A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Haslinger

by Carl Ferdinand Pohl

HASLINGER. A well-known music firm in Vienna, originally the 'Bureau des arts et d'industrie,' next S. A. Steiner & Co., and since 1826 Tobias Haslinger. Tobias, born March 1, 1787, at Zell, in Upper Austria, was an energetic intelligent man of business, on intimate terms with the best musicians of Vienna. Beethoven and he were in constant communication, and the numerous letters to him from the great composer, which have been preserved (probably only a small proportion of those which were written), each with its queer joke or nickname, show the footing they were on—Adjutant, or Adjutanterl, or Bestes kleines Kerlchen, or Tobiasserl, or Tobias Peter Philipp, or Monsieur de Haslinger, Général Musicien et Général Lieutenant—such are the various queer modes in which Beethoven addresses him. In a letter to Schott (Nohl, No. 328) he sketches a comic biography of his friend, with illustrative canons. Another canon, 'O Tobias Dominus Haslinger,' occurs in a letter of Sept. 10, 1821; and one of his very last notes contains a flourish on his name, added, with the signature, by the hand of the master:—

Haslinger prepared a complete copy of Beethoven's compositions in full score, beautifully written by a single copyist. This was purchased by the Archduke Rudolph, and bequeathed by him to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, in whose library it now is. He was one of the 36 torch-bearers who surrounded the bier of his great friend, and it fell to his lot to hand the three laurel wreaths to Hummel, by whom they were placed on the coffin before the closing of the grave. He died at Vienna, June 18, 1842, and the business came into the hands of his son Karl [App. p.669 "date of birth June 11, 1816"], a pupil of Czerny and Seyfried, a remarkable pianoforte-player, and an industrious composer. His soirées were well known and much frequented, and many a young musician has made his first appearance there. He died Dec. 26, 1868, leaving as many as 100 published works of all classes and dimensions. The concern was carried on by his widow till Jan. 1875, when it was bought by the firm of Schlesinger of Berlin, by whom it is maintained under the style of 'Carl Haslinger, quondam Tobias.' Among the works published by this establishment may be named Schubert's 'Winterreise' and 'Schwanengesang'; Beethoven's Symphonies 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, Overtures to Coriolan, Ruins of Athens, op. 115, King Stephen, Leonora 'No. 1,' Violin Concerto, Battle Symphony, P.F. Concertos 1, 3, 4, 5, Trio in B♭, Sonatas and Variations, Liederkreis, etc.; Spohr's Symphonies 4 (Weihe der Töne) and 5; Liszt's Concerto in E♭; Moscheles' ditto 2, 3, 5, 6, 7; Hummel's ditto in C, G, A minor, and A♭, 4 Sonatas, etc. The dance music of Lanner and the Strausses forms an important part of the repertoire of the firm, which under the new proprietorship has received a great impulse.

[ C. F. P. ]