Chapter 12 - The Composer “Goes to Press”

Summary

The publication industry in Austria represented a vital but relatively little-studied avenue by which Mahler reached his public. Acceptance by renowned publishing houses such as C. F. Kahnt, Schott, Peters, and others of similar prestige provided a unique demonstration of artistic accomplishment and professional credibility. Mahler thus sought this recognition from the early stages of his career and maintained his efforts in the face of initial adversity. The administrative structure, marketing strategies, and commercial goals of these businesses form the content of this chapter, with a particular focus on the situation in Vienna at such houses as Doblinger and Universal Edition. The vital role of a firm’s music editors is also considered, through the remarkable example of Josef Venantius von Wöss, an accomplished composer in his own right whose reduction of the Eighth Symphony Mahler called “magnificent” and “the best that I have ever encountered.”