European Music Trade

The music trade in 16th Century Europe was an evolving and expanding business. The invention of the printing press by Johann Gutenberg in 1440 and the subsequent improvements made by inventors and music publishers was essential to this expansion. The research presented in this essay examines the work of two music publishers, Ottaviano Petrucci and Pierre Attaingnant, who made significant contributions to the music trade of the mid and early 16th century in Europe. I will argue that their innovations were vital to the expansion of the music trade and influenced music printing methods centuries after their deaths. Their single greatest contribution to the music trade was their alterations to the process of music printing. By making it both

The difficulty in music printing at the time resided in the super imposition of notes on stave-lines. Liturgical practice, which required black notes on red stave-lines, made it necessary for printers to employ separate impressions. Petrucci claimed that he had made a discovery that would completely transform the process. It involved printing both staves and music by setting and printing the two layers separately. This was not an entirely new technique, as it had already been used by printers of liturgical music; but Petrucci did make the technique feasible for polyphony by developing much finer type material. The process consisted of sending the material through the printer three times- once for the notes and other musical signs, once for the staves and once for the text. Following 1503 it seems that he further improved his technique, now using two impressions instead of two by printing the staves and text together. However, the quality of printing appears to have gradually declined following this period. His first editions were never surpassed as models of printerly art, but the process wasted time and was overly exacting: a great deal of spoilage took place due to “misregistration” (failure of the impressions to line up exactly with one another (Oxford reference). His early editions, with their arduous production methods and stunning appearance,

Both contributed significantly with their own innovations to the music printing process and consequently initiated the spread of musical literacy across Europe. Ottaviano Petrucci is recognized as the first publisher to print polyphonic music using the triple impression printing method. Pierre Attaingnant, inspired by Petrucci’s success, simplified the method to a single impression, inventing the most economical printing technique and songbooks much more affordable to the middle class, in comparison to Petrucci’s