Artaria

Free public domain sheet music from IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library

History

Artaria was Vienna's first major publishing house. The firm was founded in 1765, in Mainz, but moved to Vienna in 1766.
The firm was founded by Carlo Timoteo and Francesco Artaria with their uncle Giovanni Casimiro, as Giovanni Artaria & Co. After the move, they became Artaria & Comp. in 1771. Giovanni's son Pasquale also entered the business, and succeeded his father as manager of the company. Prints were imported from London, Amsterdam, and Paris. Anton Huberty provided an initial investment. He moved to Vienna in 1777, and bevame engraver for Artaria.
Ignazio Artaria also entered the business. After the death of Pasquale, Domenico II also decided to enter the business, and in the same year (1785), Artaria started to engrave its own plates, at first made of pewter. When the publisher Torricella was outstripped, Artaria aquired close to 1,000 plates and the rights from them.
Many publications were transferred from Hofmeister to Artaria, however the war created a crisis, which hurt business immensely. The firm further divided itself up, and quickly fragmented. Eventually, competition, such as Diabelli, Mechetti and Haslinger overtook the ageing firm. Although, technically, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österrreich, was distributed by them (the publisher being Österreichischer Bundesverlag), the firm basically ended in 1858.
Artaria was not only a music publisher. It also dealt in art and geography. Indeed, its reputation as an art dealer eclipsed it musical significance for quite some time, mainly early on. However, they were absolute geniuses at music publication, contacting Haydn as early as 1779, and published a set of his piano sonatas - as plate No.7. In 1781, they were publishing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works - they were to publish 83 first editions of his music. Beethoven was published by them as early as 1793, and they continued to be his publisher until Op.8. Other composers represented included Boccherini, Gluck, Clementi, and Salieri.

Editions

• Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österrreich (1894-1918)

Plate Numbers

Plate	Composer	Work	Year
7	Haydn	Piano Sonatas 20, 35-39	1780
59	Mozart	6 String Quartets Dedicated to Haydn	1785
2060	Beethoven	Cello Sonata No.3, Op.69	(ca.1815)