in 1501, entitled Odhecaton. It is a collection of a hundred secular polyphonic songs.
b. The technique of multiple printing with removable characters
Petrucci's work led him to print more than 60 collections of sheet music. This is why he was honored by Leon Ten, Pope of his time, by the Senate of Veneto and by famous individuals, such as Francesco Marcolini da Forli, a then renowned typographer. However, after his disappearance, Petrucci fell into oblivion. However, what he brought to music books is as important as what Gutenberg brought to the rest of the texts.
Petrucci was a technically significant innovator. Indeed, he obtained very interesting results for the time by practicing multiple printing. What does this process consist of? First the words were printed, then it was the staff's turn; and finally, that of notes. Petrucci obtained results of great readability and precision, all the elements in his scores were in the right place. Some competitors imitated Petrucci with more or less success, their works presenting notes out of line with the lines and therefore misleading music performers which, of course, had consequences on the quality of their performance.
c. Petrucci, leader of the emerging sheet music market
Furthermore, given the kind of collections that Petrucci chose to publish over time, we can say that he was also a businessman, willingly to meet the expectations of music lovers of his time, whatever their tastes. For instance, in 1503, he notably published sacred music by Josquin Despray, masses, and motets. And he widely disseminated the secular music of his time, which was the Renaissance, notably through a collection of pieces for lute and, between 1504 and 1514, a dozen of books reuniting frottole, a style of music then popular in Italy and which announced the form of the madrigal.
As a businessman, Petrucci was attentive to the smallest detail, since he managed to obtain exclusivity for the printing and marketing of specific types of sheet music on the Venetian territory, between 1498 and 1518. These types were polyphonic singing, the lute and the organ. This exclusivity, this privilege, was applied so concretely that it included the fact that no one could import this type of sheet music into Venice.
d. Several competitors of Petrucci
Petrucci had competition, notably in the person of Luca Antonio Giunta, whose historians interested in printing have retained that he hired freelance typographers. There was also Andrea Antico, who had received the privilege of printing music books in the Papal States and who had robbed Petrucci of his exclusivity relating to sheet music for organ. In fact, Petrucci, despite its exclusive privilege to do so, did not print sheet music for organ on the Venetian territory, which was part of the Pontifical States at the time. For that reason, the Pope simply transferred this privilege to Antico, adding a copyright for a period of 10 years, a right which was not always respected, as reproductions of books printed by Antico were sometimes made without mentioning the original printer.
Petrucci was the initiator of the sheet music industry and he is considered to be the first major publisher of polyphonic music. This of course served both education and private industry. For example, Faye tis, a renowned Belgian musicologist and music critic who lived in the nineteenth century, studied early music in scores printed by Petrucci.
e. Competitors' partnerships: Venetian and Florentine publishers
As we can see, from that time on, competition was already very keen. However, ordinary printers could join forces at times. This was the case for Petrucci and Giunta. Giunta also partnered with Antico to publish the Liber Quindecim Missarum, printed in Rome in 1516 and containing 15 masses. The creation of this book even required the collaboration of a third printer, Ottaviano Scotto. Antico edited the music and prepared wooden boards for printing, Giunta printed a thousand copies and Scotto was responsible for selling them.
f. Was Petrucci's innovation a real progress at the time?
Let us note here that Antico did not use removable characters and that the realization of wooden boards was laborious, in the case of this work, it had taken him 3 years, but as he was at the top of his art and as he worked with a Giunta, a high level printer, the result was of high quality. Furthermore, if printing with removable characters, well practiced, provided superior results, it could sometimes also lead to the printing of works of lower quality, when the editing of the music made beforehand was poor.
This is the case for a specific number of works by Petrucci printed at Fossombrone during the few years he had returned there. But even so, the importance of Petrucci's contribution was reel, because the use of removable characters to print music made it possible to distribute sheet music whose content had become more homogeneous. It places Petrucci's contribution on the same footing as the work produced previously, in the ninth century, during the standardization of the writing of Gregorian chant. This is why Petrucci was recently honored by specialists in computer-assisted music, who gave his name to a musical notation policy.