Schott.
Founded in 1770 by Bernhard Schott (1748–1809). The oldest continuously operating music publisher in the world. Mozart's first publisher. Beethoven's. Wagner's. Hindemith's. Penderecki's. Still in the original Weihergarten building, in the heart of Mainz.
Court music
engraver to Mainz.
In 1780 — only ten years after he founded the firm — Bernhard Schott was awarded the privilegium exclusivum together with the title of court music engraver to the Elector of Mainz. Within the boundaries of the electorate no other publisher could re-engrave or sell the works he produced.
Schott was among the first publishers to adopt lithography. From the engraving plates of Mainz, his editions reached Antwerp by 1823, Brussels by 1839 (as Schott frères from 1879), and on to Leipzig, London, Paris and Vienna. The firm has never moved from its original headquarters, the Weihergarten building.
Bernhard Schott · Founder
The piano reductions and first editions of Don Giovanni, Die Entführung, the late Beethoven works including the Ninth Symphony, the Missa solemnis and the last two string quartets.Schott Music · the early catalogue
Weihergarten · Mainz, since 1770
From Mozart
to Penderecki.
After Bernhard's death in 1809 his sons continued the music business under the name B. Schotts Söhne. The firm published Wagner alongside the German Romantic generation, then 20th and 21st century composers including Hindemith, Stravinsky, Henze, Ligeti, Reimann and Penderecki. The Eulenburg pocket-score series — the standard study editions used in conservatories worldwide — sits inside the same family.
Today Schott Music ranks among the leading music publishers in the world, with branches in 10 countries. The catalogue is one of the deepest scholarly resources in classical music: critical urtext, performance editions, and pedagogical literature for piano, strings, woodwinds, brass and voice.