Carl Fischer Music
Encyclopedia
Carl Fischer Music is a major publisher of sheet music
based in New York City
that has been in business since 1872. As one of the few remaining family-owned music publishers, it supplies educational materials to professional and beginning musicians of all ages, as well as new music works.
Notable authors and composers published by Carl Fischer Music include Henry Brant
, Sebastian Currier
, Jason Eckardt
, Mischa Elman, Carl Flesch
, Lukas Foss
, Daron Hagen
, Howard Hanson
, Jascha Heifetz
, Lee Hyla
, Norman Dello Joio
, Fritz Kreisler
, Janice Tucker Rhoda, Eric Rosenblith
, John Phillip Sousa and Anton Webern
.
Carl Fischer (1849-1923), the founder of the firm bearing his name, was by training and profession a musician and manufacturer of musical instruments. Shortly after arriving from his native Germany, he opened a musical instrument store in 1872 on East Fourth Street in New York City, the city's cultural center. He supplied musicians with sheet music and instruments from Europe while supplementing his own income with professional engagements as a violinist in several orchestras and bands throughout the city. These experiences made him aware of the lack of printed music available for the many orchestras and bands of different sizes and instrumentations that existed at the time. At first, he reproduced such arrangements in longhand and, somewhat later, adopted the lithographic process. In adding the services of an engraver and an arranger to his staff, Fischer became a music publisher.
As the demand for printed music increased, Fischer expanded his offerings, publishing works of then-fashionable composers such as Edwin Franko Goldman
, Victor Herbert
, Arthur Pryor
, Leopold Godowsky
and John Philip Sousa
. By the turn of the 20th century, the firm had begun offering material for music education and performance in the areas of orchestra, band, choral, piano, and other instrumental music -- among them, the first concert band work published in America. Resultantly, Fischer's company increasingly concentrated on publishing.
Three of Carl Fischer's sons, Carl, Jr., Walter S. and George, helped him run the business during this period. Walter continued to do so after the deaths of George in 1909 and Carl, Jr. in 1912, becoming president of the company after his father's death in 1923. That same year, the firm moved its New York operations to a company-owned twelve-story building on Cooper Square, where it remained until 1999. In 1939, Walter Fischer asked his son-in-law Frank Hayden Connor, who had worked in the banking industry, to become his assistant.
The company's visibility and prestige grew under Walter Fischer's influence. In 1924, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
(ASCAP), which at the time mainly licensed popular music presentations, invited Fischer to bring his company's concert music titles to be part of their group. Many works by distinguished American composers were added to Carl Fischer Music's catalog at this time, including those by Howard Hanson
, Norman Dello Joio
, Lukas Foss
, Peter Mennin
, and Douglas Moore. Music education offerings, especially ones serving the needs of school music programs, increased in number. During the 1930s and 1940s, well-known violinists such as Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifitz, Fritz Kreisler
, and Joseph Szigeti
contributed compositions to the company's catalog that would subsequently become standard repertoire items for that instrument.
In 1941 the company falsely copyrighted an Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda
" written by Banjo Patterson in 1887 causing a minor scandal.
Upon Walter Fischer's death in 1946, Connor became the firm's president. An uptown retail store branch featuring a concert hall was opened at 165 West 57th Street. This five-story building was the largest music store in New York City until it was sold in 1959 to a concert bureau following the announcement that Carnegie Hall would be replaced by an office building.
Connor re-established contact with major European publishers and subsequently extended the activities of the company both nationally and internationally. During that period, Carl Fischer Music represented Oxford University Press
, Paterson's of London, Henle Verlag of Germany, and several other European publishers in the U.S. Similar steps were taken to represent certain American editions, and the firm became the sole selling agent for the publications of Cundy-Bettoney, William Pond, and R.D. Row, among others. Among the domestic catalogs acquired or represented by the firm, Eastman School of Music
(containing music by then-director Howard Hanson), the Fillmore Music catalog (containing Henry Fillmore's marches), and the Charles Foley catalog (containing the compositions of Fritz Kreisler
) were most noteworthy. Notable additions to the catalog during the 1960s and 1970s included previously unknown works by Austrian composer Anton Webern
, deriving from the composer's original manuscripts that had been hidden during the war and discovered by musicologist Hans Moldenhauer.
In 1977, five years after the one hundredth anniversary of the firm, Frank Hayden Connor died and was succeeded by his son Walter Fischer Connor, who became President and Chairman of the Board of Carl Fischer Music, as well as Chairman of Boosey & Hawkes
, a noteworthy London-based international music publishing and musical instrument company, where Carl Fischer Music had acquired a substantial interest.
Under Walter Connor's leadership, Carl Fischer Music further expanded its involvement in music distribution and retail sales with its New York City store and through branches in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston while continuing the firm's commitment to music education. The company developed the Rack Sense program, the first computerized system for stocking music stores with high-turnover music print product. Since the 1980s, the works of many noteworthy concert music composers were taken on, including those by Henry Brant
, Michael Colgrass
, Sebastian Currier
, Jason Eckardt
, Daron Hagen
, Lee Hyla
, and David Maslanka
.
In June 1999, Carl Fischer Music moved into new corporate headquarters on the 8th Floor of the Bayard-Condict Building
at 65 Bleecker Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Administration, Editorial, Production, Copyright, Royalty, Sales, Concert Music, and Marketing staff are located here, while Order Fulfillment and Distribution are handled from a distribution center located at the Theodore Presser Company
in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Carl Fischer Music purchased Theodore Presser Company in 2004.
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
that has been in business since 1872. As one of the few remaining family-owned music publishers, it supplies educational materials to professional and beginning musicians of all ages, as well as new music works.
Notable authors and composers published by Carl Fischer Music include Henry Brant
Henry Brant
Henry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.- Biography :...
, Sebastian Currier
Sebastian Currier
Sebastian Currier is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007.-Life:...
, Jason Eckardt
Jason Eckardt
Jason Eckardt is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern.-Compositions:...
, Mischa Elman, Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...
, Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
, Daron Hagen
Daron Hagen
Daron Aric Hagen , is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.- Early life and education :...
, Howard Hanson
Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
, Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
, Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla is an American classical music composer.Lee Hyla was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and grew up in Greencastle, Indiana...
, Norman Dello Joio
Norman Dello Joio
- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...
, Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
, Janice Tucker Rhoda, Eric Rosenblith
Eric Rosenblith
Eric Rosenblith, is an Austrian-born American violinist. He is the former concertmaster of the Indianapolis and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras, and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia...
, John Phillip Sousa and Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
.
History
As the demand for printed music increased, Fischer expanded his offerings, publishing works of then-fashionable composers such as Edwin Franko Goldman
Edwin Franko Goldman
Edwin Franko Goldman is one of America's prominent band composers of the early 20th century. He composed over 150 works, more notably his marches. He is known for founding the renowned Goldman Band of New York City and the American Bandmasters Association...
, Victor Herbert
Victor Herbert
Victor August Herbert was an Irish-born, German-raised American composer, cellist and conductor. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is best known for composing many successful operettas that premiered on Broadway from the 1890s to World War I...
, Arthur Pryor
Arthur Pryor
Arthur Willard Pryor was a trombone virtuoso, bandleader, and soloist with the Sousa Band. In later life, he was an American Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served on the Monmouth County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders during the 1930s.Pryor was born on the second floor of...
, Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky
Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...
and John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....
. By the turn of the 20th century, the firm had begun offering material for music education and performance in the areas of orchestra, band, choral, piano, and other instrumental music -- among them, the first concert band work published in America. Resultantly, Fischer's company increasingly concentrated on publishing.
Three of Carl Fischer's sons, Carl, Jr., Walter S. and George, helped him run the business during this period. Walter continued to do so after the deaths of George in 1909 and Carl, Jr. in 1912, becoming president of the company after his father's death in 1923. That same year, the firm moved its New York operations to a company-owned twelve-story building on Cooper Square, where it remained until 1999. In 1939, Walter Fischer asked his son-in-law Frank Hayden Connor, who had worked in the banking industry, to become his assistant.
The company's visibility and prestige grew under Walter Fischer's influence. In 1924, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them...
(ASCAP), which at the time mainly licensed popular music presentations, invited Fischer to bring his company's concert music titles to be part of their group. Many works by distinguished American composers were added to Carl Fischer Music's catalog at this time, including those by Howard Hanson
Howard Hanson
Howard Harold Hanson was an American composer, conductor, educator, music theorist, and champion of American classical music. As director for 40 years of the Eastman School of Music, he built a high-quality school and provided opportunities for commissioning and performing American music...
, Norman Dello Joio
Norman Dello Joio
- Life :He was born Nicodemo DeGioio in New York City to Italian immigrants. He began his musical career as organist and choir director at the Star of the Sea Church on City Island in New York at age 14. His father was an organist, pianist, and vocal coach and coached many opera stars from the...
, Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss
Lukas Foss was a German-born American composer, conductor, and pianist.-Music career:He was born Lukas Fuchs in Berlin, Germany in 1922. His father was the philosopher and scholar Martin Fuchs...
, Peter Mennin
Peter Mennin
Peter Mennin was an American composer and teacher. He directed the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, then for many years ran the Juilliard School, succeeding William Schuman in this role...
, and Douglas Moore. Music education offerings, especially ones serving the needs of school music programs, increased in number. During the 1930s and 1940s, well-known violinists such as Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifitz, Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
, and Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti
Joseph Szigeti was a Hungarian violinist.Born into a musical family, he spent his early childhood in a small town in Transylvania. He quickly proved himself to be a child prodigy on the violin, and moved to Budapest with his father to study with the renowned pedagogue Jenő Hubay...
contributed compositions to the company's catalog that would subsequently become standard repertoire items for that instrument.
In 1941 the company falsely copyrighted an Australian folk song "Waltzing Matilda
Waltzing Matilda
"Waltzing Matilda" is Australia's most widely known bush ballad. A country folk song, the song has been referred to as "the unofficial national anthem of Australia"....
" written by Banjo Patterson in 1887 causing a minor scandal.
Upon Walter Fischer's death in 1946, Connor became the firm's president. An uptown retail store branch featuring a concert hall was opened at 165 West 57th Street. This five-story building was the largest music store in New York City until it was sold in 1959 to a concert bureau following the announcement that Carnegie Hall would be replaced by an office building.
Connor re-established contact with major European publishers and subsequently extended the activities of the company both nationally and internationally. During that period, Carl Fischer Music represented Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, Paterson's of London, Henle Verlag of Germany, and several other European publishers in the U.S. Similar steps were taken to represent certain American editions, and the firm became the sole selling agent for the publications of Cundy-Bettoney, William Pond, and R.D. Row, among others. Among the domestic catalogs acquired or represented by the firm, Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
(containing music by then-director Howard Hanson), the Fillmore Music catalog (containing Henry Fillmore's marches), and the Charles Foley catalog (containing the compositions of Fritz Kreisler
Fritz Kreisler
Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...
) were most noteworthy. Notable additions to the catalog during the 1960s and 1970s included previously unknown works by Austrian composer Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
, deriving from the composer's original manuscripts that had been hidden during the war and discovered by musicologist Hans Moldenhauer.
In 1977, five years after the one hundredth anniversary of the firm, Frank Hayden Connor died and was succeeded by his son Walter Fischer Connor, who became President and Chairman of the Board of Carl Fischer Music, as well as Chairman of Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and wind musical instruments....
, a noteworthy London-based international music publishing and musical instrument company, where Carl Fischer Music had acquired a substantial interest.
Under Walter Connor's leadership, Carl Fischer Music further expanded its involvement in music distribution and retail sales with its New York City store and through branches in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston while continuing the firm's commitment to music education. The company developed the Rack Sense program, the first computerized system for stocking music stores with high-turnover music print product. Since the 1980s, the works of many noteworthy concert music composers were taken on, including those by Henry Brant
Henry Brant
Henry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.- Biography :...
, Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass is an American-born Canadian musician, composer, and educator.His musical career began in Chicago as a jazz musician . He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in percussion performance and composition, including studies with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival...
, Sebastian Currier
Sebastian Currier
Sebastian Currier is an American composer of music for chamber groups and orchestras. He was also a professor of music at Columbia University from 1999 to 2007.-Life:...
, Jason Eckardt
Jason Eckardt
Jason Eckardt is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern.-Compositions:...
, Daron Hagen
Daron Hagen
Daron Aric Hagen , is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.- Early life and education :...
, Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla
Lee Hyla is an American classical music composer.Lee Hyla was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and grew up in Greencastle, Indiana...
, and David Maslanka
David Maslanka
David Maslanka is a U.S. composer who writes for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music and symphony orchestra....
.
Restructuring for the 21st Century
Walter Connor died on January 5, 1996. Three years later, F. Hayden Connor, the great grandson of founder Carl Fischer, acquired the company. Veteran publisher and musician Sandy Feldstein was named company president, superseded by Lauren Keiser.In June 1999, Carl Fischer Music moved into new corporate headquarters on the 8th Floor of the Bayard-Condict Building
Bayard-Condict Building
The Bayard-Condict Building at 65 Bleecker Street between Broadway and Lafayette Street, at the head of Crosby Street in the NoHo neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City is the only work of architect Louis Sullivan in New York City. It was built between 1897 and 1899 in the Chicago School style;...
at 65 Bleecker Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Administration, Editorial, Production, Copyright, Royalty, Sales, Concert Music, and Marketing staff are located here, while Order Fulfillment and Distribution are handled from a distribution center located at the Theodore Presser Company
Theodore Presser Company
The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and formerly based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music publisher in the United States.-Theodore Presser:...
in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Carl Fischer Music purchased Theodore Presser Company in 2004.