A Music Publisher's Response to CompetitIon Henry Playford, 1690-17021

Rass HARVEY

Over a short period of time at the end of the seventeenth century the physical appearance of printed music produced in London changed significantly, as illus-trated in figures 1 and 2. What explains this rapid change from a style that is un-familiar to modern musicians to one that is understandable today? This paper contends that the transformation had two main causes. The first was a change in the style of music being composed and performed in Britain at that time. The second was a competition between two printing technologies - the old method of printing music from movable type, and the new method of engraving. The activi-ties of Henry Playford, the leading music publisher in London during the 16805 and 1690s, and of various competitors who emerged around 1700, are described to illustrate the effects of these two causes.

Booksellers· and Printers Music printing and publishing in London around 1690 differed little in most respects from the mainstream book trade. The booksellers were members of one of the London tradesmen's guilds or Companies, most commonly the Worshipful Company of Stationers which controlled the ownership of copyright and the number of printing presses. Copyright ownership of a piece of music was granted only to members of the Stationers' Company who had paid a sum of money to the Company and had registered the ownersh.ip. The bookseller (or music-seller) kept a shop from which he sold books and/or music. Some booksellers also 'pub-lished', that is, they acquired manuscript music from composers (by purchase or theft), or perhaps commissioned composers to compose, edit or arrange music for publication. These 'publishers' negotiated with a printer, arranged for the printed sheets to be bound, and sold copies through their shops and distributed copies to other booksellers in London and the provincial centres for sale.:! They took all of the risks of publishing.

The printer was usually in a more secure financial position. He printed what was requested, at specified costs. His main business risk lay in not being paid. The printer sometimes shared the publication risks by entering into partnership with the publ1sherlbookseller. Printers bore a large initial setting-up cost (print-

L A version of this paper was presented at the BSANZ Conference, Perth, 10 October 1997. 2. The Stationers' Company registers, available on microftlm as Records of the Worshipful CDm-

pany of Stationers 1554-1920, ed. Robin Myers, Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey, 1985-, are an important source. See also C. Blagden, Tht! Stationers' Company: A History. 1403-1959, Lon· don: AlIen & Unwin, 1960, and John Feather, A History of British Publishing, London: Routledge, 1988. Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oxford: Clare?don, 1972, pp.171-185, provides a general description ofrhe structure of the book trade tn this pe-riod.

BSANZ Bulletin v.2S, no.1 & 2, 2001, 121-134

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122 Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin

ing presses, type, and premises), but the music printer had additional risks. Music type had up to three times more sorts (separate pieces of metal type) in a fount than did type for text, J and was therefore much more expensive. It represented an additional capital expense for music printers. Specialist knowledge of music was required, either by the Master printer or by one or more of his employees. By comparison with the number of books and pamphlets produced, very little music was printed in 1690.

Because music type was scarce, expensive, and not heavily used, those print-ers who owned it kept as little of it as possible. Consequently, the type could not be left standing for any length of time, as it sometimes was for text. After print-ing a piece of music the type was distributed immediately so that it could be used for the next piece of work and, if a reprint was required, the type had to be com-pletely reset. This meant that the bookseller had to guess correctly the number of copies he could sell, for, if he underestimated and needed more copies printed, he would have to outlay the full cost of setting the music type a second time.

All of this points to the fact that being a music printer was not an occupa-tion that could produce a good living. In London in 16904 only a handful of printers printed music. The bulk of their output was not music, but printed texts.

Henry Playford In 1690 Henry Playford was the best-known music seller in London. As the market was then not sufficiently large to support a specialist in music, Henry Playford also dealt in books in other subject areas, and also in art works. Henry was the son of John Playford, still well-known to musicians today through such publications as An Introduction to the Skill of Musicks and The Dancing Master. 6

John Playford was a composer and a friend of many English musicians of the period, including Henry Purcell. On his death in 1686 or 168t he left a thriving business which Henry carried on successfully for some years.

Henry Playford initially made few changes to his father's way of business: he used the same methods of obtaining music to publish, the same printers or their successors, and the same formats to publish the music in, especially the folio songbook format. For some years after John's death, most of Henry's publications were new editions or reissues of titles established by his father. Henry was a member of the Stationers' Company and consequently was bound by the con-

3. Music founts ranged from about 160 to 452 sorts; text usually had about 150. See Music Printing and Puhlishing ed. D.W. Krummel & Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan, 1990, pp.31,38; Gaskell, Ntw Introduction to Bibliography, p.33.

4. D.W. Krummel, English Music Printing. 1553-1700, London: Bibliographical Society, 1975, chapter V provides general background and indicates the small number of music printers in London at this time.

S. 12th ed. (1694) is published in facsimile: New York: Da Capo, 1972. 6. The bibliographical history of The Dancing Master has been noted in Th! Complett Country

Dance Tunts from Plo.yfordj 'Dancing Mastlr' (1651-co..1728) ed. Jeremy Barlow, London: Fa-ber Music, 1985.

7. More about John Playford can be found in the entry for him in Music Printing and Publishing, pp.374 -76, and in Krummel's English Mwic Printing.

Henry Playford's Response to Competition 123

straints of that Company; in particular, he abided by the Company's regulations about registering the ownership of his copy. He used printers who worked with metal type.s

All available evidence indicates that Henry Playford was successful for the first ten years following his father's death. He published a considerable amount of new music, including music· by the most important English composers of the period such as John Blow, Jeremiah Clarke, Daniel Purcell and Henry Purcell, and he advertised widely. He published almost all of Henry Pure ell's music, both in the period up to Purcell's death in 1695 and then from 1695 until about 1702, either for himself or acting on Mrs Frances Purcell's behalf:

Henry Playford's comfortable dominance was, however, to be shaken by changes in the techniques used to print music. Printing of music from engraved metal plates was the new technique; the agent of change was John Walsh. ('New' is a relative term, as engraving had been used for music in England in 1613 and in Italy almost a century earlier. It had never been widely used, however, and then only for specialist materials such as keyboard music where the notational re-quirements were not readily accommodated by type).

Music Engraving and John Walsh Printing from engraved plates is a completely different process from printing from type, or letterpress printing. The salient points about printing from music type are that the type is in small metal pieces, each representing a part of a note, beam, stem, tie, or a clef, and so whose form is fiXed by its designer and can-not be altered once it has been cast. By comparison, since any required design can be cut on to the metal plate used for engraved music, it can therefore represent whatever is required.9

John Walsh was a maker and seller of musical instruments, and was not a member of the Stationers t Company. He was therefore not bound by the con-straints of the Companyp who were primarily interested in letterpress printers and publications printed from type. -The Stationers' Company took little notice of those who printed from engraved plates or of those who sold it, perhaps considering that this trade was largely irrelevant to their business except to provide the occasional map or illustration. This attitude was to threaten the conventional music publishing trade seriously in only a single decade. John Walsh established himself in London in 1690 as a musical instrument seller and published his first music in 1695. By 1700 his output was considerable. For the next few decades he, and his son John Walsh after him, dominated London music publishing. Walsh was an astute businessman and died a wealthy man. tO

8. More about Henry Playford can be found in Music Printing and Publishing, pp.376-77. See also D.R Harvey, 'Henry Playford: A Bibliographical Study', Ph.D. dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, 1985.

9. Part one of Music Printing and Publishing explains and illustrates both processes. 10. 'Walsh' entry in MU.lic Printing and Puhlishing, pp.465-69; introduction to William C. Smith,

A Bibliography of the Musical Works Publishtd by John Walsh During the Years 1695-1720, Lon-don: Bibliographical Society, 1948, reprinted 1968.

124 Bibl£ographica/ Society of Australia & New Zealand Bullet:'n

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Henry Playford's Response to Competition

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Figure 2: Example of He pt install type, from Harmonia Sacra, Book 1, 2nd ed. (London: H. Playford, 1703), p. 13. Authoes collection.

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The advantages offered by music engraving over printing from music type were considerable. They were essential to meet new demands imposed by two factors: the music of the period, and the performance venues of that music.

Changing Musical Styles At one end of Henry Playford's period of influence - about 1680 - is the begin-ning of Henry Purcelfs popularity and musical maturity; at the other - about 1710 - is the overwhelming popularity of Handel and Italian opera. Foreign in-' fluences became increasingly important in English music, French at first, then Italian. English music, which had been somewhat xenophobic, adopted foreign features such as trio-sonata texture) antiphonal contrasts, and vocal coloratura, and greater attention was paid to the setting of expressive details and textual nu-ances. Performance venues changed too. The public concert, for instance, created a new kind of audience from the 16705, and influenced the music being com-posed by freeing it from the constraints of church and court.

Of greatest significance for this paper was the changing role of the theatre, where the quantity of music performed before, during and after dramatic per-formances greatly increased. By the late 1690s music was one of the major attrac-tions in the theatre and in some performances music, rather than acting, domi-nated. Typically there would be an entr'acte of song and dance, an afterpiece (of-ten a short farce or pantomime), and songs .and dance during the drama itself There was also a growing emphasis on variety - the 'latest song', the 'newest dance·, the most recent song (as performed by Mrs Bracegirdle' or other popular performer of the moment. Those booksellers who were the first to provide the newest song or dance reaped the financial benefits.

However, the old letterpress printing methods were not as responsive to this call for novelty as printing from engraved plates could be. Engraving was better equipped to handle the musical demands of the period in three ways: it could better represent the notation required by the music composed and performed at that time, it enabled the more immediate publication of this music, and it offered significant flexibility in the size of print runs.

The Notation By the beginning of the seventeenth century, rounded noteheads were standard in manuscript music, except for a few specialised kinds of notation such as plain-song. However, music printed from type in England used only diamond-shaped noteheads until the late 1680s, as illustrated in:' Figure 1. These music typefaces had been designed in the sixteenth century and were over a century behind their manuscript equivalents. They could not be used to readily notate some of the contemporary musical requirements. The inability of the old music typefaces such as Granjonll to cope with the shorter note values commonly used in English music by the 16805 is clearly illustrated in a work published by Henry Playford. On the titlepage of Henry Purcell's A Pastoral Elegy on the Death of Mr. John

11. These are the names given to the music rypefaces by Krummel in English Music Printing.

Henry Playford's Response to Competition 127

Playford, published by Henry Playford in 1687, are the words 'Note, the notes with this mark'" over them, are to be sung demiquavers. l (See also Figure 1.) Many similar examples of the notational inadequacy of music type of this period can be found. Clearly, music type was notationally inadequate for much contem-porary music. Engraving, on the other hand, had no such notational limitations. What could be expressed by a scribe in manuscript could be expressed almost as readily by an engraver. The notation of engraved music could be up to date.

Speed with which Music could be made Available With the growing emphasis on newness in music, on the latest songs and dance tunes, the speed of manufacture became increasingly important. Here the en-graver had the advantage of not needing to wait for type already set to be printed from and distributed back into its cases before it was again available for use. (It has already been noted that there probably were limited quantities of music type available in London.) The engraver could simply take a new metal (copper or pewter) plate and begin. This must have been an important factor for getting music printed and on sale more rapidly, although no direct evidence is available.

Size of Print Runs One common constraint of printing from type is that the publisher needs to es-timate accurately the numbers which can be sold. If too few copies are printed and the demand is not met, financial losses are incurred; if too many copies are printed and are not sold, then the publisher is tying up capital in unsold stock. Because music type was scarce it was unlikely to be kept standing: once set, it had to be printed immediately and distributed ready for use in another publication. As paper was the' single most expensive outlay in publication in this period, any mistake would be costly, with working capital tied up in unrealisable assets. The emphasis on novelty, on the latest song or air, also compounded the situation.

The publisher of engraved music did not work under these constraints. From his engraved plate he could have only five copies printed, or five hundred. If more copies were required next week, another five (or five hundred) copies could easily be printed from the engraved plate. His capital was not tied up in unsaleable publications, and his cash flow would be much healthier.

Responses to Competition As printing of music from engraved plates began to dominate the English trade so rapidly and c;:ompletely in England around 1700, traditional music book-seller/publishers such as Henry Playford tried to hold their share of the market against the inroads made by John Walsh, Thomas Cross, and others who pro-duced and sold engraved music.

By the mid-1690s Henry Playford was feeling the pressure of competition. He chose to counter this by issuing music from engraved plates himself, publish-ing low-cost collections of songs, developing a new, more modern music typeface, and issuing music serially.

128 Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin

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Figure 3: Engraved song: S. Eccles, A Song set by Mr. Eccles, Sung by Mrs. AylijJ (London, n.d.), Author's collection.

Henry Playford'j Response to Competition 129

.5.l .utJ}; Clsrk Campian a.£ Theater

Figure 4: Excerpt from an engraved song sheet issued by Henry Playford, probably in 1698:J. Clark, A New Song Set byMr.leremiah Clark (London: H.

Playford, 1698?).

130 Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin

Issuing Music from Engraved Plates Both Henry and his father John had issued engraved music, but this did not dis-play any unusual notational features. Henry's series of eight engraved songs12 al-most certainly date from about 1698, although only three can be dated (and these not definitely) by relating them to dramatic performances of that year. They were a new venture for him because of their form: they are single song sheets, that is, one song issued as a half-sheet, folio, often printed on one side only, and there-fore emulating the engraved music of competitors such as John Walsh and Tho-mas Cross. That only eight of these engraved sheets were produced suggests that Henry did not find them effective in combatting competition. He adopted other methods which were more familiar to him in their reliance on the old procedures of printing from type.

Low-cost Collections of Songs A second method by Henry Playford was publishing low-cost collec-tions of songs, offering 'greater value for money - a lower cost per song - than engraved music. The best-known examples are the several parts of Wit and Mirth: or Pills to Purge Melancholy of 1699, 1700, 1702,1703,1706 (edited by Playford) and issued up to as late as 1884 in the hands of other publishers.13 These volumes are small and crowded, containing a large number of songs old and new. They were advertised as being cheaper than the engraved: in another of these collec-tions,Apollos Banquet, it is suggested that the reader's

Pocket probably may have been overcharg'd before, from the great Prices which Engraver's put upon their Works ... this [book] contains Six times more than the New Engraven Books ... tho' it bears no higher a Price than h · . 1 I. t elr smg e ones.

The first book of Wit and Mirth, published in 1699, cost 2s. 6d. and contained 175 songs, a massive reduction in cost per song from the penny per song Walsh appears to have charged. Wit and Mirth was certainly a success, but by itself was not sufficient to counter the opposition successfully.

Developing a New Music Typeface The method which offered the greatest potential for success was Playford's part ownership, with the printer William Pearson, of a new, more modern music type-face. Another printer, John Heptinstall, had in 1687 introduced and used a type-face which was much more modern in appearance. Henry Playford first used this Heptinstall type in 1691 and from then unti11698 used Heptinstall and his new type for almost all of his music publications.

12. RlSM B983, C2595, C4326. E284, L2264, P5746, WI084; F. Forcer, A NroJ Song Set by Mr. Forur, Sold by Henry Playford (Num 5), British Library G.91 and Bodley Mus.Sch.c.97(10).

13. Bibliographical details of Wit and Mirth: Or, Pills to Purge Melancholy are found in Cyrus L. Day and E.B. Murrie. English Song-Books 1651-1702: A Bibliography, London: Bibliographical Society, 1940.

14. Apollos Banquet. 8th ed. (1701), Al.

Henry Playford's Response to Competition 131

Heptinstall's type is significant, by comparison with music type used in England before 1687, for three reasons: it uses round note-head shapes rather than diamond shapes, it can express ties and slurs, and it could express short note values. For reasons now unknown this face was not used after 1699.

Another modern typeface appe?-red in and was used widely by Henry Playford (see Figure 2).lt is similar in appearance to Heptinstall's but is smaller and more convenient. A considerable amount is known about Playford's and Pearsods ownership of the type through papers of a law suit which Pearson brought against Playford for allegedly not paying Pearson his due share of the profits. IS Playford's interest in using this more modern and more expressive type, and his financial backing of it, is further demonstration of his attempts to be competitive.

Serial Issue of Music The final method of combating competition noted here is that of serial issue of music. This practice is possibly Henry's only claim to true inventiveness. It does not appear to have been used in England for music before he introduced it in 1687. Periodical issue of music was later used extensively by Henry's rivals and successors, most notably John Walsh.

In the years 1679 to 1682 almost forty different newspapers were estab-lished in London.16 The newspaper was a new phenomenon. Although few newspapers were published from 1683 until 1694 for political reasons, there was a sudden increase from 1695 when the Licensing Act for publications lapsed. By the late 1690s newspapers were fashionable and popular - available in all the cof-fee houses - and influential. Serials other than newspapers, such as trade bulle-tins, literary and scientific journals, and astrology sheets, also thrived. The music periodical was added to this list by Henry Playford. He undoubtedly took as his model the newspapers and other periodicals of the period and used this concept to establish several periodicals, one of which, Mercurius Musicus, lasted a healthy four years. .

Serial issue means simply that publications are issued one after another, and are related to one another in some way, usually by numbering (such as {the first [second, third ... ] in the series'). Playford issued annual supplements to various of his works from 1687, of which The Dancing Master is a well-known example. Next came the publication in 1696 of a series of eight songs printed from type, related to each other by their numbering.17 The year suggests that Playford was

15. Cyrus L. Day and E.B. Murrie, 'Playford versus Pearson'. The Library, series 4, v.17 no.4, March 1937,427-47.

16. The extent of periodical issue in this period is indicated in C. Nelson & M. Seccornbe, Peri-odical Publications 1641-1700: A Survey with lllustrationst London: Bibliographical Society, 1986.

17. RlSM E225 (3 songs), E316, P5296; J. Clarke, A New Scotch Song in Fond Husband, Printed for Henry Playford and Samuel Scott, 1696, Library of Congress, Washington, M151B.A2C; J. Clarke, Two New Scotch Songs. advertised in Post Boy 380 (9-12 October 1697), no copy located.

132 Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin

already aware of the strength of the competition and was experimenting with new ways of countering it.

Mercurius Musicus' Mercurius Musicus, by comparison, was a true periodical issued at regular inter-vals. It was the first British periodical consisting entirely of music, although from 1692 to 1694 the London monthly, Gentleman's Journal, had included a song in each issue. Mercurius Musicus consisted entirely of songs, usually for a single voice with continuo, but occasionally for two voices and continuo, or chorus and or-chestral accompaniment. It was published from January 1699 to October 1702. The use of the word 'mercurius' in the title links it firmly to other fashionable periodicals of the day such as Mercurius Britannicus and Mercurius Politt"cus.

The subtitle of Mercurius.Musicus expresses its intention: Ithe Monthly Col-lections of new teaching songs, composed for the theatres, and other occasions.' The emphasis here is on the timeliness and the novelty of theatre songs and songs for other events. Playford elaborated on this in most issues, for example in his statement '1 shall take care, the songs shall be the newest of the last month'. It is difficult to measure exactly how current these songs were. Only 31 out of the total of over 100 can be related to a particular theatrical performance, royal occa-sion, or other event. This limited sample suggests that the average time which elapsed between performance and publication was about eight weeks. IS

Another concern expressed by Playford was that the songs published in Mercurius Musicus should be accurate, unlike his competitors' engraved songs which left 'the Gentlemen uneasie that single songs very Imperfect should be Extant before the Month was out'.19 His purchasers, he contended, should prefer the songs more perfectly printed from type in Mercurius Musicus to those printed from engraved plates.

That Mercurius Musicus lasted four years, a long life for a periodical at this period, is a measure of its success. However, it became less profitable in its third and fourth years, as sUfgested by frequent changes in partnership arrangements shown in the imprints2 and in fluctuations in the frequency of issue. The last is-sue of the typeset Mercurius Musicus was probably that of October 1702.

'In November 1702 John Walsh published the first of his engraved periodi-cal, The Monthly Mask of Vocal Music, with a subtitle almost identical to Mercurius Musicus. The Monthly Mask was to be enormously popular, continuing until 1711 and in a second series from 1717 to 1724.21

18. For example, Eccles' 'What Beauty is' in Southerne's FaIt of Capua was premiered in early April 1700 and published in the number of Mercunus Musicus published on 27 April- 2-3 weeks; Ackeroyde's 'Loving and belov'd again' in Harris's Lo'Ues a Lottery, premiered at the start of April 1699 and present in the number of MtTcurius Musicus published on 18 March -4-5 weeks; but Qyeen'in Dennis's Rina/do and Armida, premiered in late Novem-ber 1698 and published in the number issued on 28 February - 12 weeks.

19. Mercurius Musicus SeptemberlDecember 1701, QJv. 20. J. Hare and J. Young during 1699, replaced by D. Browne in 1700, J. Nun for a short period. J.

Hare again in 1702, and Playford alone in the final issues. 21. For details see entries in Smith, Bibliography of the Musical Works Published byJohn Walsh.

Henry Playford's Response to Competition

Figure 5: Example of He pt install type, from A Scotch Song in tht Last New Play, Sung by Mrs Croft (London: H. Playford and S. Scott, 1696).

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134 Bibliographical Society of Australia & New Zealand Bulletin

Conclusion Henry Playford's attempts were, finally, to no avail. His business became increas-ingly unprofitable and he published fewer and fewer musical works after 1702, concentrating his efforts more in the publication of non-musical works and in selling art works. He died in the latter half of 1709. It is tempting to think that he had been worn out by his ,unceasing struggle to preserve the old methods against the inroads made by the new.

Some of the ways in which the nature of the music being composed and performed) and the circumstances of its composition and performance, have a direct bearing on the printing and publishing of that music and thus on the mu-sic's physical appearance on the printed page have been described here. This area is wide open for further study.