The Music Publishing Catalogues of Provincial Music Stores in the Second Half of the 19th and the Early 20th Centuries: “M. Bernard” and “Vostochnaya Lira” (from the Collections of the Russian State Library)

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries many music publishing
houses and stores appeared in many cities and gubernias of the Russian empire. The cause for this
was the intensive development of the Russian art of music, the formation of academic musical
traditions and a flourishing of the Russian compositional school. The activities of provincial
musical publishing houses and stores, in particular, the “Vostochnaya lira” [“Eastern Lyre”] in
Kazan comprises a unique local history, infixed in the catalogues, preserved in the funds of the
Russian State Library. They contain valuable material which allows the study of the commercial
mechanisms of the present organizations, their repertoire conceptions and structural particularities,
to actualize the experience of long-term cooperation with profile organization, and also bring
into scholarly use lesser-known facts which serve as testimonies to their high spiritual mission.
The chief factor for success was the honorary title of “commissioner of the Imperial Russian
Music Society,” which became the sign of quality and the synonym for professionalism. The
scale of the organizations’ activities is connected with the support for national art and education
involving long-term projects for the development of the musical culture. Elucidation of their
work presents the possibility of expanding and supplementing knowledge about the Russian
music publishing business and its representatives.

Keywords: Russian music publishing business, provincial musical publishing houses and stores,
“M. Bernard,” “Vostochnaya lira,” Kazan circle of music lovers