MAX HINRICHSEN - Sheet Music Publishers

MAX HINRICHSEN (1901–1965)
Founder of Hinrichsen Edition Ltd 1938
and Peters Edition London Ltd
by
Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen
Max Hinrichsen was literally born into music publishing, on 6 July 1901. His
father was Geheimrat Dr hc. Henri Hinrichsen, proprietor of C. F. Peters,
Leipzig and his mother was Martha (née Bendix), both from long-standing
German Jewish families. Max was the eldest son
in a family of seven children, and trained for his
profession of music publisher from an early age.
On his thirtieth birthday, in 1931, he became
joint proprietor with his father. As a consequence
of Nazi persecution, in 1937 Max Hinrichsen
relinquished his partnership in favour of a younger
brother, Dr Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen. His father
was gassed in Auschwitz concentration camp on
17th September 1942, his brother having perished
in 1940.
Max Hinrichsen emigrated to England with his
non-Jewish wife and baby (Irene). Arriving in
November 1937, he founded his own music-publishing company, Hinrichsen
Edition Ltd in London, on 10 March 1938. He had two main objectives:
“To re-issue in up-to-date editions forgotten works of the past,
especially those by British composers such as Arne, Blow, Boyce,
Greene, Thomas Roseingrave, Stanley, Tallis and Wesley; and to
issue new compositions by our living composers.” 1
Max Hinrichsen was a man of boundless energy and great optimism for the
future. It was this optimism and his belief in the pursuit of excellence which
helped him succeed in the face of daunting problems.
Hinrichsen Edition Ltd started life with one part-time secretary, in a very
small office in the premises of Novello and Co. Ltd, the C. F. Peters, Leipzig
agent in London. Max Hinrichsen’s first publications, in 1938, were a series of
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Dr Henri Hinrichsen (c. 1935)

easy original compositions for piano, by classical composers and edited by Alec
Rowley. Hinrichsen Edition numbers 1–7 covered respectively: Beethoven,
Chopin, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann. In publishing this series he
was acknowledging the pioneering achievements of his great-uncle, Dr. Max
Abraham’s “Edition Peters” series of the classics, launched in Leipzig some 70
years earlier, in 1867.
The outbreak of war in 1939 brought considerable difficulties for publishing,
not least because paper was rationed, so Max published booklets and smallscale
works. He also played his part in the war effort. From 1942–1948 he
served as Editor (for the London Regional Committee for Education among
H.M. Forces) of a weekly Newsletter, On Leave in London, issued for the troops.
It might well have been this which contributed to the fact that he was one of
the very few German emigrés and refugees not to have been interned during
the war.
Drawing on his past experience, he founded Hinrichsen’s Artist Management
and Concert Direction in 1942, arranging concerts throughout the country and
helping many young musicians as well as
representing established musicians.
Business expanded and in 1946 Hinrichsen
Edition Ltd, moved to larger premises at
25 Museum Street, London.
As a Jewish émigré from Germany, Max
Hinrichsen had become stateless with
the issuance of the “Eleventh Ordinance”
regarding the Law of Reich Citizenship,
promulgated on 25 November 1941, which
deprived non-resident Jews of citizenship
of the German Reich. Resident in England
and awaiting British citizenship, he was
granted all privileges of British citizens
Martha Hinrichsen (c. 1935)
except the right of free travel. Hence he
could not travel to Leipzig in 1945 to help his brother Walter try to reclaim
the family property. His Naturalization was held up owing to the war, when
his official status was that of an “enemy alien”. Max Hinrichsen was finally
granted British citizenship by Naturalization on 1 May 1947 and was issued
with his first British passport two months later. He could then travel to
Germany to continue to disentangle the affairs of C. F. Peters, which had
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een confiscated from his father in a process known as “Aryanization”, and to
promote his business all over the world.
Tall, clean-shaven and with a prematurely bald head and brown eyes peering
through spectacles, Max Hinrichsen was kind and generous of spirit. Dr Alec
Hyatt King, the scholar and musicologist, and former Superintendent of Music
at the British Museum, described him thus:
“He always seemed somehow rather larger than life – jovial in
the true sense of the word: he was impulsive, enthusiastic and
extraordinarily generous: he was unfailingly helpful, and if he
said he’d do something, he never failed to. Above all he was a
realist. In a letter to me in 1961, sending the 11th Music Book, he
wrote ‘I, as a publisher, think we can be quite satisfied. Something
perfect does not exist, especially nowadays in connection with the
publisher’s profession.’ His words still ring true today – it was
always swings and roundabouts. Max sometimes backed losers,
but he backed far more winners.” 2
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Max Hinrichsen

The two men first met towards the end of the war, when Max was planning
the first of his series of Hinrichsen’s Musical Year Book, which appeared in 1944.
In the compilation of these books he was in some way emulating the Peters
Music Library Year Books which he had helped edit between 1931 and 1937
in Leipzig. They were meticulously compiled reference works listing many
aspects of musical life and containing a wealth of information, learned articles
and analyses, referred to and still highly respected to this day. Nine books were
issued between 1944 and 1961, though the title was changed when it became
apparent that they would not appear annually. The final three volumes took
on a completely different nature:
Vol. I Hinrichsen’s Year Book 1944
II–III Hinrichsen’s Musical Year Book 1945–46
IV–V Hinrichsen’s Musical Year Book 1947–48
VI Hinrichsen’s Musical Year Book 1948–50
VII Music Book. Musical Year Book Vol. VII 1952
VIII Eighth Music Book. Musical Year Book Vol. VIII 1956
IX Ninth Music Book. Musical Year Book Vol. IX 1956
X Organ and Choral Aspects and Prospects. Musical Year
Book Vol. X 1958
XI Music Libraries and Instruments. Hinrichsen’s Eleventh
Music Book 1961
Max Hinrichsen worked long hours with tremendous dedication, building
up his business and publishing a great deal of sheet music with meticulous
attention to detail. At that time, the company was relatively small and he was
not only publisher, but also editor, proof reader, publicity director, advertising
manager and compiler of catalogues, as well as filling many subsidiary
positions! The strain caused the breakup of his marriage in 1949.
He was a particularly keen publisher of organ music. His series From Tallis to
Wesley comprised several volumes of early English music and was welcomed
by keyboard players everywhere. The organist Gordon Phillips was one of the
main editors of organ music; his enthusiasm led Max Hinrichsen to become an
active member of the Incorporated Association of Organists and the London
Association of Organists, the Organ Club and the Organ Music Society.
Becoming aware that there was little original music for brass bands, Max
Hinrichsen set about commissioning and publishing new works for this very
popular form of music-making in Great Britain; one of his main advisers and
arrangers was the tuba player, Philip Catelinet. He became very involved
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with the National School Brass Band Association of which he was a Council
Member from 1952, becoming Vice President in 1955.
He published music by contemporary British composers such as Richard
Arnell, Arthur Butterworth, J. H. Reginald Dixon, Gerald Finzi, Manuel
Frankell, Hans Gal, Berthold Goldschmidt, Daniel Jones, William S. Lloyd
Webber, Elizabeth Maconchy, Robin Orr, Thomas B. Pitfield, Reginald
Redman, Reginald Smith-Brindle, Peter Tahourdin and Peter Wishart, as well
as by foreign composers including Otto Klemperer and Serge Lancen.
He counted amongst his advisers and editors for his new editions of classical
music such eminent musicians and musicologists as Felix Aprahamian,
Howard Ferguson, Hermann Keller, Alec Hyatt King, Yehudi Menuhin,
Donald Mitchell, Stanley Sadie, Denis Stevens, William S. Lloyd Webber,
and many more. He published books, amongst which were those of Henry
George Farmer and Inglis Gundry. Wilhelm Weismann, the musicologist and
editor at C. F. Peters, Leipzig since 1929, edited numerous works for him from
Leipzig.
Greatly involved in every aspect of music publishing, Max Hinrichsen followed
in his father’s footsteps taking an active lead in various associations. Apart from
those already mentioned, he belonged to the American Musicological Society,
the Dolmetsch Foundation, the Galpin Society, Holy Trinity Choral Society
(of which he was the Vice President), the Hymn Society of Great Britain, the
International Association of Music Libraries, the Internationale Gesellschaft
für Musikwissenschaft, the Mechanical Copyright Protection Societies, the
Music Trades Association, the National Book League, the Performing Rights
Society, the Publishers’ Association, the Royal Musical Association, the Viola
da Gamba Society (as Vice President), the Society of Authors and more.
From 1948 he was a member of the Arts Committee of the London Council of
Social Service; from 1962 a Council Member and Vice President of the British
Copyright Protection Association, London; and from 1963 a Deputy Member
of the Conseil d’Administration du Bureau de l’Edition Mecanique, BIEM,
Paris.
On his arrival in Great Britain, Max Hinrichsen had been working with Novello
and Co. Ltd, as the personal representative of the Edition Peters. When the war
ended in 1945, he became more and more frustrated at not being permitted to
publish the music himself, which was his birthright. Eventually he did publish
the all-time best-seller in the C. F. Peters catalogue, Christian Sinding’s Rustle
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of Spring, as well as some other works. This led to him becoming embroiled
in lengthy, time-consuming and stressful legal actions. Novello and Co.,
claiming that he had no right to publish the music, took legal action against
Hinrichsen Edition Ltd, for infringement of their copyright. They argued that
Max Hinrichsen was not the owner of the copyright because his father had lost
it, and that they, as licensees under the emergency legislation, were the sole
persons entitled to publish the works in England. The judgements are fully
re-printed in the Chancery Division records. 3
Max Hinrichsen and Hinrichsen Edition Ltd, with the aid of a top KC, Pascoe
Hayward KC and Skone James, successfully resisted the claims of Novello and
Co. Ltd for infringement of copyright in the works Rustle of Spring by Sinding
and Sonatinas by Clementi – Ruthardt. Bridging the years 1950 and 1951, the
case lasted 19 days before Justice Wynn Parry in the Chancery Division of the
High Court. Novello and Co. did not like the result and appealed against Mr
Justice Wynn Parry’s judgement. The appeal occupied four days in the Court
of Appeal in June 1951 before the Master of the Rolls, Sir Raymond Evershed
and Lords Justices Jenkins and Birkett. The appeal was dismissed. Again Max
Hinrichsen was successful, even though Novello and Co. had Sir Andrew Clark,
KC leading Mr Guy Aldous against Hinrichsen’s team of Pascoe Hayward KC
and Skone James, while the Court of Appeal called upon Mr Stuart Bevan, the
Comptroller-General for assistance in arguing the appeal.
In his summing up of the first case on 21 February 1951, Mr Justice Wynn
Parry made it clear that Nazi decrees did not make law in England. The
English copyright was never lost by Henri Hinrichsen, and his son Max was
now the true owner:
“The courts of this country will not give effect, so far as regards
assets within their jurisdiction, to the law of a foreign country
which is confiscatory in policy . . . Novello and Co. have no merits
in this case. I would have been quite unwilling in the interests
of justice to allow the plaintiffs to succeed in depriving the
Hinrichsen family, who have already suffered enough, of their
inheritance.”
Max Hinrichsen was vindicated in his faith in his own rights and in British
justice, but it had cost him dearly in nervous energy, time and money. Had he
lost the case, he would have lost everything he had built up. He was greatly
helped by the faith others had in him, especially his printers Halstan and
Co. of Amersham, whose director Harold Smith allowed him to run up huge
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debts during the 1940s, which he might never have recouped. The relationship
which Max Hinrichsen built up with his printers in England, which has
survived through to the third generation for over fifty years, was similar to
that enjoyed by C. F. Peters Leipzig with several generations of their printers.
The publication of Edition Peters music in England, by its rightful owners,
could now go ahead without further hindrance.
With this further expansion of business Hinrichsen Edition Ltd made the
move to considerably larger premises, taking on the aptly named Bach House
in Baches Street, London in 1955.
Max Hinrichsen founded Peters Edition, London to publish in parallel with
his own Hinrichsen Edition Ltd. He and his brother Walter, President of
C. F. Peters Corporation in New York and, after 1950, Dr Johannes Petschull
with C. F. Peters GmbH in Frankfurt, complemented each other by publishing
different works from the huge catalogue, the sooner to be able to supply the
whole of the Western world with most of the music published in the Edition
Peters. In due course commercial links were also forged with the DDR Stateowned
C. F. Peters in Leipzig.
Max Hinrichsen was a prolific publisher of sheet music, both in the Edition
Peters and in his own Hinrichsen Edition Ltd. He was also the British agent for
a number of music publishers from around the world, taking many items into
his own catalogues on their behalf. Apart from his Music Books he developed
an interest in poetry and founded the Cranbrook Tower Press, publishing
poetry. His music subsidised his books, which he edited meticulously and
published as a labour of love, and which earned him huge respect.
Max Hinrichsen’s interest extended to contemporary music; together with
a group of musicians aware of this interest, he formed CELL (Composers’
and Editors’ Lending Library). The committee comprised some of the more
important people in the British musical world of the time: the viola player
Watson Forbes, the composer and opera coach James Iliff, the conductor
Lawrence Leonard, the composer Humphrey Searle and the musicologist
Denis Stevens. CELL was a service to composers and ensembles, providing a
substantial library of works not otherwise available, largely in manuscript.
In his desire to promote the works of contemporary composers, he instigated
the ‘Max and Irene Hinrichsen Prize’ in conjunction with his daughter. This
was awarded to Roberto Gerhard at the Baden-Baden Festival of 1955, for his
Symphony.
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In 1956 Max married an American, Carla (née Eddy), who shared his business
interest with him.
A keen promoter and sponsor of organ music and musicians, he edited the
papers read at the first International Organ Congress, held in London in 1957
and published to high acclaim in his Music Book series as Volume X, under
the title: Organ and Choral Aspects and Prospects.
When the UK branch of the International Association of Music Libraries came
into being in 1953, Max Hinrichsen became an enthusiastic member of the
committee. The International President was Alec Hyatt King who in 1959
organized a joint International Congress of this Association and the Galpin
Society which had been founded in 1946 for the publication of original research
into the history, construction, development and use of musical instruments.
Both these societies were of great interest to Max as they reflected the Peters
Music Library in Leipzig and the Heyer collection of musical instruments
donated by his father to form the foundation of the Leipzig Music Instruments
Museum. Max Hinrichsen volunteered to publish the Proceedings of the
Congress, which appeared in 1961 under the title Music Libraries and Instruments,
as Volume XI in the Music Book series. When the splendid volume appeared,
Vladimir Federov, President of the French Association of Music Libraries said
at the time: “We shall never have another Proceedings anything like this.”
And they never have. 4 This was also the last of the Music Books, another
proposed book never being completed.
Max Hinrichsen was elected an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College of Music,
London (Hon. FTCL.), in July 1965, the first music publisher to be so honoured
in the 92 years that the awards had been made. The presentation ceremony
was held at the Wigmore Hall, London, on which occasion the conductor Sir
Malcolm Sargent was similarly honoured. The citation read by Dr. Greenhouse
Allt, former Principal of Trinity College of Music and Past President of the
Royal College of Organists, used terms similar to those of the University of
Leipzig when bestowing an honorary doctorate on his father in 1929:
“In recognition of his scholarship in music, especially distinguished
in the field of Bach research, the Board seeks to honour Max
Hinrichsen. He is an outstanding progressive publisher of
music and books of world-wide fame, mainly through the great
Hinrichsen and Peters editions, and he is an educationist in the
most practical sense of the word, through and by the provision
of up-to-date training material, and other facilities, for the use of
students of music.”
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That was Max Hinrichsen’s proudest moment; it marked the recognition of
27 years of achievement, as a foreigner who had been accepted by the British
musical establishment, against considerable odds.
But the many years of struggle, sadness and overwork had taken their toll on
his health. He suffered a massive heart attack just five months later and died,
at the age of 64, on 17 December, 1965.
The direction of the company which he founded, Hinrichsen Edition Ltd, and
Peters Edition, London, was taken over by his widow, his second wife, Carla
Eddy Hinrichsen, who died in 2005. In 1975, the company was re-named
Peters Edition, Ltd, London.
© Copyright 2008 by Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen
22, Bouverie Gardens,
Kenton, Middx. HA3 ORQ
1 Quoted from Max Hinrichsen. Notes prepared for his round-the-world trip, 1955. Peters
Edition, London.
2 Speech given to guests at the 50th-anniversary celebration of Hinrichsen Edition Ltd at
Stationers’ Hall on 15 March 1988, read by Mrs Eve Hyatt King.
3 All England Law Reports (1951, pp. 44–61 and pp. 770–772). Law Report, Chancery
Division (1951 pp. 595–611 and 1026–1038). Also, several legal, musical and literary
journals in Great Britain and abroad, as well as British newspapers including The Times
(22.2.1951) and The Evening Standard (23.2.1951).
4 Hyatt King, op. cit.
Reference:
Irene Lawford-Hinrichsen. Music Publishing and Patronage, C.F. Peters: 1800 to
the Holocaust. London, Edition Press, 2000. ISBN 0-9536112-0-5
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