Publisher or Editor

(b Norwich, CT, March 22, 1762; d Philadelphia, cSept 30, 1793). American singing teacher, concert organizer and tune book compiler. In 1783 he assisted Andrew Law in a Philadelphia singing school. Later he worked in the city as a wool-card manufacturer and merchant; he was a volunteer in the citizens’ committee organized during Philadelphia’s yellow-fever epidemic of 1793, and died of that disease. In 1784 he opened an ‘Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music’, later reorganizing it as the Uranian Academy. Adgate presented many concerts during the mid- to late 1780s, most notably a ‘Grand Concert’ on 4 May 1786, at which works by Handel, James Lyon, William Billings, William Tuckey and others were performed by 230 choristers and an orchestra of 50. Adgate’s first known compilation is an anthology of sacred texts: Select Psalms and Hymns for the Use of Mr. Adgate’s Pupils (Philadelphia, 1787...

(b Dobitschen, Saxe-Altenburg, Jan 4, 1720; d Berlin, Dec 2, 1774). German musicographer, composer, organist, singing master and conductor. His father occupied an important post as government agent and jurist in Dobitschen. Burney, who visited the Agricolas in 1772, reported that Johann Friedrich’s mother, born Maria Magdalena Manke, ‘was a near relation of the late Mr Handel, and in correspondence with him till the time of his death’; but later Handel research has failed to substantiate this claim.

Agricola began his study of music as a young child. In 1738 he entered the University of Leipzig, where he studied law; during this time he was a pupil of J.S. Bach and visited Dresden, where he heard performances of Passion oratorios and Easter music by Hasse. In 1741 he moved to Berlin, became a pupil of Quantz, made the acquaintance of C.P.E. Bach, C.H. Graun and other musicians, and embarked on a career that touched many aspects of Berlin’s musical life. He became keenly interested in music criticism and theoretical speculation in Berlin, and his work as a musicographer has proved to be his most lasting accomplishment. In ...

(b Philadelphia, PA, Feb 14, 1760; d Philadelphia, March 26, 1831). American tunebook compiler. A former slave, he founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia in 1794 and was elected its first bishop on the incorporation of the church in 1816. He compiled a hymnbook of 54 hymns, A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns, for use by his congregation, the Bethel AME Church, in 1801. Later that year an enlarged version was published as A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. It was the first hymnbook published by an African American for use by African Americans, and many of the hymns later became sources for black spirituals. With Daniel Coker and James Champion, Allen also compiled the first official hymnbook of the AME Church in 1818.

German family of composers and music publishers, of French extraction.

André, Johann [Jean] (b Offenbach, March 28, 1741; d Offenbach, June 18, 1799)

André, Johann Anton (b Offenbach, Oct 6, 1775; d Offenbach, April 6, 1842)

André, Carl August (b Offenbach, June 15, 1806; d Frankfurt, Feb 15, 1887)

André, (Peter Friedrich) Julius (b Offenbach, June 4, 1808; d Frankfurt, April 17, 1880)

André, Jean Baptiste (Andreas) (b Offenbach, March 7, 1823; d Frankfurt, Dec 9, 1882)

[Jean]

Member of André family

(b Offenbach, March 28, 1741; d Offenbach, June 18, 1799). German composer and publisher, of French extraction. His peasant grandfather, a Huguenot, fled persecution in Languedoc and settled in 1688 in Frankfurt, where he became a manufacturer of silks. When only ten years old Johann succeeded to the family firm, which was directed during his minority by his mother and an uncle. His early education in music, described by Gerber as ‘notes, metre and some playing of chorales’, came through a friend who took lessons in Frankfurt; from 1756, while he learnt business management in the family firm, he had lessons in thoroughbass for several months from a transient musician, apparently the only regular instruction he ever received. Around 1758 he went to Mannheim to further his business training and there he enthusiastically attended concerts, plays, and operas, acquainting himself with the current repertory of serious and comic Italian opera as well as the modern instrumental style specific to Mannheim....

Member of André family

(b Offenbach, Oct 6, 1775; d Offenbach, April 6, 1842). German composer and music publisher, of French extraction, son of Johann André. He showed an early gift for music, received instruction in the piano, the violin, and later in singing, and began composing small pieces at the age of six. In 1787 he took violin lessons from his brother-in-law Ferdinand Fränzl, writing his first violin sonata at this time; two years later he went to Mannheim to pursue his studies with Ignaz Fränzl. After staying briefly in Offenbach, where he had to deputize for his father in the publishing firm, he studied composition in Mannheim with G.J. Vollweiler (1792–3). Thereupon he took a position in his father’s firm, studying composition independently in his spare time. In 1796 he enrolled at Jena University as a student of fine arts but soon had to abandon his studies when his father became ill. After his father’s death he undertook an extended business journey in autumn ...

(b Liège, 1718/19; d Liège, Jan 12, 1804). Flemish music engraver and publisher. His publications, only rarely dated, bear the address ‘At Liège, behind St Thomas’. Some editions were engraved by Mlle Jeanne Andrez, his daughter, who continued the business until after 1809. He dealt primarily with instrumental music of the ‘Belgian’ composers of the period, publishing works by H. Renotte, J.-J. Robson, J.-N. Hamal, H.F. Delange, G.G. Kennis, F.-J. de Trazegnies, J.J. Renier, J.-H. Coppenneur and others. He also published music by P.C. von Camerloher and F. Schwindl, as well as Boccherini’s op.4 and Beethoven’s op.46. For vocal music he produced the periodical Echo ou Journal de musique françoise, italienne (1758–73; from 1767 titled Journal vocal composé d’airs, duos, trios, or Journal de musique vocale). Besides these, Andrez published a comedy ‘interspersed with songs’, La chercheuse d’esprit by Du Boulay, and a choral work by d’Herlois, ...

(b London, Aug 10, 1740; d London, Oct 22, 1802). English composer, conductor, organist, and editor. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, a commoner, and, according to some sources, the Princess Amelia (she was certainly his patron). Arnold received his education as a Child of the Chapel Royal (December 1, 1748 to August 31, 1758), where he was occasionally noticed by Handel (something he ‘remember’d with delight & spoke of with a starting tear’), and on leaving became known as an organist, conductor, and teacher, and composed prolifically. In autumn 1764 he was engaged by John Beard as harpsichordist and composer to Covent Garden; there he compiled several pastiche operas, including the popular The Maid of the Mill (1765), which is among the supreme examples of the form. In 1769 Arnold bought Marylebone Gardens, and during the next six summers produced several short all-sung burlettas, composing or at least contributing to four new examples (now lost). These productions were simply written (from the literary point of view at least) and would have appealed to an audience with no previous experience of operatic music....

(b c1720; d Paris, c1798). French publisher, composer and teacher. On 27 April 1765 he took over the music publishing house known as A la Règle d’Or, which comprised businesses once owned by Boivin, Ballard and Bayard. During some 30 years he issued many works by both French and foreign composers, the latter including not only early masters like Corelli and Vivaldi, but also some of those who were influential in the development of the emerging Classical school: Carl Stamitz, Haydn, Piccinni, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Boccherini and Clementi. French composers included Gossec, Davaux, Monsigny and Brassac, and some of the earlier generation, Lully, Lalande and Campra. One of his major publications was the Journal d’ariettes des plus célèbres compositeurs, comprising 240 works issued in 63 volumes (scores and parts) from 1779 to 1788. Bailleux’s adoption of the royal privilege granted to the Ballard family led to his imprisonment during the Terror. He was released after the coup d'état of 9 Thermidor (...

Member of Ballard family

(b Paris,c1701; d Paris, Sept 5, 1765). French music printer, son of Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard. He received the royal privilege on the death of his father. He had been active as a bookseller since 1741 and as a printer since 1742. With him the fame and success of the firm ended. A police report described him as ‘lazy and untalented’. In the 18th century printing privileges had become less a matter of royal approval than a means to add to the royal treasury. In 1762 a royal decree restricted their period to 15 years and in 1790 they were abolished. The Ballards, equipped with increasingly meaningless privileges, still using lozenge-shaped notes and old-fashioned initial letters from the 16th century, were unwilling or unable to change with the times. A report from a Parlement commission in 1764 said ‘the public has been disgusted for a long time with the music of Sieur Ballard’....

(b Rowley, MA, June 27, 1729; d Newburyport, MA, Feb 29, 1792). American tune book compiler and publisher. He worked as a potter and shopkeeper, and served as a clerk and possibly chorister at St Paul’s, Newburyport; his son Daniel, with whom he has been confused, played the organ at St Paul’s from 1776. Bayley began a prolific career as a compiler by bringing out A New and Complete Introduction (5 edns, Newburyport, 1764–8), a composite drawn from successful works by other compilers. In 1768 he published Tans’ur’s Royal Melody Compleat (London, 1754–5 and later edns; 2 edns, Boston, 1767–8), then combined it with Aaron Williams’s Universal Psalmodist (London, 1763 and later edns), and under the title The American Harmony issued four editions between 1769 and 1774. Towards the end of the American Revolution, Bayley pirated the title and partial contents of another popular work, Andrew Law’s ...

(b Framingham, MA, Feb 9, 1771; d Pawtucket, RI, Oct 31, 1815). American composer, tunebook compiler, and singing master. The son of Jeremiah Belknap Jr. and Hepzibah Stone, he grew up in Framingham, where he received a common-school education. He then worked as a farmer, mechanic, and militia captain, and taught singing-schools from the age of 18. Around 1800 he married Mary Parker, with whom he had five children by 1809. In 1812 he and his family moved to Pawtucket, where he died of a fever.

Most of his 86 known compositions were first printed in his own tunebooks, an exception being his most widely published piece, “Lena,” which was introduced in The Worcester Collection (Boston, 5/1794). His ambitious Masonic ode, “A View of the Temple,” was sung at the installation of the Middlesex Lodge of Framingham in 1795. Belknap’s The Harmonist’s Companion (Boston, 1797), a brief 32-page collection, contains only his own compositions, which are written in an American idiom untouched by European-inspired reform. His later compilations, ...

(b Halifax, c1744; d Grantham, May 6, 1796). English bookseller and dictionary compiler. He was the eldest son of Nathaniel Binns, printer and bookseller in Halifax, under whom he studied the book business. Early in life he went to London as an apprentice of, or employee in, the firm of Crowder. By 1770 he had established his own firm in Leeds, where he was also a partner in the commercial bank of Scott, Binns, Nicholson & Smith, and an amateur performer on the violin and cello. He published a Dictionarium musica (sic) (London, 1770, 2/1790, 3/1791) which appeared under different titles and was issued under the pseudonym John Hoyle. The work is derived chiefly from the dictionary published by James Grassineau in 1740.

(b London, c1750; d London, Dec 19, 1819). English music seller, instrument dealer and publisher. From his early imprints it appears that he had been apprenticed to Walsh’s successors, William Randall and his wife Elizabeth. In 1783 he was in business with T. Beardmore as Beardmore & Birchall (or Birchall & Beardmore). From 1783 to May 1789 he was in partnership with Hugh Andrews as Birchall & Andrews; he also issued publications under the name Birchall & Co., and established a circulating music library. He then continued alone in the firm until 1819, though John Bland appears to have had some association with Birchall after he sold his own firm in 1795, until about 1801.

Birchall managed the series of Ancient Concerts and most of the benefit concerts of the time. In 1783 he proposed a complete reissue of Handel’s works in 80 folio volumes, but the project never materialized, though Birchall subsequently published many Handel items. In addition to glees, country dance books and much Italian vocal music, his publications included the first English edition of J.S. Bach’s ...

(b Barum, Brunswick, Jan 12, 1730; d Weimar, Dec 13, 1793).German translator, publisher, performer and composer. His principal instrument was the bassoon, and in 1749 at Helmstedt he played the cello in J.C. Stockhausen’s collegium musicum. He moved to Celle in 1752 as an oboist and composer, and at the same time developed a strong interest in foreign languages and literature. In 1757 he settled in Hamburg as a music teacher and writer, and later became a publisher and dealer in books and music. During this period he edited the Hamburgischer unpartheyischer Correspondent (1762–3), completed and published Lessing’s translation of Noverre’s Lettres sur la dance (1769) and published his own translation (with C.D. Ebeling, 1772) of Burney’s The Present State of Music in France and Italy (1773). He also translated oratorios by Metastasio, librettos to comic operas by Piccinni and Guglielmi, and novels by Fielding, Sterne, Goldsmith and others. His published compositions include two collections of songs under the title ...

(b Prague, c1748; d Berlin, July 4, 1811). German songbook compiler of Bohemian birth. After beginning his career as an actor and tenor in Hamburg and Breslau, he went to Berlin in 1779 to join Döbbelin’s theatrical troupe at the Theater am Gendarmenmarkt. Later he spent some time at the Thabor Theatre in Frankfurt, but returned to Berlin in 1789 to become a member of the Berlin National Theatre. In 1793, in collaboration with his countryman Joseph Ambrosch, he published a popular two-volume collection of Masonic lieder entitled Freymaurer-Lieder mit Melodien; a revised edition with a new third volume compiled by Böheim alone appeared in 1795. Included in these volumes were works by Mozart (including his Zauberflöte aria ‘In diesen heil'gen Hallen’), J.G. Nägeli, André and Bernhard Weber. In 1798–9 Böheim published his most important collection of Masonic music, Auswahl von Maurer-Gesängen mit Melodien der vorzüglichsten Componisten...

(b Darmstadt, June 22, 1744; d Gohlis, nr Leipzig, Dec 9, 1812). German music printer and publisher. Around 1769 he worked as a copper engraver and in 1779 invented a machine which simplified music engraving. He founded his publishing firm in Speyer in 1781; in 1785 another branch (Krämer & Bossler) was established in Darmstadt, where the company moved in ...

(b ?Edinburgh, c1713; d London, May 12, 1789). Scottish music publisher. He established his business in Edinburgh in mid-1754, and had considerable early success: his first issues included Niccolo Pasquali’s excellent Thorough-Bass Made Easy (1757); his own The Rudiments of Music (1756, 3/1763), an instruction book commissioned by the Edinburgh town council for newly formed church choirs; and reprints of the fiddle variations on Scottish tunes by the locally celebrated William McGibbon. Bremner also profited from a fashionable boom in guitar playing, publishing a guitar arrangement of Twelve Scots Tunes (c1760) and Instructions for the Guitar (1758, 2/1765), which was probably written by his son Robert who had been sent to London to study the guitar with Geminiani. From 1755 Bremner supplied sheet music regularly to the influential Edinburgh Musical Society, and travelled to London and Dublin to act as its agent. In ...

Member of Broderip family

(b ?Wells, c1750; d London, Feb 18, 1807). English music publisher, probably son of John Broderip. He was associated with the firms of Longman & Lukey, Longman & Broderip and Broderip & Wilkinson. He is described (Salisbury Journal, 2 March 1807) as a brother of Edmund Broderip of Wells (...