G. Henle Verlag

History

The publishing house was founded on 20 October 1948 by Günter Henle with the permission of the US military government. It had offices in Duisburg and Munich. Under the founder’s direction, from the very beginning an integral part of the business was to “ensure the publication of Urtext editions of music on a scholarly basis, in particular from the 18th and 19th centuries”. It was at this time that Joseph Lehnacker (1895–1965) came up with the “Henle blue” for the cover (the same colour that is used today) as well as the design of the title font.

For several decades, the engraving was done by the Universitätsdruckerei H. Stürtz (Würzburg). Later they were joined by engravers in Leipzig and Darmstadt. The first works to be published were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonatas in two volumes, edited by Walther Lampe, and Franz Schubert’s Impromptus and Moments Musicaux, edited by Walter Gieseking. Towards the end of the 1990s, hand engraving of the musical texts was replaced by computers.

1949 saw the publishing house’s participation in the first post-war music fair in Detmold. In 1953 the editorial department was established at the Duisburg offices with Ewald Zimmermann (1910–1998) at its head.

Due to Günter Henle’s work in industry, the publishing house was initially dubbed the "Klöckner music factory", yet it slowly became one of the major players in the German music publishing business. In 1955 the employees in Munich moved to the newly acquired publishing house in Schongauerstraße 24.

Günter Henle was much involved in founding the Joseph Haydn Institute in Cologne in 1955. Following this, the first scholarly works in the Haydn Complete Edition were published, whose volumes have since been issued by G. Henle Publishers. In 1969 Martin Bente (*1936) took over from Friedrich Joseph Schaefer (1907–1981) as chief financial officer in Munich. Three years later, in 1972, Günter Henle established the Günter Henle Foundation in Munich, which later assumed ownership of the publishing house. The foundation was initially chaired by Günter Henle, and following his death by Walter Keim from 1979 to 1981 and then by Anne Liese Henle, Günter Henle’s wife, between 1981 and 1994, and C. Peter Henle, son of Günter and Anne Liese Henle (1994–2016). Felix Henle, son of C. Peter Henle, took over the chair in 2016.

In 1978 the publishing house acquired its present offices in Forstenrieder Allee 122 in Munich. The following year, Günter Henle died. This led to the closure of the Duisburg offices and accordingly the expansion of the Munich subsidiary, with Martin Bente as its head. In 1981, the publishing house participated at the first German Music Fair in Tokyo, and at the same time, G. Henle USA Inc. was established in St. Louis, Missouri, initially as a joint venture. From 1985 onwards, this USA sales subsidiary acted solely on behalf of the Munich parent company. Holger A. Siems (*1942) was appointed CEO after having been Head of Sales since 1976. This subsidiary was closed in 2007; ever since, the publishing house has been exclusively represented in the US by the Hal Leonard Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The publishing house also participated at the First International Book fair in Beijing in 1986; in 1995 a first publishing licence was granted to the Chinese State Publishing House "Peoples Music Publishing House" in Beijing. To date, numerous Urtext editions by G. Henle Publishers have been published for the Chinese market with this licensing partner and also with the Shanghai Music Publishing House.

Since 1995 Henle has also produced “Study Editions” as pocket scores (17x24 cm) alongside its blue Urtext editions. Beginning in 2016, the publishing house has also offered its Urtext editions in digital form, available in an app for both iOS and Android tablets.

Wolf-Dieter Seiffert (*1959) took over from Martin Bente as CEO in 2000, prior to this he had worked as an editor at the publishing house since 1990. In 1993 a further floor was added to the publishing house; in 2005 the ground floor was modernized and completely refurbished. The catalogue now comprises around 1500 Urtext editions and around 750 scholarly publications.

Urtext editions

At the heart of G. Henle Publishers’ programme are the so-called practical Urtext editions. They are characterized by their correct musical text – drawn up following strict scholarly principles – with an extensive commentary on the sources consulted (covering autographs, copies, early printings) and details regarding the readings. The programme now includes almost all of the important piano works and chamber music for small groups: the complete piano works of J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, Schubert, R. Schumann; in addition numerous other selected works for piano for two or four hands, organ works and a standard repertoire for duos and piano trios as well as music for string quartet. On top of this the catalogue also contains the complete song editions of Beethoven and Haydn and R. Schumann’s most important song cycles. The programme also comprises Urtext editions in a smaller study format (Study Edition Series) as well as several facsimile editions of composers’ manuscripts.

Special editions and series

Levels of difficulty

In 2010 the publishing house asked Rolf Koenen to classify its piano literature according to levels of difficulty: there are three levels, each one subdivided into a further three; Ernst Schliephake did the same for the violin works and András Adorján for the flute music. Thus, the Prelude in C major from the Well-Tempered Clavier I was designated “easy ” (level 2) and the Toccata op. 7 by Robert Schumann as “very difficult” (9). The classification is intended to help people find pieces that are appropriate for a certain level of ability.

Literature