An exhibition at the Barbican Music Library, 26 October to 28 November 1998
This exhibition re-visits the early years of the OUP Music Department, with displays of photographs, manuscripts, and published scores, and tells the story of the foundation of a major force in British musical life.
BARBICAN MUSIC LIBRARY, BARBICAN CENTRE, LONDON EC2Y 8DS
Library opening hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 9.30-5.30
Tuesday: 9.30-7.30
Saturday: 10.30-1.30
Oxford University Press is one of the world's most eminent music publishers. In 1998 we celebrate 75 years of crucial involvement in the design, printing, and dissemination of music, in establishing the reputation of many now celebrated composers, editors, and writers, and in playing a central role in music-making around the globe.
Oxford University Press (OUP), publishers of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Sir William Walton, two giants of English composition, celebrates its 75th Anniversary Year in 1998. The largest remaining British-owned publisher of classical music and educational books, OUP was a relative late-comer when it began publishing music in 1923. To mark the occasion of its anniversary, OUP has co-commissioned an orchestral work by Michael Berkeley in his 50th birthday year.
The OUP Music Department was founded in 1923 under the energetic leadership of Hubert Foss. Foss soon made obvious his strong interest in contemporary music, and demonstrated a real desire not only to ‘publish’ in the conventional sense, but to promote and assist performance of his burgeoning music list. Choral music formed the backbone of that early list, but Foss also issued instrumental albums, chamber music, hymn books, and educational materials.
Major composer 'acquisitions' during our early years included the young William Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams (still with many fruitful composing years ahead of him), and Constant Lambert. Each of these composers found in Hubert Foss not simply a publisher, but also a sympathetic, knowledgeable friend and confidant. By 1931 our list contained well over 1,750 titles, implying a publication rate of well over 200 titles a year. Foss was an expert typographer with a keen eye for layout, and many of the scores issued under him during the 1920s and 1930s have become design classics, with striking covers and elegantly engraved music pages. OUP continues to maintain that high standard of visual presentation and production in our publications today.
From its beginnings in 1923 right up to the present day, OUP has remained at the forefront of music publishing, continuing to develop our already strong choral list (both contemporary works, and editions of classic repertoire), teaching materials for instrumental and classroom work, extensive and varied concert and church music lists, hymn books and liturgical publications, and extensively researched critical editions.
OUP wishes to thank the following for their kind assistance in preparing this exhibition:
Robert Tucker, Librarian, Barbican Music Library
Christopher Smith, Managing Director, Halstan & Co.
Diana Sparkes (née Foss)
Eirian Griffiths