Der Bär: Jahrbuch von Breitkopf and Härtel

The yearbook Der Bär (The Bear, RIPM code DBR) was published as annual music-historical collection of documents and their interpretation, in book form, based on the history of the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel. For this purpose, in addition to the presentation of multiple variants of the publisher's signet, a solitary bear licking its paws, significant imagery was made available in the form of facsimile manuscripts, portraits, and photographic illustrations, as well as musical supplements. The authors of the contributions were generally employees of the publishing house. Each volume varies in length between 120 pages (1928) and 188 (1929/30), with 1924-27 averaging approximately 160 pages. The volumes were always printed full-page, embellished with emblematic illustrations, interspersed with unpaginated photo inserts, and were set either in Fraktur or in Antiqua.

The principal focus of the Breitkopf & Härtel yearbooks was a documentation of German music history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in particular, correspondence with composers and authors whose works were issued by the publishing house. In the view of the publishing families Breitkopf and Härtel, musicians of rank were considered as partners for correspondence and publications, such that the documented correspondence in Der Bär reads like a list of the most well-known composers across two centuries. Although the documented archival holdings represent only a patchwork of music history, it nevertheless forms a continuous picture of its development based on selections made by past generations at Breitkopf & Härtel and by its archivists of the present. In addition to the business content of the letters, which shed significant light on the economic conditions of the musicians and publishers, the genesis of works from the Berlin, Mannheim and Viennese schools, as well as Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms is illuminated. Details concerning the history of the music trades, especially the printing of music and the construction of instruments (especially pianos) are discussed intensively. The published correspondence with the Paris agent, Heinrich Albert Probst, provides insights into musical life in Paris and the competitive conditions in Europe in the licensing of musical works in the 1830s. Another striking point of reference in the published archive material is Goethe, whose special relationships to the musicians of the time and to music in general are examined.

The 1920s saw a vogue for yearbooks by music publishers, the most famous and long-lasting being the Peters Jahrbuch, which also became important from the music-historical and analytical contributions by renowned musicologists that went beyond the history of Peters Verlag itself. Other publisher-related yearbooks in this decade were issued by Universal Edition (UE), publisher of Anbruch; by Verlag Simrock (1928-29) and by Verlag Breitkopf & Härtel. It was said that the purpose of publishing Der Bär was to present documents from three centuries in order to draw attention to historical material, in addition to the present and future work: relevant “news” from the archive. Certainly, this approach reflected the turn towards empiricism in music research, which increased the practical value of older music. As such, the publishers saw their contribution to music research and its effect on practical musical life as a significant aspect of their activity.

The volume of Breitkopf & Härtel’s published correspondence from earlier times was also intended to document the necessity to examine the past with different standards than the modern present: to account for what was lost through progress and to see the past through contemporary eyes. Nevertheless, almost all authors and employees of the publishing house were entangled in normative interpretations of the past by adopting canonical evaluations from heroic music historiography when discussing the documents they present. For instance, Reinhold Bernhardt’s article on Gottfried van Swieten's dominating role in Viennese musical life of the latter eighteenth century makes it clear that the alleged reality and the concept of Viennese classicism (“Wiener Klassik”) are van Swieten's inventions. As such, when compared to Bach and Beethoven, other composers active in this time were degraded as only-historically interesting minor masters who were not granted timeless, canonical status. This type of assessment often seems arbitrary and incomprehensible, for instance in Wilhelm Lütge’s article on Anton Reicha in the context of a presentation by Beethoven's friends. Nationalistic undertones are not missing in Der Bär either, so that the later synchronization of the publisher's owners to the National Socialist dictatorship is not surprising.

Biographical sketches of the collaborators

Adolf Aber (1893‑1960)

He began his musical education as a gifted student of Jewish descent born in Apolda in Weimar and then moved to Berlin, where he received his doctorate from Kretzschmar with a thesis on the music cultivation of the Wettins. Until 1933 he worked as a music consultant and music critic for the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten. He emigrated to London, where he took over the management of the Novello music publishing company. In DBR he published a report on the inclusion of foreign composers in the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel (DBR26).

Hermann Abert (1871‑1927)

He was a son of the composer and Stuttgart conductor Johann Joseph Abert and father of the musicologist Anna Amalie Abert. He was a music historian, but began his academic training as a classical philologist and later, after working on antiquity and the Middle Ages, concentrated on the history of opera. He taught in Halle, Heidelberg and Berlin. In the very first yearbook for DBR he wrote a short history of musicology in the mirror of the publications of the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel.

Reinhold Bernhardt

An archivist in the house of Breitkopf & Härtel, his biographical data could not be ascertained. For the Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft he published source-related articles on Handel, and Mozart and Gottfried van Swieten. In Der Bär he contributed a longer essay on the biography and roles of van Swieten, which is still often quoted today, as well as the fate of the Bach family after Johann Sebastian Bach's death.

Friedrich Blume (1893‑1975)

He was one of the most important and influential figures in German musicology of the twentieth century. Trained by Abert in Leipzig and Berlin, he worked in Berlin and Kiel (held the musicological chair there from 1934 to 1958) and was responsible for the school-style syntheses and formulation of guild-style doctrines. For Der Bär he wrote: "Goethes Mondlied in Schuberts Komposition" (DBR28).

Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924)

He was a Trieste-born composer, pianist and music theorist who started performing and composing at the age of eight. After stations in Vienna, Leipzig, Helsinki, Moscow and Boston, he settled in Berlin in 1894, where he lived for 30 years until his death, interrupted by an exile in Zurich during the First World War. He was also editor and arranger of works by other composers, especially those of the past, especially Bach's piano works. For Der Bär he wrote an "afterword" entitled "Zeitgemäßes" to the Bach edition he organized (DBR24) and, published posthumously, an explanation of his score of the opera Doctor Faustus, which he had not completed, on the occasion of its Leipzig premiere 1926 in a version completed by Jarnach (DBR26).

Eberhard Creuzburg (1900‑80)

He was an employee of the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel, who identified himself in Der Bär in 1924 when compiling an amusing collection from the curiosity section of the publisher's archives as "stud. phil. et mus.”. He later published monographs on Brahms and Schumann with this publishing house, and in 1931 a history of the Leipzig Gewandhaus concerts from 1781 to 1931.

Franz Valentin Damian

He was a singer and Schubert researcher. In Der Bär he published a report on the Berlin circle of friends of the poet Wilhelm Müller and the genesis of the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin set to music by Schubert (DBR28).

Otto Erich Deutsch (1883‑1967)

Trained in art history and literature, he worked in Vienna as a music critic, art historian, bookseller, publisher and archivist (in van Hoboken's collection) until, as a Jew, he had to flee to England from the National Socialists after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich. From there he returned to Vienna as a British citizen in 1952 (after he had published the first English edition of his Schubert catalog raisonné) and devoted himself to further studies of Mozart's work (letter edition) and biography (documents of his life). In Der Bär he published: "Schuberts Verleger" (DBR28).

Theodor (von) Frimmel (1853‑1928)

He was an Austrian, medically trained art historian and museum curator and Beethoven researcher. For Der Bär he wrote a treatise on Goethe and Beethoven (DBR25).

Hellmuth von Hase (1891‑1979)

He was a member of the family which owned the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house and was active in various administrative bodies of the German book trade from the Weimar Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany. In Der Bär he published: “Verlagstätigkeit und Wirtschaftslage. Stoßseufzer und Bekenntnisse" (DBR24) and a report on the role of Christian Morgenstern's poems in von Hases' family life: "Galgenlieder in Radierungen" (DBR26).

Günther Haupt

He published articles on Beethoven research in Der Bär, especially concerning people in Beethoven's environment who were also correspondents with the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house: "Gräfin Erdödy and J. X. Brauchle" and "J. N. Mälzels Briefe an Breitkopf & Härtel” (both DBR27). A person of the same name was the managing director of the “Reichsschrifttumskammer” from 1933.

Alfred Heuss (1877‑1934)

He was a music critic and writer, assuming editorial management of the Zeitschrift der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft (ZIMG) two years after his doctorate, a position which he held until the outbreak of the First World War. In 1921-29 he directed the Zeitschrift für Musik, which he published in a influenced a resentful, pro-German, anti-modern and anti-Semitic sense. For DBR he wrote: "Neuzeitliche Lieder auf Gedichte von Goethe" (about Zilcher, Schoeck and Cornelius) (DBR25).

Wilhelm Hitzig (1876‑1945)

He worked as a music teacher and for many years was head of the publishing archive of Breitkopf & Härtel. In Der Bär he published: "Das Archiv von Breitkopf & Härtel" (DBR24), "Beiträge zum Weimarer Konzert 1773‑1786" (DBR25), "Die Briefe von Joseph Wölfl an Breitkopf & Härtel" (DBR26), "Beethoven und das Haus Breitkopf & Haertel" (DBR27), "Aus den Briefen Griesingers an Breitkopf & Härtel entnommene Notizen über Beethoven" (DBR27), "Ein Brief Friedrich August Kannes" (DBR27), "Zu der Erstveröffentlichung des Beethovenschen Hochzeitslieds für Giannatasio del Rio" (DBR27), “Die Briefe Franz Xaver Niemetscheks und der Marianne Mozart an Breitkopf & Härtel“ (DBR28), “Gottfried Christoph Härtel und die Musik seiner Zeit. Eine Anregung zur musikwissenschaftlichen Betrachtung der Verlagsgeschichte“ (DBR29/30), “Pariser Briefe. Ein Beitrag zur Arbeit des deutschen Musikverlags aus den Jahren 1833‑1840“ (about the Parisian publishing agent Heinrich Albert Probst) (DBR29/30), "Zum Härtelschen Klavierbau seit 1807" (DBR29/30).

Ernst Kroker (1859‑1927)

He was a librarian and Leipzig city historian trained as an archaeologist and classical philologist. He wrote for Der Bär: "Der Grundbesitz der Breitkopfs" (DBR25).

Wilhelm Lütge (1901‑54)

He worked in the archives of the publishers Breitkopf & Härtel and published on music historical issues with a focus on the eighteenth century and Beethoven. For Der Bär he wrote: „Die Glasharmonika, das Instrument der Wertherzeit“ (DBR25), „Gelehrtenbriefe aus dem achtzehnten Jahrhundert“ (über Lessing, Herder, Adelung, Herbart, Jacob Grimm) (DBR26), „Waldmüllers Beethovenbild“ (DBR27), „Andreas und Nanette Streicher“ (DBR27), „Anton Reicha“ (DBR27), „Beethovens Leonoren-Ouvertüre Nr. 2“ (DBR27), „Bericht über ein neu aufgefundenes Manuskript, enthaltend 24 Lieder von Beethoven“ (DBR27).

Hermann Poppen (1885‑1956)

He was a Protestant church musician, trained in Heidelberg near Wolfrum, who from 1919 directed the Heidelberg Church Music Institute, which later became independent, and the Heidelberg Bach Choir. For Der Bär he wrote: „Vom Stil der neueren kirchlichen Chorgesangsmusik an Hand der Verlagswerke des Hauses Breitkopf & Härtel“, a eulogy to Arnold Mendelssohn (DBR26).

Herman Roth (1882‑1938)

He worked as a musicologist, music teacher, translator and critic, and taught at various music colleges. In Der Bär he published: Handel und Bach. Entwurf einer Antithese” (DBR26).

Eugen Schmitz (1882‑1959)

He was a musicologist trained by Sandberger and Kroyer, who worked as a music professor and critic in Dresden from 1915-39 and headed the Peters Music Library in Leipzig from 1939 to 1955. He was a member of the NSDAP and published in Rosenberg's journal Musik im Kriege. In Der Bär he was responsible for the introduction to Busoni's contribution to his Doctor Faustus score and for the critical statement that followed entitled: "Kritisches und Nachdenkliches" (DBR26).

Friedrich Schulze (1881‑1960)

He was a German historian and for many years director of the city history museum of the city of Leipzig. For DBR he wrote: "Studien zu Heinrich Marschners Aufenthalt in Leipzig" (DBR28).

Julius Vogel (1862‑1927)

He was an art historian and Goethe researcher and undertook for Der Bär the depiction of Goethe's relationships with the Breitkopf family during his student days in Leipzig (DBR25).

Ludwig Volkmann (1870‑1947)

He was a publisher trained in art history who worked scientifically throughout his life on the book trade and illustration. In 1894 he became a partner in the Breitkopf & Härtel publishing house and managed the publishing house until it was destroyed in the Second World War. For Der Bär he wrote: „Neues vom alten Breitkopf-Bär“ (DBR24), „Allaert van Everdingens Radierungen zu Reineke Fuchs. Zu Goethes Brief an Breitkopf vom 20. Februar 1782“ (DBR25), „Unsere Großmütter und Goethe“ (DBR25), „Goethe und die Breitkopfs auf der Bühne“ (DBR25).

This RIPM Index was produced from copies of the journal held by a private collector and the University of Maryland.