Educational and Methodical Literature for Piano in the Catalogues of Music Publishers of the Second Half of the 19th — Early 20th Century

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th — early 20th century, the release of educational and methodical literature for piano showed significant circulation volumes and was primarily associated with the flourishing of the Russian performing school and the growing interest of the general population in the beautiful world of music. The foundation of the Imperial Russian Music Society in 1959, the opening of the St. Petersburg (1862) and Moscow (1866) conservatories largely determined the goals and objectives, as well as the repertoire concept of a number of leading Russian music publishers.Among them, the firm “P.I. Jurgenson” took a leading position in the production of educational and methodical literature for piano, along with other well-known producers such as “M. Bernard”, “A. Gutheil” and “V.V. Bessel and Co.” The catalogues of music publishers from the collections of the Russian State Library contain information about the structure and principles of forming special sections devoted to education, about the publication activities of individual authors, and their works in the field of piano pedagogy.Together, this material allows to create a primary idea of the volume of products intended for music schools of the country and to take cognizance that all major Russian publishing houses, with rare exceptions, collaborated with the Imperial Russian Music Society, not only in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but also in its provincial branches, honourably putting their names on the title pages of the catalogs. A characteristic feature is the issues devoted to piano literature, including playing schools, collections of exercises, pedagogical repertoire of various degrees of complexity, manuals, etc.The scale of this professional activity was a reflection of the important evolutionary processes taking place in the Russian musical culture of the second half of the 19th — early 20th century. That period in piano art and pedagogy indicated the need to consider historical, social, economic and other contexts that create the right research tone and volume.