A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Music-Printing

by Victor de Pontigny

MUSIC-PRINTING. There are several ways in which an unlimited number of copies of designs or characters may be produced. If a block of wood or metal is cut away so as to leave in relief the required shapes of the characters, then by inking the raised surface an impression is easily obtained on paper. A great improvement on such block -printing was effected by making each letter a separate type in cast metal, so that the types might be used over and over again for different works. The converse of surface printing is copper-plate printing: here the design is engraved in intaglio on a sheet of metal, and the ink is contained in the sunken lines of the engraving and not on the surface of the plate. A third way is by lithography, in which characters are drawn with peculiar greasy pencils on the surface of certain porous stones. The stone being wetted, the ink is applied; and it adheres to the drawing, but refuses the stone. All these methods have been applied to the printing of music.

I. Block-printing was of course the earliest plan adopted, and the oldest known example is a book with Gregorian notes printed at Augsburg by Hans Froschauer in 1473.^[1] A little later, Gregorian music was printed by types, at two printings, as in a missal published by Oct. Scotus (Venice, 1482), in the possession of Alfred Littleton, Esq. Wenssler and Kilchen, of Basle, in 1488, produced the 'Agenda parochialium,' and in 1492 Ratdolt, probably at Augsburg, a missal. In these the stave-lines were red and the notes black, all being from type, but at two printings, one for the stave and another for the notes. Figurated or florid song, however, presented greater difficulties to the type printer. Block-printing therefore continued to be employed for the musical portions of such books as the 'Musices Opusculum' of Nicolaus Burtius, printed at Bologna in 1487, by Ugo de Rugeriis, in open lozenge-shaped notes; and the 'Practica Musicæ' of Franchinus Gafforius, printed at Milan, 1492. Even as late as 1520, Conrad Peutinger published at Augsburg a collection of motets for five voices in wood-engraving.^[2] On the following page we give a facsimile from Burtius's work.

Meanwhile Ottaviano dei Petrucci (born at Fossombrone, 1466) so advanced the art that, practically speaking, he may be considered as the inventor of printing florid song with moveable types. He was settled in Venice, and there produced his first work, a collection of 96 songs, in 1501. Another of his publications appeared in 1503, and is a collection of masses by Pierre de la Rue, a copy of which may be seen in the British Museum. The stave lines and the notes are produced at two separate printings; the lines being unbroken and perfectly continuous, and the notes set up in moveable types. The annexed specimen gives a tolerable idea of the effect. The only objection to this system was the expense of the double printing;

and this was overcome in 1507 by Erhard Oeglin of Augsburg, who printed both stave and notes simultaneously, entirely superseding Petrucci's method. Schoffer at Mainz did the same in 1511, and so did the Gardano family at Venice from 1536 for about a century and a half. Palestrina's Masses were printed in parts at Rome in 1572, with a coarse but very legible type. And the process used at the present day is pretty nearly the same, only greatly improved in all its details.

Page (Tractatus 2dus p. 76) from the 'Opusculum' of Burtius (Burzio),
in the Library of A. H. Littleton, Esq.

In England the first known attempt at Music-printing is in Higden's Policronicon, printed at Westminster in 1495 by Wynken de Worde. The characters (see reduced fac-simile annexed) represent the consonances of Pythagoras. This appears to have been set up piecemeal and not engraved on a solid wood-block. It is however the only bit of music in the book. There is a mistake in the double-octave, which has one note more than the proper interval. In the first edition of this work, printed by Caxton 1482, a space was left for the musical characters to be filled in by hand. Both editions are in the British Museum. In Merbecke's 'Boke of Common Praier noted' (Grafton, London, 1550) the four lines of the stave are continuous and not made up of small pieces, and are printed in red ink; the square notes are black and appear to be each a separate type. Only four sorts of notes are used, and are thus explained in a memorandum by the printer. 'The first note is a strene^[3] note and is a breve; the second is a square note and is a semybreve; the third is a pycke and is a mynymme; the fourth is a close, and is only used at the end of a verse, etc.' A book in the British Museum (Music Catalogue, C31b; 'Book'), proves that florid music was printed in England in 1530. It is the bass part of a collection of 20 songs, and is attributed to Wynkyn de Worde, the successor of Caxton. The typography is identical with that of Petrucci, already mentioned as being produced by means of two impressions. John Day of Aldersgate, in 1560, published the Church Service in four and three parts in an improved style of typography, and in 1562 the whole Book of Psalms. And Thomas Vautrollier in 1575 published the Cantiones of Tallis and Byrd under a patent from Queen Elizabeth, the first of the kind granting a monopoly or sole right of printing music. To them succeeded Thomas Este—who changed his name to Snodham—John Windet, William Barley, and others who were the assignees of Byrd and Morley, under the patents respectively granted to them for the sole printing of music. In 1641 Edward Griffin of Paul's Alley, London, printed a collection of church music in score and parts selected by John Barnard, a minor canon of St. Paul's. The notes were of lozenge shape, and the stave lines not very well joined together, the whole being inelegant though very legible, after this fashion. But the expense of two printings was saved.

These men followed the practice of the foreign printers, and no improvement was made until the time of John Playford in the reign of Charles II. Until his time, the quavers and semiquavers, however numerous in succession, were all distinct; but in 1660 he introduced the 'new tied note,' forming them into groups of four or six. The Dutch, French, and Germans followed his example; but Marcello's Psalms, published at Venice in a splendid edition in 1724, were printed after the old manner. From the time of Charles II. round notes began to supersede the lozenge form both in writing and printing, and John Playford's 'Whole Book of Psalms' (about 1675) was printed in the new character.

As regards France, Fournier ('Traité historique et critique sur 1'origine et les progrès des caracteres de fonte pour l'impression de la musique,' Berne, 1765) says that Pierre Hautin of Paris made the first punches for printing music about the year 1525. The notes and the stave were represented on the punch, consequently the whole was printed at once. These types he used himself, as well as selling them to Pierre Attaignant and other printers. Hautin printed as late as 1576. Guillaume le Bé in 1544–5 engraved music types for printing first the lines and then the notes; but this inconvenient system was abandoned. Nicholas Duchemin printed music at one printing in the years 1550 to 1556. Robert Granjon printed music at Lyons about 1572. The works of Claude Le Jeune were printed in France by Pierre Ballard in 1603 and 1606; the beauty and elegance of the characters employed showing that the French had greatly the advantage of their neighbours. About this time also madrigals were printed at Antwerp by Phalesio, and sold at his shop, the sign of King David.

The above-named eminent house of Ballard in Paris was established in the middle of the 16th century by Robert Ballard and his son-in-law Adrien Le Roy, and continued from father to son for two centuries, enjoying a royal privilege or patent until the time of the Revolution of 1789. [See [[A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Ballard|vol. i. p. 129b; and vol. ii. p. 123a.]

Type music was greatly improved in the 18th century. The 'Musical Miscellany,' printed by John Watts, London 1729, has the stave lines fairly joined, although the notes are not elegant in form [App. p.727 "correct statement as to 'The Musical Miscellany,' as that was printed not from types, but from engraved blocks"]. Fournier (Paris 1766) published a 'Manuel typographique,' the musical specimens in which are very good and clear. But still finer are the types cut by J. M. Fleischman of Nuremberg in 1760. The stave and notes are equal to any plate-music for clearness and beauty. These types now belong to J. Enschede & Son of Haarlem. For Fougt's patent (1767) see Appendix. [App. p.727 "Henry Fougt's Patent, mentioned in vol. ii. p. 435b, of which the specification may be read in the Patent Office (No. 888, year 1767) states that the old 'choral' type consisted of the whole figure of the note with its tail and the five lines; but that in his system every note with its five lines is divided into five separate types. The modern system is therefore very similar to this."]

In 1755 Breitkopf of Leipzig effected improvements in the old system of types, which his son (in conjunction with his partner Härtel) carried still further. [See vol. i. 272, 273.] Gustav Schelter of Leipzig entirely reformed the system, while Carl Tauchnitz of Leipzig was the first to apply stereotype to music-notes.

Mr. Clowes, the eminent London printer, did much to improve music types. The 'Harmonicon' (1823–33), the 'Musical Library' (1834), and the 'Sacred Minstrelsy' (1835), are excellent specimens of the art, the stave lines being more perfectly united than before.

The late Professor Edward Cowper invented a beautiful but expensive process of printing music from the raised surface of copper or brass characters inserted in a wooden block, the stave lines being also of copper inserted in another block and printed separately from the notes. The words were set up in ordinary types, then stereotyped and inserted in grooves in one of the blocks. His patent is dated April 5, 1827, and numbered 5484.

In Scheurman's process (1856) the notes, set up in type, were impressed on a wax mould and the stave lines superadded to the same mould, from which a stereotype cast was taken. But the double operation was difficult, and the mould liable to damage; and the plan was abandoned.

The old system, however, of using separate types has been so much improved upon by Messrs. Novello & Co., Henderson, Rait, and Fenton, and other printers, and the stave lines are now so well joined, that the appearance and distinctness of type-music leave little to be desired. This result, as has been justly observed by Mr. Henderson, is due chiefly to the use of stereotype, which enables printers to employ the most perfect, and consequently very expensive, kind of types. If these were used to print a large edition, they would soon be damaged; and even if this were not the case, it would never pay the publisher to keep such a mass of type set up against the time when a fresh edition might be required. The types must be distributed and used for other works; and the expensive labour of setting up must be incurred afresh for each new edition. All this is avoided by taking a stereotype cast from the types, which can be done at a small cost, and kept in store to be printed from whenever there is afresh demand for copies. The type is then released, and serves over again for other works or other pages of the same work, retaining its sharpness unimpaired. Another advantage of stereotyping is that many little defects in the types can be remedied in the plate—greatly to the advantage of the impression.

An inspection of the following examples will shew how type-music is built up of many small parts. Thus the single quaver and its stave are composed of seven small pieces, which are dissected and shown separately in the second example. The same is done for the group of three quavers, which is made up of sixteen separate pieces.

II. The printing of music from engraved copper plates is supposed to have begun at Rome, where a collection of Canzonets—'Diletto spirituale'—was engraved by Martin van Buyten, and published by Simone Verovio in 1586, and subsequently books of airs, etc., composed by Kapsperger, dated 1604–1612. In France the great house of Ballard, already mentioned, began to use engraving towards the end of Louis XIV.'s reign; some of Lully's operas being printed from types and some from engraved copper-plates. The Germans of course practised the art, the most interesting specimen of which is a book of Clavierübung, or exercises, composed and engraved by the great John Sebastian Bach himself. In England the same process was used for a collection of pieces by Bull, Byrd, and Gibbons, entitled 'Parthenia,' engraved by Wm. Hole, and published in 1611; for single songs engraved by Thomas Cross before and after 1700; by Cluer for Handel's 'Suites de Pieces' and other music (1720 etc.), and for Dr. Croft's 'Musicus Apparatus Acaderaicus' (1713?), and 'Musica Sacra' (1724). [See Cross, Cluer, Croft, in vol. i.]

The process of scratching each note separately on the copper with a graver was obviously an expensive one; but the Dutch contrived to soften the metal so as to render it susceptible of an impression from the stroke of a hammer on a punch, the point of which had the form of a musical note—a method not only much cheaper, but also insuring greater uniformity of appearance; and accordingly they were very successful with their numerous publications from and after the year 1700. A punched copper-plate from Dublin, only about 40 years old, was shown at the Caxton Exhibition in 1877.

As early as 1710 it was found that pewter plates were cheaper and easier to stamp than copper. In London John Walsh and John Hare, Richard Mears, Cluer and Creake, Thomas Cross, junior, and William Smith (an apprentice of Walsh's) printed music from stamped pewter plates. These were very coarsely executed; but at length one Phillips, a Welshman, so improved the process that, according to Hawkins, music was scarcely anywhere so well printed as in England in his time.

This is the process that continues to be used to the present day, and by which such magnificent specimens as the editions of the Bachgesellschaft, and that of Palestrina (both by Breitkopfs of Leipzig), or the edition of Handel by Dr. Chrysander, are produced. Messrs. Novello & Co. have recently imported German workmen, and their edition of Mendelssohn's P.F. works in one volume (Christmas 1879), or the first publication of the Purcell Society, rival the best productions of Leipzig for clearness and elegance. In order to save the pewter plates from wear, it is now the custom to transfer an impression from the plate to a lithographic stone or to zinc, and then print copies at the lithographic press. This also enables the printer to use a better and blacker ink than if the plates themselves had to be printed from; but the impressions are liable to smudge, and are inferior in clearness to those from the plates, unless indeed these are engraved in a very superior style of sharpness. In Germany, zinc has of late been used instead of pewter: the punches make a clearer impression, and the plates allow of a larger number being printed without damage.

In estimating the relative merits of type and plate printing from a commercial point of view, it must be borne in mind that it is cheaper to engrave a pewter plate than to set up a page of type, but that the cost of printing from the plate is greater than from the types. If therefore a small number of copies only is required, say 1000, it is cheaper to engrave. But if several thousands are likely to be sold, then the type system is most profitable.

III. Lithography has in a few instances been used to multiply manuscript music, which is transferred to the stone from a paper copy written with a special ink. This may be useful when a few copies are wanted on an emergency, as any copyist would be able to write on the transfer paper. But by employing trained copyists, accustomed to write backwards, the music may be written at once on the stone; and in this way Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig have produced useful editions of Mozart's operas and other works, both notes and words being very clear and neat. Alfieri's edition of Palestrina (6 vols., Rome, 1841–45) is a splendid specimen of lithographed music.

For part of the above information the writer is indebted to a series of articles by Dr. Chryeander in the Musical Times of 1877.

[App. p.727 "A new process for printing music is that called 'Gravure Chimique,' examples of which have been occasionally seen in the French 'Figaro.' The music is first punched on a pewter plate in the ordinary way, from which a paper proof is taken and transferred to a zinc plate. Nitric acid is then applied, which dissolves the zinc where it is not protected by the ink, and leaves the notes in relief. This stereotype plate is then used to print from in the ordinary typographic press. Mr. Lefman, 57 Rue d'Hauteville, Paris, who kindly explained the process to the writer, also informed him that these clichés, of the ordinary music size, can be made for 50 francs (£2) each. [See also Scheurmann, vol. iii. p. 248.]

Mr. Augener, of Newgate Street, London, has produced some beautiful specimens of music-printing. The music is first punched on pewter plates in the usual way, and is then transferred to a stone, from which it is printed. The ornamental title-pages are equal to the finest copperplate engravings."]

[ V. de P. ]

1. The Mayence Psalter, now [App. p.727 "a copy of which is"] in the British Museum, is the oldest printed book known, with one exception. It was printed by Fust & Schoeffer at Mayence in 1457 in a fine large black-letter type, and on vellum. Where musical notes were required, the four lines of the stave were printed in red Ink, but the notes were inserted afterwards by hand. In a second edition, 1459, the lines were black. This cannot therefore be cited as an example of true music printing, any more than similar books in which the notes were added to the printed stave by means of inked stamps or punches worked by hand, called pattern printing.
2. See Eitner's Bibliographie,' p. 14. The illustrations to Ouliblchefs great work on Mozart (Moscow, 1843) are all cut in wood.
3. Strene, i.e. strained or stretched out, perhaps from its being the longest note used in chanting.