N. Simrock (in German Musikverlag N. Simrock, Simrock Verlag, or simply Simrock) was a German music publisher founded by

Nikolaus Simrock Nikolaus Simrock (23 August 1751 in Mainz – 12 June 1832 in Bonn) was a German horn player at the court of the Elector of Cologne in Bonn and a music publisher. He was a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and founder of the N. Simrock music publi ...

which published many 19th-century German classical music composers. It was acquired in 1929 by Anton Benjamin. The firm was founded in 1793 by

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

. Simrock had been a close friend to Beethoven his whole life. It was expanded by his son Peter Joseph in the 19th century, and in 1870 moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

by the latter's son

Fritz Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin a ...

. His nephew Hans Simrock later ran the company, and in 1907 acquired another music publisher, Bartholf Senff of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. Otto Biba, "Die Simrocks—Verleger für Beethoven wie für Brahms", in ''Johannes Brahms und Bonn'', ed. Martella Gutiérrez-Denhoff, Bonn: Stadt Bonn, Beethoven-Haus, 1997,
p. 89
In 1911 the company merged with Albert Ahn's publishing house to form Ahn & Simrock, headquartered in Bonn and Berlin, but later separated from it. In 1929 it was sold to the Leipzig publisher Anton J. Benjamin,

Ludwig Finscher Ludwig Finscher (14 March 193030 June 2020) was a German musicologist. He was a professor of music history at the University of Heidelberg from 1981 to 1995 and editor of the encyclopedia ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. He is respecte ...

and

Friedrich Blume Friedrich Blume (5 January 1893, in Schlüchtern, Hesse-Nassau – 22 November 1975, in Schlüchtern) was professor of musicology at the University of Kiel from 1938 to 1958. He was a student in Munich, Berlin and Leipzig, and taught in the las ...

, ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart: allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik'', Part 2, Volume 15, Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2006,
p. 837
which was re-established in 1951 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and acquired by Boosey & Hawkes in 2002. Many of the company's archives and plates were lost in the Second World War and had to be reconstructed by reproducing old editions. The remaining archives were mostly held in what is now the Saxon State Archive in Leipzig, but some material was dispersed in the 1990s and early 2000s. The company was the first publisher of the music of a veritable "Who's Who" of classical music composers, including

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...

(what must have been a hand-written copy of ''

The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that in ...

''), Joseph Haydn,

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

(13 first editions), Robert Schumann (including his Third Symphony), Johannes Brahms,Brahms' letters to Fritz Simrock were published in 1917–19; Peter Schmitz, ''Johannes Brahms und der Leipziger Musikverlag Breitkopf & Härtel'', Abhandlungen zur Musikgeschichte 20, Göttingen: V & R, 2009,
p. 21 and note 23
Felix Mendelssohn (such as his oratorios ''

Elias Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ‎ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several h ...

'' and '' Paulus''),

Max Bruch Max Bruch (6 January 1838 – 2 October 1920) was a German Romantic composer, violinist, teacher, and conductor who wrote more than 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a prominent staple of the standard ...

(including his Violin Concerto No. 1), Antonín Dvořák, and Josef Suk.

Notes

References

* * ''Musikverlag Simrock: Eine Auswahl der besten Werke''. Catalogue. Berlin/Leipzig: N. Simrock Verlag, 913 *

Sieghard Brandenburg Sieghard Brandenburg (21 January 1938 – 18 December 2015) was a German musicologist, who stood out especially as a Beethoven researcher. Life Born in Bad Frankenhausen, Brandenburg studied music (main subject oboe), musicology and mathematics ...

. "Die Gründungsjahre des Verlags N. Simrock in Bonn". ''Bonner Geschichtsblätter 29 (1977) 28–36 * {{Authority control Music publishing companies of Germany German companies established in 1793 Publishing companies established in 1793 Mass media in Hamburg