Boosey & Hawkes
- D.J. Blaikley
- , revised by William C. Smith
- and Peter Ward Jones
Extract
English music publishers and instrument manufacturers. The Boosey family was of Franco-Flemish origin, and though the early family history is somewhat confused, it appears that the firm’s founder was the Thomas Boosey (i) who opened a bookshop in London in about 1792. This business continued until 1832, being known from 1819 as Boosey & Sons, or T. & T. Boosey. A separate music side of the business was started in 1816 under the control of the founder's son, Thomas (ii) (1794/5–1871). They began as importers of foreign music, but soon became the English publishers of composers such as Hummel, Mercadante and Rossini, and later of important operas by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. The House of Lords' decision in 1854, which deprived English publishers of many of their foreign copyrights, severely affected the firm. Among the earliest publications of T. Boosey & Co. was an English translation of Forkel's life of Bach (...
