Carl Fischer Music

Carl Fischer Music is a major publisher of sheet music based in New York City. The family-owned company was briefly sold to Boosey & Hawkes in 1998, then bought back.

Carl Fischer Music looks back with pride with over 132 years of distinguished history as one of the few remaining family owned music publishers. The company looks forward to the challenges posed by changing technologies and tastes of consumers worldwide. Throughout the years, Carl Fischer Music has educated and inspired individuals to study and perform music though its new, innovative products as well as its solid back catalog. If you are a musician, there is a good chance that you have used Carl Fischer publications.

History

Carl Fischer (1849-1923), the founder of the firm bearing his name was by training and profession a musician and manufacturer of musical instruments. By temperament, he was a Lebenskunstler, that is to say, an architect of his own achievements.

Shortly after arriving from his native Germany, he opened a musical instrument store in 1872 on East Fourth Street in New York City, then the cultural center of New York. He supplied musicians with sheet music and instruments from Europe, while supplementing his own income with professional engagements as a violinist in several orchestras and bands throughout the city. These experiences made him particularly aware of the lack of printed music available for the many orchestras and bands of different sizes and instrumentations that existed at the time. At first, he reproduced such arrangements, by permission, in longhand and, somewhat later, he adopted the lithographic process. Soon, by adding the services of an engraver and an arranger to his staff, Carl Fischer launched himself into the music publishing business.

As the demand for his printed music increased, so did the founder's interest in providing music that was suited to the tastes and styles of the period. He responded to the growing interest in music, and became an enthusiastic publisher of the music of such great personalities as Edwin Franko Goldman, Victor Herbert, Arthur Pryor, Leopold Godowsky and John Philip Sousa.

By the turn of the century, the company had already begun publishing standard material for music education and performance in the areas of orchestra, band, choral, piano, and other instrumental music. In fact, the firm published the first concert band work in America.

As the company continued to grow under Carl Fischer's leadership, the new business flourished with the added assistance of his three sons: Carl, Jr., Walter S. and George. Unfortunately, the untimely passing of two of the sons interrupted this unique family enterprise: George, in 1909, and Carl, Jr. in 1912. The founder and his second son, Walter Fischer, carried on, concentrating increasingly on the publishing activities of the company.

Following Carl Fischer's passing in 1923, Walter S. Fischer became the President of Carl Fischer Music. That same year, the firm moved its New York operations to its own twelve-story building on Cooper Square, where it remained until 1999. This building became a familiar landmark in the Cooper Square and Greenwich Village area. Many distinguished composers were added to the catalog during this time including: Howard Hanson, Norman Dello Joio, Lukas Foss, Peter Mennin, Douglas Moore and other contemporary American masters.

The ever-widening possibilities in the field of music education continued to provide new perspectives and the publishing company increased its development of products servicing the needs of school music programs.

In 1924, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), which mainly represented popular music, invited Walter Fischer to bring his company's serious music copyrighted titles to be part of the group. Subsequently, he was elected to the Board of Directors of ASCAP as well as to that of the Music Publisher's Association. Through his assistance, various industry problems (many generated by the advent of radio broadcasting and recording) were resolved.

Throughout the 1930s, Walter Fischer continued as President of the company. In 1939, he asked his son-in-law Frank Hayden Connor, who formerly worked in the banking industry, to become his assistant.

It was during the 1930s and the 1940s that legendary performers such as Mischa Elman, Jascha Heifitz, Fritz Kreisler, and Joseph Szigeti, contributed to Carl Fischer Music works that have become classics in musical literature for violin and piano.

After Walter Fischer's passing in 1946, Frank Hayden Connor became President of the firm. Under his leadership, additional horizons developed. An uptown retail store, which had an excellent concert hall, was opened at 165 West 57th Street. This five-story building was the largest music store in New York City until it was sold in 1959 to a concert bureau following the announcement that Carnegie Hall would be replaced by an office building. Happily for music lovers, Carnegie Hall was finally rescued by the city and designated as a landmark, but unfortunately this occurred after the sale of the Carl Fischer Music retail store and concert hall.

Mr. Connor re-established contact with major European publishers and subsequently further extended the activities of the company both nationally and internationally. During that period, Carl Fischer Music represented Oxford University Press, Paterson's of London, Henle Verlag of Germany, and several other European publishers in the U.S. Similar steps were taken to represent certain American editions, and the firm became the sole selling agent for the publications of Cundy-Bettoney, William Pond, and R.D. Row, among others. Among the domestic catalogs acquired or represented by the firm, Eastman School of Music, of which Howard Hanson was not only Director but a prominent contributor to the catalog, the Fillmore Music catalog (containing Henry Fillmore's famous marches) and the Charles Foley catalog (containing the world-famous compositions of Fritz Kreisler) are most noteworthy.

Outstanding additions to the catalog during the 1960s and 1970s included significant works by Anton Webern, the celebrated Austrian composer (1883-1945). Publication of these previously unknown works was made possible when the distinguished musicologist, Dr. Hans Moldenhauer, discovered the composer's original manuscripts that were hidden during the war.

From the beginning, Carl Fischer Music maintained a multi-dimensional view of the business in its effort to serve the users of music: publishing and renting music, distributing the music of all publishers to music stores as a distributor and selling directly to the consumer through retail operations. It is precisely through the fulfillment of its commitment to respond and meet the vast music needs world-over that Carl Fischer Music is ranked among the leaders in the music publishing field.

In 1977, five years after the one hundredth anniversary of the firm, Frank Hayden Connor passed away and was succeeded by his son Walter Fischer Connor, who became President and Chairman of the Board of Carl Fischer Music, as well as Chairman of Boosey and Hawkes plc, the distinguished London-based international music publishing and musical instrument company, where Carl Fischer Music had acquired a substantial interest.

Under Walter Connor's leadership, Carl Fischer Music further expanded its involvement in music distribution and retail sales with its New York City store and through branches in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and Boston while continuing the firm's strong commitment to music education. The company also developed the Rack Sense program, the first and most sophisticated computerized system for stocking music stores with high-turnover music print product. In the area of concert music, the 1980s saw the rise to prominence of many exciting composers with whom Carl Fischer Music continues to build relationships among them, Michael Colgrass and David Maslanka.

Restructuring for the 21st Century

With Walter Connor's passing on January 5, 1996, a major era in the firm's history had ended. In January of 1999, F. Hayden Connor, the great grandson of the founder, Carl Fischer, acquired the company. Veteran publisher and musician, Sandy Feldstein, joined him to formulate a new plan to guide the company into the 21st century.

In June of 1999, Carl Fischer Music moved into its new corporate headquarters on the 8th Floor of the landmark Louis H. Sullivan Building at 65 Bleecker Street in the "Noho" neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Administration, Editorial, Production, Copyright, Royalty, Sales, Concert Music and Marketing staff are located in the handsome office, and Order Fulfillment and Distribution for Carl Fischer Music are handled from a distribution center located at the [http://www.presser.com/ Theodore Presser Company] in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

The catalogs of the firm continue to contain a large and diversified selection of material that runs the gamut of music literature from the educational field to that of concert music. Publications embrace every category including band, orchestra, choral, piano, vocal, string, fretted instruments, brass, woodwind, percussion and church music. In addition, the company maintains an extensive Rental Library (of over 2,500 compositions) which makes available Chamber, Opera, Ballet and Symphonic material of outstanding worth to professional and educational performing organizations.

Present

Today, under the leadership of Lauren Keiser, President/CEO of Carl Fischer Music and President of the Music Publishers Association, the company has evolved into a dynamic new force in the industry. With an expanded Sales Team and a newly formed Marketing Department, the firm is ready to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Mindful of changing trends, Carl Fischer Music has expanded its product mix in the area of music education, to provide materials that will help educators and self taught musicians thrive within our changing society and through changing tastes. The company has also launched a record label (Bleecker Street Records) to bring consumers exceptional recordings of some of the company's premiere titles. Committed to the responsibility of developing and nurturing new composers of concert music, Carl Fischer is also expanding its role in publishing "concert" music for all performance media.

Carl Fischer Music continues to be a family owned business with a deep and abiding commitment to traditional and contemporary musical values, while it seeks to embrace new technologies to create and disseminate music for its consumers. The firm pledges to continue to help educate people about music, create innovative new products to fit the needs of its customers and to inspire individuals to learn and perform live music.

Official Websites

* [http://www.carlfischer.com/ Carl Fischer Music (Official Site)]
* [http://www.presser.com/ Theodore Presser Company (Sales and Distribution)]

References

Citation
last =Barron
first =James
author-link =
last2 =
first2 =
author2-link =
title =Cleaning Out a Sheet-Music Attic; Real-Estate Deal Closes Carl Fischer's Trove of Scores | newspaper =The New York Times
pages =
year =1999
date =March 12
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A07E5DA143EF931A25750C0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1