Ernst Eulenburg the music publisher was established by Ernst Eulenburg in Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 in 1874. The firm started by publishing a series of studies by a Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 piano teacher, and then expanded into light music and works for men's chorus, at first all non-copyright works.

Origins of the miniature scores

In 1891, Eulenburg acquired the company of Payne who had recently started to publish miniature scores of chamber works, thus effectively establishing the basis for the famous miniature scores which are what Eulenburg is famous for today. The catalogue was further expanded in 1908 by the acquisition of the catalogue of Donajowski, who published miniature scores of orchestral works in England.

Later history of the company

In 1905, Ernst's son Kurt began to work in the firm, a connection maintained until his retirement at age 90 in 1968. After Ernst died in 1926, Kurt took over and began to introduce important revisions of scores by leading musicologists such as Alfred Einstein (who edited, for example, Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...

) and Friedrich Blume

Friedrich Blume

Friedrich Blume was professor of Musicology in Kiel University from 1938-1958. He was a student in Munich, Berlin and Leipzig, and taught in the last two of these for some years before being called to the chair in Kiel. His early studies were on Lutheran church music, including several books on...

 (who edited the Mozart piano concertos

Mozart piano concertos

The Mozart piano concertos refer to the 27 concertos for piano and orchestra written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These works, many of which Mozart composed for himself to play in the Vienna concert series of 1784–86, held a special place for him; indeed, Mozart's father apparently interrupted him...

). At the same time, Eulenburg began to publish the work of contemporary composers such as Paul Graener

Paul Graener

Paul Graener was a German composer and conductor.-Biography:Graener was born in Berlin and orphaned as a young child. A boy soprano, he taught himself composition and in 1896 moved to London, where he gave private lessons and served briefly as conductor at the Haymarket Theatre...

 and the "classical" compositions of the film composer Miklós Rózsa

Miklós Rózsa

Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...

.

The war years

Kurt Eulenburg and his family were expelled from Germany in 1939 just before the outbreak of the second world war, and settled in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

. The firm Ernst Eulenburg Ltd, London was set up after negotiations with Eulenburg's London agents, Goodwin & Tabb; while the Leipzig concern was expropriated and continued under the name of Horst Sander KG.

Eulenburg after the war

After the war ended in 1945, Eulenburg moved to London to take over control of the firm there, and began slowly to expand the catalogue again. Towards the end of the 1950s, Eulenburg were acquired by Schott & Co. who produce the Edition Eulenburg today. Today, over 1200 titles are produced under the name of Edition Eulenburg, scores that are instantly recognisable by their small size and bright yellow covers.