- Oliver Ditson
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Portrait of Oliver Ditson, 19th c.
Oliver Ditson (1811-1888) was an American businessman and founder of Oliver Ditson and Company, one of the major music publishing houses of the late 19th century. Ditson began his business with Samuel H. Parker as the Parker and Ditson company in Boston, Massachusetts, then bought Parker out in 1842, acquiring the Oliver Ditson and Company moniker in 1857 when he began collaborating with John C. Haynes on what would become the John C. Haynes & Co..
Ditson's company published the first American edition of Haydn's The Creation, "Jingle Bells" and "Darling Nelly Gray", as well as most of the works of the Hutchinson Family - though Ditson refused to publish "Get Off the Track" due to its abolitionist sentiment.
In 1858, Ditson purchased Dwight's Journal of Music, a serious musical journal.
During the American Civil War, Ditson released a number of popular songs, including "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground".
Theodore Presser purchased the Ditson catalogue in 1931.
Contents
Published by Ditson
- Levina Buoncuore Urbino. Biographical sketches of eminent musical composers. Boston: Oliver Ditson, 1876 Google books
Gallery
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1854
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Former Oliver Ditson Company building in Roxbury, Massachusetts, now vacant
References
- Cornelius, Steven (2004). Music of the Civil War Era. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0313320810.
- John Shepherd, David Horn, Dave Laing, Paul Oliver and Peter Wicke (eds.), ed (2003). Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1: Media, Industry and Society. London: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-6321-5.
External links
Categories:- 1811 births
- 1888 deaths
- American music publishers (people)
- People from Boston, Massachusetts
- 19th-century American people
- 19th century in Boston, Massachusetts
- Cultural history of Boston, Massachusetts
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