Artaria

History

Domenico Artaria (1765-1823)

Mozart string quartet 1st ed cover

Mozart piano quartet 1st ed cover

Artaria was Vienna's first major music publishing house, operating from 1778 to about 1830.

It was founded in Mainz, the home of Schott, founded in 1770. The firm was first a bookstore and music shop, started in 1765 by cousins Carlo Timoteo (1747-1808) and Francesco Artaria (1744-1808) with their uncle Giovanni Casimiro (1725-1797), as Giovanni Artaria & Co.. However, Artaria soon moved to Vienna (1766) and the name was changed to Artaria & Comp. (1771).

Giovanni's son Pasquale (1755-1785) soon entered the business, and succeeded his father as manager of the company. Printed music was soon being imported from London, Amsterdam, and Paris for the growing appetites of musicians in Vienna. The Parisian music publisher Anton Huberty provided an initial investment. Moving to Vienna in 1777, Huberty established his own engraving and printing firm, which served as Artaria's impetus to enter the publishing field. The first Artaria imprint appeared on August 12, 1778. Huberty served as primary engraver until his death in early 1791.

By 1780, Francesco's brother Ignazio Artaria (1757-1820) entered the business. After the death of Pasquale, his brother Domenico (1765-1823) also joined, and in the same year (1785), Artaria started to engrave its own plates, at first made of pewter. Artaria's expansion was rapid to the point that their chief competitor Christoph Torricella was soon outstripped and closed his shop. Artaria acquired close to 1,000 plates along with the publishing rights from the subsequent public auction on August 12, 1786.

The following decade (1790s) saw two new partners enter the firm's leadership: Carlo's brother-in-law Giovanni Cappi in 1792, whose nephew Pietro also apprenticed at the firm; and Tranquillo Mollo (1793). During this period, many publications were transferred from Hofmeister to Artaria. The inevitable disagreements among five partners along with the financial difficulties generated by the Napoleonic wars created a crisis, which hurt business immensely. Eventually, competition, such as Diabelli, Mechetti and Tobias Haslinger overtook the ageing firm. Practically speaking, music publishing ceased around 1830, and in fact, Diabelli bought the music publishing firm in the 1830s. Although, technically, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österrreich, was distributed by them (the publisher being Österreichischer Bundesverlag), the firm basically ended in 1858. However the name continued as a map-publisher into the early 20th century.

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, we can summarize its achievements as follows: Artaria was the major publisher of the Viennese Classical composers (1780-1820). They energetically sought out high quality works; for example, contacting Haydn as early as 1779, and publishing a set of his piano sonatas - as plate No.7. By 1781, they were publishing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's works, starting around K.300, and ultimately issuing 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 (1797). Other composers represented included Boccherini, Gluck, Clementi, and Salieri.

Editions

• Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österrieich' (1894-1918)

Imprints, Addresses, Agencies

Imprints

• Artaria et Cie.
• Artaria & Co.
• Artaria Kompagnie
• Artaria e Comp.

Plate Numbers

IMSLP Entries

References

• 1. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie.

New York and London: Macmillan Publications, 1980.

Authority control

VIAF (Artaria & Co.)

Links

• Scores published by Artaria