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Boosey & Hawkes, the largest specialist classical music publishing company in the world,
was founded in 1930 with the merger of two well-established English family businesses -
Boosey & Company and Hawkes & Son thus creating a company with an unrivalled catalogue
of music copyrights including the works of such distinguished 20th century composers
as Stravinsky, Bartók, Copland, Britten, Prokofieff, Strauss and Rachmaninoff.




Boosey & Company's history goes back to the 1760s when John Boosey founded a music
lending library in London. By pioneering inexpensive editions of the classics, the company
expanded rapidly, acquiring the rights to works by Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.




In the 1850s the company branched out into making brass and wind instruments.
1867 saw the launch of the renowned Boosey Ballad Concerts, including such favourites
as The Lost Chord by Sir Arthur Sullivan, Danny Boy and Abide with Me.
This success continued with the publication of works by Elgar and Vaughan Williams.
In 1892 Boosey & Company established an office in New York,
a business still flourishing today as Boosey & Hawkes Inc.




Hawkes & Son was founded in 1865 by William Henry Hawkes.
The company followed a rival course to Boosey & Company, concentrating on band
and orchestral music publishing, but also diversifying into the manufacture of instruments,
fittings and reeds. Over the next 60 years, the company continued to develop its publishing
activities.




Hawkes & Son's instrument factory in Edgware, north London, was built in 1925 and was
the manufacturing location for high quality brass instruments until
the operation was relocated to a modern facility in Hertfordshire in mid 2001.

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Following the 1930 merger, the new company rapidly became a significant force on
the international publishing scene. By this time Ralph Hawkes had acquired the agencies
of Belaieff, Editions Russes de Musique, Gutheil and Universal Edition.
Through these connections, prior to the Second World War, he became the publisher
of Bartók, Kodály and Delius, as well as signing the then unknown Benjamin Britten in 1935.
Hawkes moved to the USA during the war, adding Stravinsky, Copland and Martinu to the list.



Through his contacts, the London company signed a contract with Richard Strauss in 1943
for all his operatic works (outside Germany and Italy) and subsequently for all his late works.
Hawkes' final coup was to buy the Editions Russes and Gutheil catalogues in 1947,
thus securing many of the most important copyrights of the century, including in particular
works by Stravinsky, Prokofieff and Rachmaninoff.



As its publishing portfolio grew, Boosey & Hawkes added to its London and New York offices
an Australian company in 1934 (closed in 2004) and another in Germany in 1949.
In addition to the three existing affiliates there are now Boosey & Hawkes agencies
in 20 other countries.

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The company has continued to acquire the works of major 20th century composers
including Leonard Bernstein, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Elliott Carter, Louis Andriessen,
Steve Reich, H M Górecki, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, John Adams and Michael Nyman,
and a younger generation of composers for the 21st century including Unsuk Chin,
Magnus Lindberg, James MacMillan, Olga Neuwirth and Mark-Anthony Turnage.




In 1996, Boosey & Hawkes acquired the distinguished German publishing house,
Bote & Bock. A family-owned business which was founded in Berlin in 1838, Bote & Bock
has a fine catalogue of works by renowned figures such as Richard Strauss, Pietro Mascagni,
Max Reger, Boris Blacher, Gottfried von Einem and Isang Yun.




Bote & Bock's historical association with the music of Offenbach prompted the launch
of the Offenbach Edition Keck, an authoritative new edition of Offenbach's works
edited by Jean-Christophe Keck, which is now being employed in opera houses
around the world and has attracted numerous prizes for its publishing excellence.
New signings include contemporary composers Detlev Glanert and Helmut Oehring,
Brett Dean, Olga Neuwirth and Michel van der Aa.




Further catalogues acquired by Boosey & Hawkes in recent years include
Anton J. Benjamin in 2002, with its Simrock editions of Brahms and Dvorák,
and Tempo (Prague) in 2004, with its range of Czech music including
the children's opera Brundibár.

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There are more than 1900 Boosey & Hawkes archival images within the ArenaPAL Online Image Gallery. New images are uploaded on daily basis...

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