Jahrbuch. N. Simrock, G.M.B.H.

The Simrock Jahrbuch (Yearbook, RIPM code SJB) was published only three times, one volume each for the years 1928 and 1929 and then, after an interruption, one volume for the years 1930-34 in 1935. It was first published in Berlin (the headquarters of Simrock Verlag at the time of publication of the first two yearbooks) and then, after the relocation of the publishing house, in Leipzig, and it was printed by Oscar Brandstetter (1928), C.G. Röder (1929) and without indication of the printing house (1930-34) in Leipzig. In 1929, the publishing house, founded in Bonn in 1793 by Nikolaus Simrock and relocated to Berlin in 1870 by his grandson Fritz Simrock, ceased to exist as an independent company because it had been sold to the music publisher Anton J. Benjamin. It was able to continue working under the old name, but after 1933 it fell victim to the "Aryanization" of the Benjamin publishing house. The Simrock Yearbook had to be discontinued after the delayed publication of the third volume, although various references in contributions to the third volume indicate that further volumes were planned.

The first volume had 166 pages, the second 226, and the third 224. The front page, the table of contents and the list of plates with the illustrations were placed before or after the book on pages with (partly hidden) pagination in Roman numerals. Apart from two registers of the works published by N. Simrock in the previous year and of the performances of newer works published by N. Simrock in the period from July 1 of the year before last to June 30 of the previous year, there were no sections or subdivisions, just the continuous printing of contributions by various authors on topics related to music and publishing history. There was no advertising.

The editor Erich Hermann Müller (von Asow) (1829‑1964) was a music researcher and publicist with bibliographical, lexical, and editorial interests. He left Germany between 1933 and 1945 and edited the letters of various composers from Schütz to Reger, as well as the authentic catalogs of Mozart’s works (from his own hand) and that of his father Leopold (for the childhood works). For the management of the Simrock Verlag, he not only acted as editor of the three yearbooks but also wrote articles based on inspections of the Simrock archive: “Zur Geschichte des Hauses Simrock“ (SJB28), "Beethoven und Simrock" (SJB29) and "Der erste Brahms-Abend in Wien" (SJB30-34).

Wilhelm Altmann (1862‑1951) was a historian (with a special inclination to music history), editor, and librarian. In 1900 he was appointed Senior Library Councilor at the Royal Library, later the Prussian Library in Berlin, and headed its music department from 1915 to 1927. He demanded and promoted a system of obligatory copies for sheet music at a central office. He played violin and edited of handbooks for various genres of chamber music. In the Simrock yearbooks he wrote articles about “Max Bruch’s Beziehungen zu dem Verlag N. Simrock" (SJB28), "Antonin Dvořák im Verkehr mit Fritz Simrock" (SJB29), and in SJB30-34: "Eine vergessene Postkarte von Johannes Brahms" and "Neue violinpädagogische Literatur."

Max Chop (1862‑1929) was a journalist and music writer who lived in Neuruppin and Berlin. He wrote for SJB29 a summary of modern song writing, "Modernes Liedschaffen im Verlag N. Simrock" and from his estate the article "E. N. von Reznicek and N. Simrock" was published in SJB30-34.

Robert Lach (1874‑1958) was an ethnomusicologist and historian working in Vienna and, after a position as head of the music department of the Vienna City and State Library, held professorships for these subjects at the university and music academy. He belonged to an anti-Semitic secret clique and denounced and excluded his Jewish colleagues. For the SJB30-34 he contributed "Das Ethos in der Musik von Johannes Brahms."

Paul Mies (1889‑1976) was a musicologist and teacher who was born and worked in Cologne. After his doctorate, he worked as a teacher from 1919 to 1939 and after the Second World War as head of the department for school music at the Cologne Music Academy. Characterized by a wide range of interests, in the SJB he published two contributions on Brahms: “Aus Brahms’ Werkstatt. Vom Entstehen und Werden der Werke bei Brahms" (SJB28) and "Der kritische Rat der Freunde und die Veröffentlichung der Werke bei Brahms" (SJB29).

Alfred Orel (1889‑1967) was an Austrian musicologist trained by Adler, professor at the University of Vienna, head of the music department of the Vienna City and State Library, and worked as a Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Bruckner researcher and editor. Changed after the annexation of Austria to special new institutions created for him and by him with National Socialist objectives, he retired after 1945 due to the loss of his position as a private scholar but was still active in connection with the Salzburg Central Institute for Mozart Research. In SJB28 he published an article about “Johannes Brahms und Julius Allgeyer" and in SJB30-34 about "Johannes Brahms’ Musikbibliothek."

Otokar Šurek (dates unknown) was a Czech Dvořák researcher and published a contribution on Anton Dvořák's chamber music in SJB28 and in SJB30-34 on Dvořák‘s orchestral works.

The intention of publishing the yearbooks was to make a contribution to the historical reconstruction of part of the music history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries based on the editing practice of a major music publisher and (indirectly linked to this) also the performance practice in public and domestic musical life. The questions and problems associated with the first editions of works that are important today or even completely forgotten are developed from the point of view of the composer and the publisher on the basis of documented correspondence. The publication of correspondence, centered on Ludwig van Beethoven (commented by E. H. Müller von Asow), Johannes Brahms (Paul Mies), Antonin Dvořák (Wilhelm Altmann), Max Bruch (also by Wilhelm Altmann) and Max Reger (in an uncommented selection of letters in excerpts) as well as the counter-letters of the Simrock publishers of different generations illuminate the conditions under which musical works came into being from their artistic, production-technical, and commercial sides. The character dispositions of the letter writers involved are also revealed. In addition to evaluating the pool of letters from the archive of Simrock-Verlag, articles on the history of the work are provided on Brahms’ compositional sketches and his consultations with friends about the possibilities of editing his draft compositions (Paul Mies) as well as on the stages and genres of Dvořák’s chamber and orchestral music (Otokar Šurek). The promotion of young contemporary composers by the Simrock publishing house is documented by articles about Walter Niemann, Paul Kletzki, Paul Graener, Hans Gál and Theodor Blumer, Heinrich Noren, Erwin Lendvai and E. N. v. Reznicek or summaries about contemporary song creation based on composers who have been forgotten today and their publications or a summary about contemporary Czech composers. An organological contribution by Hans Dagobert Bruger deals with the possibilities of playing old lute music on modern replicas.

The justification of the publishing decisions about the quality and distribution worthiness of the works of certain authors (on which genres the publishing and public interest was concentrated and for which audience groups the production was made) provides information about trends and the real, sometimes disconcertingly poor sales opportunities for works that are part of the canon today, when they were created and when they first attempted to establish themselves. This applies to the sometimes astonishingly low level of interest on the part of the majority of practicing musicians in the printed original editions of the new works by Beethoven, Dvořák, and Bruch (especially the scores), but also in the arrangements in the form of piano reductions and arrangements. This raises the question of what the musicians mainly played while these composers were composing their works. The reported successes of first and subsequent performances of later classic works of musical art were not initially reflected in the corresponding sales figures for sheet music editions. While the Simrock publishers in the nineteenth century were willing to take risks and promoted still unknown new music, in the first third of the twentieth century a conservative, tradition-dependent, experiment-disdaining attitude became noticeable, which the musical avant-garde was rigorously ruled out from the publications of the publisher. The contemporary authors of the twentieth century who received funding can all be attributed to what is known as “moderate modernism,” whose apologetics do not shy away from polemics, à la Pfitzner against the impotence of the innovators.