Novello, Vincent
Novello Joseph Alfred, *12 August 1810 London, †16 July 1896 Genoa, English music publisher, oratorio singer, eldest son of Vincent. He was a soloist and choir singer at Lincoln’s Inn Chapel in London. In 1829 he took over his father’s publishing business and was still running it as The Sacred Music Warehouse, The London Sacred Warehouse, later under the name Novello & Co. In 1832 he completed the publishing of Purcell’s works initiated by his father, provided repertoire for J. Hullah’s massively expanding singing schools, publishing Novello’s Choral Handbuch and J. Mainzer’s Singing for Million, low-priced vocal scores of Handel’s oratorios, Mendelssohn’s new works Paulus and Elias, making a huge contribution to the development of the amateur choral singing movement. In order to reduce costs, in 1847 he opened his own printing office and broke many of the restrictive practices of the printing industry. He showed literary and scientific interests; he founded 2 journals: “Musical World” (1836) and “Musical Times and Singing Class Circular” (1844), which was edited by his sister Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke (1809–1898) from 1853 to 1856. Each issue of the magazine was provided with one or more choral works in a format compatible with the magazine, in the handy size of the so-called “octavo”, which later became common for this type of printed music. Novello was actively involved in the campaign to abolish the tax levied on magazines, journals, advertisements, and foreign books, the so-called “tax of knowledge”. In 1856, Novello retired from the company and went to Nice and then to Genoa. The management of the company was taken over by Henry Littleton (1823–1888), an employee of the company from 1841, co-owner from 1861 and sole owner from 1866. In 1867 he took over the publishing firm of Ewer & Co., together with the rights to publish Mendelssohn’s works; he briefly renamed the publishing house Novello, Ewer & Co. however, soon reverted to the name Novello & Co. Ltd. Under his leadership, the company became one of the major music publishing houses on a global scale. It still operates today as a representative office for many European publishers.
Literature: M. Cowden-Clarke The Life and Labours of Vincent Novello by His Daughter, London 1864; (https://archive.org/details/cu3192402236161699); [J. Bennett] A Short History of Cheap Music as Exemplified in the Records of the House of Novello, Ewer & Co., London 1887 (https://archive.org/details/cu3192402236161699; Joseph Alfred Novello. Born 1810, Died July 16, 1896,The Musical Times 37 (642) 1 August 1896 (http://www.jstor.org./stable/3365904); The Musical World, (London 1836–1891) (http://www.ripm.org/jpurnal_info.php5?ABB=MWO); F. Kidson British Music Publisher and Engravers: From Queen Elisabeth’s Regin to George the Fourth’s, London 1900; A Century and a Half in Soho. A Short History of the Firm of Novello Publishers and Printers of Music, 1811–1961, London 1961; O. Neighbour, A.Tyson English Music publishers’ Plate Numbers in the first of the Nineteenth Century, London 1965; N. Temperly MT and Musical Journalism, 1844’ published in: Musical Times (1969); M. Hurt Vincent Novello and Company, London 1981 (http://books.google.com.books?id=ATiTAAAAIAAJ); V. L. Cooper The house of Novello: the practice and policy of a Victorian music publisher, 1829–1886, London 2003; D. Russell Novello (Joseph) Alfred (1810–186), music publisher published in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 23 September 2004 (https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-56611?rskey=P1QS97&result=6); Joseph Alfred Novello, The Chicago Chronicle, Genua 18 July 1896, udostępnione 26 VII 2020 przez Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com/clip/56156239/joseph-alfred-novello/).