Catalogues and Price Lists of the Music Publishing Company “Julius Heinrich Zimmerman”: Organization, Advertising Mechanisms and Trade Assortment (from the Collections of the Russian State Library)

Abstract

The music publishing business of the second half of the 19th and the early 20th centuries is one of the most interesting phenomena in Russian culture that makes it possible for us to analyze the specific features of its spatial and temporal development and a vast scholarly range. The article examines the advertising materials, periodical catalogues and price lists of individual printing company, and as a result the necessity arises for a holistic perception of the manufactured assortment and a certain number of its features. As a rule, this is associated with the commercial interests of specialized firms that published and sold musical scores and books about music, the situation in the market of that time, as well as the objective and subjective factors of historical time. The publishing house “Julius Heinrich Zimmerman” was the leader of the industrial segment that made use of advanced technologies in the publishing and sales of sheet music. The scale of this activity is fully reflected in the special catalogues preserved in the funds of the Russian State Library (containing valuable material about their cultural profile, economic strategies, advertising mechanisms and artistic components) — a generalizing example of the work of many competitive enterprises. The focus of our attention lies on catalogues covering the time period between 1885 and 1911 — the time period of the creation of a systemic network trade, the opening of branches in other countries, and the achievement of a stable international reputation. Examination of these samples makes it possible to understand the algorithms of obtaining monetary profit and marketing moves that are also on demand at the present time.

Keywords: Julius Heinrich Zimmerman, music publishing business in Russia, musical stores, trade policies of music publishers