N. Simrock (in German Musikverlag N. Simrock, Simrock Verlag, or simply Simrock) was a German music publisher founded by Nikolaus Simrock which published many 19th-century German classical music composers. It was acquired in 1929 by Anton Benjamin.
The firm was founded in 1793 by Nikolaus Simrock in Bonn. 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 by the latter's son Fritz.Donald William Krummel and Stanley Sadie, Music Printing and Publishing, Norton/Grove handbooks in music, New York: Norton, 1990, , p. 107. His nephew Hans Simrock later ran the company, and in 1907 acquired another music publisher, Bartholf Senff of Leipzig.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 Beiträge zur Geschichte des Buchwesens 3 (1968) p. 204 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,The School Musician Director and Teacher 56 (1985) p. 42.Ludwig Finscher and Friedrich Blume, 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 HamburgKrummel and Sadie, p. 170. 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 Instrumentalist 47 (1992) pp. 5, 106. 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.Michael Freyhan, The Authentic Magic Flute Libretto: Mozart's Autograph Or the First Full Score Edition?, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow, 2009, , p. 159.
The company was the first publisher of the music of a veritable "Who's Who" of classical music composers, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (what must have been a hand-written copy of The Magic Flute),Freyhan, p. 68, note 51. Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven (13 first editions), Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn 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 and Paulus), Max Bruch (including his Violin Concerto No. 1), Antonín Dvořák, and Josef Suk.
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References
Musikverlag Simrock: Eine Auswahl der besten Werke. Catalogue. Berlin/Leipzig: N. Simrock Verlag, . Sieghard Brandenburg. "Die Gründungsjahre des Verlags N. Simrock in Bonn". Bonner Geschichtsblätter 29 (1977) 28–36