Boosey & Hawkes
Encyclopedia
Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher
purported to be the largest specialist classical music
publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass
, string
and wind
musical instrument
s.
Formed in 1930 through the merger of two well-established British music businesses, the company owns the copyright
s or agencies to much major 20th century music, including works by Bartók
, Leonard Bernstein
, Britten
, Copland
, Kodály
, Mahler
, Prokofiev
, Rachmaninoff
, Richard Strauss
and Stravinsky
. It also publishes many prominent contemporary composers.
With subsidiaries in Germany, the UK and the US, the company also sells sheet music
; provides ready-made production music
for television, radio and audio-visual use; commissions and produces music for radio, television and advertising jingle
s; and administers copyright
s owned by media companies.
The Boosey family was of Franco
–Flemish
origin. Boosey & Company traces its roots back to a bookshop at 4 Old Bond Street
in London
established by Thomas Boosey in about 1792; from 1819 the bookshop was called Boosey & Sons or T. & T. Boosey.
Thomas Boosey's son, also named Thomas (1794/1795–1871), set up a separate musical branch of the company known as T. Boosey & Co. and, in the latter part of the 19th century, Boosey & Company. This branch initially imported foreign music but soon began publishing in England the works of composers such as Johann Nepomuk Hummel
, Saverio Mercadante
and Gioachino Rossini, and subsequently important opera
s by Bellini
, Donizetti
and Verdi
. Elgar
and Vaughan Williams
were among its later signings. The company also produced books: among its first publications was an English translation of Johann Nikolaus Forkel
's book Life of J.S. Bach (1820). The company was seriously affected by the House of Lords
' decision in Boosey v. Jeffreys (1854) which deprived English publishers of many of their foreign copyrights.
Boosey & Company diversified into manufacturing wind instrument
s in 1851, collaborating in 1856 with flautist
R.S. Pratten (1846–1936) to develop new designs for flute
s. The firm bought over the business of Henry Distin
in 1868, allowing it to begin making brass instrument
s. Among its achievements was the widely-acclaimed design for compensating valves developed by David James Blaikley in 1874. The company also commenced production of string instrument
s.
The company capitalized on the increasing popularity of the ballad by focusing its publishing activities on them. To promote sales, John Boosey (c.1832–1893), son of Thomas jr., established the London Ballad Concerts in 1867 at St. James's Hall and later at Queen's Hall
when it opened in 1893. Clara Butt
and John Sims Reeves performed at these concerts, and its successes included Arthur Sullivan
's "The Lost Chord
" (1877) and Stephen Adams' "The Holy City". The company began emphasizing educational music
from about the end of the 19th century.
In 1874 Boosey & Company moved into offices at 295 Regent Street
, where the business was to stay for the next 131 years. In 1892, Boosey & Company opened an office in New York
which still exists today. The business eventually owned half of Regent Street, and at the time of the merger was managed by Leslie Boosey (1887–1979).
Hawkes & Son (later Rivière & Hawkes), a rival to Boosey & Company, was founded in 1865 by William Henry Hawkes selling orchestral sheet music
. The company also made musical instruments and spare parts such as clarinet
reeds
, and by 1925 Hawkes had set up an instrument factory in Edgware
, North London
. The business, which was particularly known for brass
and military band
music, was eventually inherited by Ralph Hawkes (1898–1950).
, and saw an opportunity to go into business together. They formed Boosey & Hawkes in October 1930 through a merger of their respective businesses. Hawkes & Son moved from its office in Denman Street to join the Boosey staff at 295 Regent Street.
The 1938 Anschluss
– the annexation
of Austria
into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime
– led to the Nazification of Viennese
publishing house Universal Edition
. Boosey & Hawkes seized the opportunity to sign up composer
s Béla Bartók
and Zoltán Kodály
, and also rescued Universal's Jewish staff, who later played an important role in developing the company. One such employee in particular, Ernst Roth (1896–1971), facilitated the signing of Richard Strauss
and Igor Stravinsky
, and was instrumental in the production of Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs
) (1948; premièred 1950) and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
(premièred 1951). Another significant figure from Vienna who occupied an editorial role was composer Arnold Schoenberg
's pupil Erwin Stein
, and after the war the composer Leopold Spinner
, a pupil of Anton Webern
, was also on the editorial staff. Stein was instrumental in founding the modern-music journal Tempo
in 1939, which began as Boosey & Hawkes' own newsletter but later became a more independent publication.
By the time World War II
broke out in 1939, Boosey & Hawkes had also signed Benjamin Britten
and Aaron Copland
. It was Ralph Hawkes who championed Britten when he was still relatively unknown, often against the rest of the board of directors, until the première on 7 June 1945 of Peter Grimes
, which was a critical and popular success. Sheet music
sales soared during the War, enabling Boosey & Hawkes to buy Editions Russes which held the rights to the most valuable works of Prokofiev
, Rachmaninoff
and Stravinsky. The company also purchased the lease of the Royal Opera House
in London in 1944, rescuing it from becoming a permanent dance hall and providing a venue for world-class ballet
and opera
in the capital.
By 1950, Boosey & Hawkes was a leading international music company with an extensive catalogue of serious composers and offices in Bonn
, Johannesburg
, New York, Paris
, Toronto
and Sydney
. However, from the late 1940s, strains had begun to appear in the relationship between Leslie Boosey and Ralph Hawkes, and this led to factions supporting each man forming in the company. It was discovered that Hawkes had borrowed capital of £100,000 during the war without the permission of the exchange control authorities, and Boosey was forced to clear up the situation at great personal cost. Hawkes secretly wanted to buy out the music publishing side of the business and manage it from New York
, leaving Boosey in London with the musical instrument business which Hawkes found dull. However, he died suddenly on 8 September 1950, and representation of his faction was taken over by his flamboyant but unreliable brother Geoffrey who spent much of the company's money on ventures such as the manufacture of mouth organs
and ovens, which failed. Geoffrey Hawkes also sold shares in the company to fund his philandering, to the point that the company was forced to go public to raise cash. Leslie Boosey allowed Geoffrey his turn as chairman, but within two years the profitable company was on the brink of insolvency and Geoffrey Hawkes died of leukaemia in 1961.
During these difficult years, Boosey was supported by his trusted managing director, Ernst Roth. However, Roth later regarded the Boosey family as ineffectual and parochial. In the early 1960s, Roth forced Boosey's sons Anthony and Simon out of the company, and prevented his youngest son, Nigel, from even joining, allegedly at the behest of Benjamin Britten. Roth and Boosey also had differences over Britten's influence over the company. Roth regarded Britten as a gifted local musician, rather than a true genius like Roth's friends Strauss and Stravinsky. Boosey realized how valuable Britten was to the company, and agreed to Britten's request to divide the company into instruments and publishing. However, Britten humiliated Boosey by preventing him from chairing the music publishing board Boosey had established at Britten's request. In 1963, Britten also managed to get Boosey & Hawkes to employ Donald Mitchell to find new, young composers for the company. Angered by the sway Britten had over Boosey, Roth fired Mitchell within a year. Mitchell later set up Faber Music
for book publisher Faber and Faber
with the assistance of Britten and the blessing of T. S. Eliot
.
Boosey retired from the company in 1964, and died without an obituary in 1979. Although he had been awarded with the Légion d'honneur
by France, his achievements were mostly unrecognized in the UK. However, a large number of composers and their estates continue to benefit from his pioneering work in rights and royalty collection. In addition, every two years the Royal Philharmonic Society
and the Performing Right Society
honour individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the furtherance of contemporary music in Britain with the Leslie Boosey Award. The award is given to those who work "backstage", such as administrators, broadcasters, educationalists, programmers, publishers and representatives from the recording industry.
Some time during the late 1960s or early 1970s Boosey & Hawkes bought out The Salvation Army Brass Instrument Factory in North London. They continued for some years to manufacture instruments with The Salvation Army name and crest on them such as The Bandmaster cornets.
Boosey & Hawkes' musical instruments division was gradually scaled down from the mid-1970s as it became less viable to have such an extensive range of products. Various lines were outsourced and sold off. By the time of the closure of the Edgware factory in 2001, brass instruments were the only thriving part of the instrument range. Production was moved to Watford
, Hertfordshire
, and the instruments rebranded Besson
.
It took nearly 20 years for Boosey & Hawkes to regain the leading position in the international music scene that it has today. It claims to be the largest specialist classical music
publisher in the world.
instrument-distribution business, leading to £13m worth of sales being written off, a plummeting share price, and the company's near-bankruptcy. It was eventually bought by venture capital
ists HgCapital in 2003 for £40 million.
On 11 February 2003, Boosey & Hawkes sold its musical instrument division, which included clarinet
maker Buffet Crampon
and guitar
manufacturer Höfner
, to The Music Group
, a company formed by rescue buyout specialists Rutland Fund Management, for £33.2 million. An archive of musical instruments manufactured or collected by the company throughout its history was passed to the Horniman Museum
in Forest Hill
, South London
.
In September 2005 the company was again offered for sale by HgCapital which announced that it was seeking between £60 and £80 million. One of the interested buyers was Elevation Partners
, a private equity
firm which counts U2
lead singer Bono
as a partner and managing director. Despite offers of about £115 million from a number of parties, the sale was later cancelled in November 2005.
Today, partly due to the foresight or business acumen of Ralph Hawkes, the company owns the copyright
s or agencies to much major 20th century music, including works by Bartók, Leonard Bernstein
, Britten (notably all his output between 1938 and 1963), Copland, Kodály, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky. It also publishes many prominent contemporary composers, such as John Adams, Louis Andriessen
, Sir Harrison Birtwistle
, Unsuk Chin
, Michael Daugherty
, Peter Maxwell Davies
, Henryk Górecki
, Heinz Karl Gruber
, Robin Holloway
, Magnus Lindberg
, James MacMillan
, Olga Neuwirth
, Kurt Schwertsik
and Mark-Anthony Turnage
. The company's New York branch has developed its own catalogue emphasizing the works of American composers, including Elliott Carter
, David Del Tredici
, Walter Piston
, Ned Rorem
and Steve Reich
.
295 Regent Street, which was the home of Boosey & Company since 1874 and of Boosey & Hawkes' publishing business and music shop from 1930, was finally given up by the company in 2005 which then relocated to Aldwych House. Boosey & Hawkes Music Shop claims to have the UK's largest selection of printed music from all publishers, and operates a worldwide mail order
service.
The company had a major division, BooseyMedia, that commissioned and produced music for radio, television and advertising jingle
s, and the administration of copyright
s owned by media companies. This has now been split into commercial synchronisation and production music departments, both under the Imagem name. Its Cavendish Production Music Library provides ready-made production music
for television, radio and audio-visual use.
The Boosey & Hawkes group has branches in five countries on four continents, including companies in Germany (Bote & Bock GmbH & Co. KG and Anton J. Benjamin GmbH), the UK (Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.) and the USA (Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.). In North America, Boosey & Hawkes' catalogue is distributed by the Hal Leonard Corporation.
In April 2008, Boosey & Hawkes was bought by the Imagem Music Group.
as "Goosy and Borks" in their episode, "Lurgy Strikes Britain", as well as by musical parodist
Peter Schickele
who named one of the friends of fictional composer
P.D.Q. Bach Jonathan "Boozey" Hawkes. Somewhat more recondite was the punning reference delivered in one of Gerard Hoffnung
's parody concerts: "If Boosey's will Hawk it, Schott
's will Tippett
".
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
purported to be the largest specialist classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
, string
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
and wind
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s.
Formed in 1930 through the merger of two well-established British music businesses, the company owns the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s or agencies to much major 20th century music, including works by Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
, Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
, Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
. It also publishes many prominent contemporary composers.
With subsidiaries in Germany, the UK and the US, the company also sells sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
; provides ready-made production music
Production music
Production music is the name given to recorded music produced and owned by production music libraries and licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media.-Introduction:...
for television, radio and audio-visual use; commissions and produces music for radio, television and advertising jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s; and administers copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s owned by media companies.
Before the merger of the Boosey and Hawkes companies
Boosey & Hawkes was founded in 1930 through the merger of two respected music companies, Boosey & Company and Hawkes & Son.The Boosey family was of Franco
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
–Flemish
Flemish people
The Flemings or Flemish are the Dutch-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, where they are mostly found in the northern region of Flanders. They are one of two principal cultural-linguistic groups in Belgium, the other being the French-speaking Walloons...
origin. Boosey & Company traces its roots back to a bookshop at 4 Old Bond Street
Bond Street
Bond Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London that runs north-south through Mayfair between Oxford Street and Piccadilly. It has been a fashionable shopping street since the 18th century and is currently the home of many high price fashion shops...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
established by Thomas Boosey in about 1792; from 1819 the bookshop was called Boosey & Sons or T. & T. Boosey.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Johann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist. His music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era.- Life :...
, Saverio Mercadante
Saverio Mercadante
Giuseppe Saverio Raffaele Mercadante was an Italian composer, particularly of operas. While Mercadante may not have retained the international celebrity of Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini beyond his own lifetime, he composed as impressive a number of works as either; and his development of...
and Gioachino Rossini, and subsequently important opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s by Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
, Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
and Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
and Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
were among its later signings. The company also produced books: among its first publications was an English translation of Johann Nikolaus Forkel
Johann Nikolaus Forkel
Johann Nikolaus Forkel , was a German musician, musicologist and music theorist.-Biography:...
's book Life of J.S. Bach (1820). The company was seriously affected by the House of Lords
Judicial functions of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's...
' decision in Boosey v. Jeffreys (1854) which deprived English publishers of many of their foreign copyrights.
Boosey & Company diversified into manufacturing wind instrument
Wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator , in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of...
s in 1851, collaborating in 1856 with flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
R.S. Pratten (1846–1936) to develop new designs for flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
s. The firm bought over the business of Henry Distin
Distin
The Distin family was a family of British Musicians in the 19th century who performed on saxhorns and were influential in the evolution of brass instruments in then popular music...
in 1868, allowing it to begin making brass instrument
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument whose sound is produced by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips...
s. Among its achievements was the widely-acclaimed design for compensating valves developed by David James Blaikley in 1874. The company also commenced production of string instrument
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
s.
The company capitalized on the increasing popularity of the ballad by focusing its publishing activities on them. To promote sales, John Boosey (c.1832–1893), son of Thomas jr., established the London Ballad Concerts in 1867 at St. James's Hall and later at Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
when it opened in 1893. Clara Butt
Clara Butt
Dame Clara Ellen Butt DBE , sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.-Early life and career:Clara Butt was born in Southwick,...
and John Sims Reeves performed at these concerts, and its successes included Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
's "The Lost Chord
The Lost Chord
"The Lost Chord" is a song composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1877 at the bedside of his brother Fred during Fred's last illness. The manuscript is dated 13 January 1877; Fred Sullivan died five days later...
" (1877) and Stephen Adams' "The Holy City". The company began emphasizing educational music
Educational music
Educational music, is a genre of music in which songs, lyrics, or other musical elements are used as a method of teaching and/or learning. It has been shown in research to promote learning. Additionally, music study in general has been shown to improve academic performance of students...
from about the end of the 19th century.
In 1874 Boosey & Company moved into offices at 295 Regent Street
Regent Street
Regent Street is one of the major shopping streets in London's West End, well known to tourists and Londoners alike, and famous for its Christmas illuminations...
, where the business was to stay for the next 131 years. In 1892, Boosey & Company opened an office in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
which still exists today. The business eventually owned half of Regent Street, and at the time of the merger was managed by Leslie Boosey (1887–1979).
Hawkes & Son (later Rivière & Hawkes), a rival to Boosey & Company, was founded in 1865 by William Henry Hawkes selling orchestral sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
. The company also made musical instruments and spare parts such as clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
reeds
Reed (instrument)
A reed is a thin strip of material which vibrates to produce a sound on a musical instrument. The reeds of most Woodwind instruments are made from Arundo donax or synthetic material; tuned reeds are made of metal or synthetics.-Single reeds:Single reeds are used on the mouthpieces of clarinets...
, and by 1925 Hawkes had set up an instrument factory in Edgware
Edgware
Edgware is an area in London, situated north-northwest of Charing Cross. It forms part of both the London Borough of Barnet and the London Borough of Harrow. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
, North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...
. The business, which was particularly known for brass
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
and military band
Military band
A military band originally was a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the title of Bandmaster or Director of Music...
music, was eventually inherited by Ralph Hawkes (1898–1950).
After the merger
Leslie Boosey and Ralph Hawkes met in the 1920s when they were on the Board of the Performing Right SocietyPerforming Right Society
PRS for Music is a UK copyright collection society undertaking collective rights management for musical works. PRS for Music was formed in 1997 as the MCPS-PRS Alliance, bringing together two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society and Performing Right Society...
, and saw an opportunity to go into business together. They formed Boosey & Hawkes in October 1930 through a merger of their respective businesses. Hawkes & Son moved from its office in Denman Street to join the Boosey staff at 295 Regent Street.
The 1938 Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
– the annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
– led to the Nazification of Viennese
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
publishing house Universal Edition
Universal Edition
Universal Edition is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, and originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market...
. Boosey & Hawkes seized the opportunity to sign up composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
and Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
, and also rescued Universal's Jewish staff, who later played an important role in developing the company. One such employee in particular, Ernst Roth (1896–1971), facilitated the signing of Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, and was instrumental in the production of Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs
Four Last Songs
The Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra were the final completed works of Richard Strauss, composed in 1948 when the composer was 84. Strauss did not live to hear the premiere, given at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 22 May 1950 by the soprano Kirsten Flagstad accompanied by the...
) (1948; premièred 1950) and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress
The Rake's Progress is an opera in three acts and an epilogue by Igor Stravinsky. The libretto, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is based loosely on the eight paintings and engravings A Rake's Progress of William Hogarth, which Stravinsky had seen on May 2, 1947, in a Chicago...
(premièred 1951). Another significant figure from Vienna who occupied an editorial role was composer Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's pupil Erwin Stein
Erwin Stein
Erwin Stein was an Austrian musician and writer, prominent as a pupil and friend of Schoenberg, with whom he studied between 1906 and 1910. He was one of Schoenberg’s principal assistants in organizing the Society for Private Musical Performances...
, and after the war the composer Leopold Spinner
Leopold Spinner
Leopold Spinner was a Ukrainian-born, British-domiciled composer and editor.-Biography:Spinner was born of Austrian parentage in Lemberg...
, a pupil of Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
, was also on the editorial staff. Stein was instrumental in founding the modern-music journal Tempo
Tempo (journal)
Tempo is a quarterly music journal published in the UK and specialising in music of the 20th century and contemporary music. Originally founded in 1939 as the 'house magazine' of the music publisher Boosey & Hawkes, Tempo was the brain-child of Schoenberg's pupil Erwin Stein, who worked for Boosey...
in 1939, which began as Boosey & Hawkes' own newsletter but later became a more independent publication.
By the time World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out in 1939, Boosey & Hawkes had also signed Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
and Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
. It was Ralph Hawkes who championed Britten when he was still relatively unknown, often against the rest of the board of directors, until the première on 7 June 1945 of Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
, which was a critical and popular success. Sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
sales soared during the War, enabling Boosey & Hawkes to buy Editions Russes which held the rights to the most valuable works of Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
and Stravinsky. The company also purchased the lease of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
in London in 1944, rescuing it from becoming a permanent dance hall and providing a venue for world-class ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in the capital.
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, New York, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
and Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. However, from the late 1940s, strains had begun to appear in the relationship between Leslie Boosey and Ralph Hawkes, and this led to factions supporting each man forming in the company. It was discovered that Hawkes had borrowed capital of £100,000 during the war without the permission of the exchange control authorities, and Boosey was forced to clear up the situation at great personal cost. Hawkes secretly wanted to buy out the music publishing side of the business and manage it from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, leaving Boosey in London with the musical instrument business which Hawkes found dull. However, he died suddenly on 8 September 1950, and representation of his faction was taken over by his flamboyant but unreliable brother Geoffrey who spent much of the company's money on ventures such as the manufacture of mouth organs
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and ovens, which failed. Geoffrey Hawkes also sold shares in the company to fund his philandering, to the point that the company was forced to go public to raise cash. Leslie Boosey allowed Geoffrey his turn as chairman, but within two years the profitable company was on the brink of insolvency and Geoffrey Hawkes died of leukaemia in 1961.
Faber Music
Faber Music is a British sheet music publisher best known for contemporary classical music. It also publishes music tutor books, and in 2005 acquired popular music publisher International Music Publications....
for book publisher Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
with the assistance of Britten and the blessing of T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
.
Boosey retired from the company in 1964, and died without an obituary in 1979. Although he had been awarded with the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
by France, his achievements were mostly unrecognized in the UK. However, a large number of composers and their estates continue to benefit from his pioneering work in rights and royalty collection. In addition, every two years the Royal Philharmonic Society
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society is a British music society, formed in 1813. It was originally formed in London to promote performances of instrumental music there. Many distinguished composers and performers have taken part in its concerts...
and the Performing Right Society
Performing Right Society
PRS for Music is a UK copyright collection society undertaking collective rights management for musical works. PRS for Music was formed in 1997 as the MCPS-PRS Alliance, bringing together two collection societies: the Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society and Performing Right Society...
honour individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the furtherance of contemporary music in Britain with the Leslie Boosey Award. The award is given to those who work "backstage", such as administrators, broadcasters, educationalists, programmers, publishers and representatives from the recording industry.
Some time during the late 1960s or early 1970s Boosey & Hawkes bought out The Salvation Army Brass Instrument Factory in North London. They continued for some years to manufacture instruments with The Salvation Army name and crest on them such as The Bandmaster cornets.
Boosey & Hawkes' musical instruments division was gradually scaled down from the mid-1970s as it became less viable to have such an extensive range of products. Various lines were outsourced and sold off. By the time of the closure of the Edgware factory in 2001, brass instruments were the only thriving part of the instrument range. Production was moved to Watford
Watford
Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, and the instruments rebranded Besson
Besson (company)
Besson is a manufacturer of brass musical instrument. It is owned by Buffet Crampon, which bought Besson in 2006 from The Music Group.The company was formed in 1837 by Gustave Auguste Besson, who at the age of 18 produced a revolutionary design of cornet which surpassed all contemporary models. His...
.
It took nearly 20 years for Boosey & Hawkes to regain the leading position in the international music scene that it has today. It claims to be the largest specialist classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
publisher in the world.
The company today
In 2001, Boosey & Hawkes was put up for sale after accounting irregularities were discovered in its ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
instrument-distribution business, leading to £13m worth of sales being written off, a plummeting share price, and the company's near-bankruptcy. It was eventually bought by venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
ists HgCapital in 2003 for £40 million.
On 11 February 2003, Boosey & Hawkes sold its musical instrument division, which included clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
maker Buffet Crampon
Buffet Crampon
Buffet Crampon et Compagnie is a French manufacturer of woodwind musical instruments, including oboes, flutes, saxophones, and bassoons; however, the company is perhaps most famous for their clarinets, as Buffet is the brand of choice for many professionals....
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
manufacturer Höfner
Höfner
Karl Höfner GmbH & Co. KG is a German manufacturer of musical instruments, with one division that manufactures guitars and basses, and another that manufactures other string instruments....
, to The Music Group
The Music Group
The Music Group was a European parent company which owned several musical instrument manufacturers which were formerly part of the music division of the Boosey & Hawkes Group.* Besson * Buffet Crampon...
, a company formed by rescue buyout specialists Rutland Fund Management, for £33.2 million. An archive of musical instruments manufactured or collected by the company throughout its history was passed to the Horniman Museum
Horniman Museum
The Horniman Museum is a museum in Forest Hill, South London, England. Commissioned in 1898, it opened in 1901 and was designed by Charles Harrison Townsend in the Arts and Crafts style....
in Forest Hill
Forest Hill, London
Forest Hill is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It situated between Dulwich and Sydenham. The area has enjoyed extensive investment since plans to extend the East London Line to Forest Hill were unveiled in 2004....
, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
.
Elevation Partners
Elevation Partners is an American private equity firm that invests in intellectual property and media and entertainment companies. The firm has $1.9 billion of assets under management....
, a private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
firm which counts U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
lead singer Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
as a partner and managing director. Despite offers of about £115 million from a number of parties, the sale was later cancelled in November 2005.
Today, partly due to the foresight or business acumen of Ralph Hawkes, the company owns the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s or agencies to much major 20th century music, including works by Bartók, Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Britten (notably all his output between 1938 and 1963), Copland, Kodály, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss and Stravinsky. It also publishes many prominent contemporary composers, such as John Adams, Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...
, Sir Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
, Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin
Unsuk Chin , is a South Korean composer of classical music, based in Berlin, Germany. She was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in 2004 and the Arnold Schönberg Prize in 2005.- Biography :...
, Michael Daugherty
Michael Daugherty
Michael Kevin Daugherty is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Influenced by popular culture, Romanticism, and Postmodernism, Daugherty is one of the most colorful and widely performed American concert music composers of his generation...
, Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, Henryk Górecki
Henryk Górecki
Henryk Mikołaj Górecki was a composer of contemporary classical music. He studied at the State Higher School of Music in Katowice between 1955 and 1960. In 1968, he joined the faculty and rose to provost before resigning in 1979. Górecki became a leading figure of the Polish avant-garde during...
, Heinz Karl Gruber
Heinz Karl Gruber
Heinz Karl Gruber is an Austrian composer, bass player and singer, born in Vienna on 3 January 1943 and a leading figure of the so-called Third Viennese School.-Career:...
, Robin Holloway
Robin Holloway
Robin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
, Magnus Lindberg
Magnus Lindberg
Magnus Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He is currently the composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic.-Education:...
, James MacMillan
James MacMillan (musician)
James MacMillan CBE is a Scottish classical composer and conductor.-Early life:MacMillan was born at Kilwinning, in North Ayrshire, but lived in the East Ayrshire town of Cumnock until 1977....
, Olga Neuwirth
Olga Neuwirth
Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian composer.As a child at the age of seven, Neuwirth began lessons on trumpet. She later studied composition in Vienna at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts under Erich Urbanner, while studying at the Electroacoustic Institute...
, Kurt Schwertsik
Kurt Schwertsik
Kurt Schwertsik is an Austrian contemporary composer. He is famous for creating the “Third Viennese School” and spreading contemporary classical music....
and Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage
Mark-Anthony Turnage is a prolific English composer of classical music. His initial musical studies were with Oliver Knussen, John Lambert, and later with Gunther Schuller...
. The company's New York branch has developed its own catalogue emphasizing the works of American composers, including Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, David Del Tredici
David Del Tredici
David Del Tredici, born March 16, 1937 in Cloverdale, California, is an American composer. According to Del Tredici's website, Aaron Copland said David Del Tredici "is that rare find among composers — a creator with a truly original gift...
, Walter Piston
Walter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
, Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
and Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
.
295 Regent Street, which was the home of Boosey & Company since 1874 and of Boosey & Hawkes' publishing business and music shop from 1930, was finally given up by the company in 2005 which then relocated to Aldwych House. Boosey & Hawkes Music Shop claims to have the UK's largest selection of printed music from all publishers, and operates a worldwide mail order
Mail order
Mail order is a term which describes the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote method such as through a telephone call or web site. Then, the products are delivered to the customer...
service.
The company had a major division, BooseyMedia, that commissioned and produced music for radio, television and advertising jingle
Jingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
s, and the administration of copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
s owned by media companies. This has now been split into commercial synchronisation and production music departments, both under the Imagem name. Its Cavendish Production Music Library provides ready-made production music
Production music
Production music is the name given to recorded music produced and owned by production music libraries and licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media.-Introduction:...
for television, radio and audio-visual use.
The Boosey & Hawkes group has branches in five countries on four continents, including companies in Germany (Bote & Bock GmbH & Co. KG and Anton J. Benjamin GmbH), the UK (Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd.) and the USA (Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.). In North America, Boosey & Hawkes' catalogue is distributed by the Hal Leonard Corporation.
In April 2008, Boosey & Hawkes was bought by the Imagem Music Group.
Parodies
The company was lampooned by The Goon ShowThe Goon Show
The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...
as "Goosy and Borks" in their episode, "Lurgy Strikes Britain", as well as by musical parodist
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele
Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
who named one of the friends of fictional composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
P.D.Q. Bach Jonathan "Boozey" Hawkes. Somewhat more recondite was the punning reference delivered in one of Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
's parody concerts: "If Boosey's will Hawk it, Schott
Schott Music
Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...
's will Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
".