Novello.
Founded 1811 in London by Vincent Novello. The British choral house. Handel's Messiah in the cheap octavo edition that put oratorio singing in every parish hall. Mendelssohn's Elijah. Stainer's Crucifixion. Vaughan Williams. Britten's church music. The yellow Novello vocal score is British choral publishing.
Handel's Messiah
for every choir.
Vincent Novello was the organist of the Portuguese Embassy chapel in London. He founded the press to put cheap, accurate vocal scores of Handel, Haydn, and Mozart into the hands of the choral societies that were forming in every English town in the 1820s and 30s.
By 1846 Novello had published the cornerstone octavo Messiah at a sixpence — affordable for any chorister. Mendelssohn's Elijah, Stainer's Crucifixion, Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony, the entire British choral tradition from Parry through Howells reached print through this house. The yellow Novello cover is the visual signature of British choral music.
Vocal scores for every choir.Novello · since 1811
Anthem, oratorio,
cantata, service.
Anglican church music (anthems, services, hymnal); oratorio vocal scores (the core catalogue); contemporary cathedral and choral society repertoire; carol books; choir-training material.
Acquired by the Music Sales group in 1989; now distributed in the US through Hal Leonard.
