Parts of the Schott Archive Mainz now in Basel

The press release states:

"The Paul Sacher Foundation has recently acquired a large number of important scores and letters from the publishing archives of Schott Music in Mainz, enabling it to substantially expand its existing collections. Formerly known as B. Schott's Söhne, one of the publishers of Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner, Schott is today one of the largest and most traditional music publishers in the world, and has always been committed to contemporary music.

Of the composers represented in the Paul Sacher Foundation, Hans Werner Henze, György Ligeti, Heinz Holliger, Aribert Reimann, Dieter Schnebel and, in some cases, Igor Stravinsky, Klaus Huber, Jürg Wyttenbach and Conrad Beck have had their works published by Schott. In the past, their fair copies usually became the property of the publishing house. The Hans Werner Henze collection in particular is experiencing immense growth,
The composer was associated with the Mainz publishing house for over fifty years and had all his works published there until 2001.

Among the manuscripts that have now found their way into the Paul Sacher Foundation are Hans Werner Henze's fair copies of The Bassarids and Muses of Sicily. But also the handwritten piano score of Igor Stravinsky's Violin concertoGyörgy Ligeti's fair copies of Lontano and Chamber concert or Aribert Reimann's opera Lear are included.

In total, the parts of the Schott archive transferred to Basel comprise over 280 - in some cases extensive - manuscripts of works from the period from 1927 to 2018. In addition, there are around 3,000 original letters, which provide an insight into the creation of the works and the circumstances surrounding their production and premiere. Production documents also document the printing of the works (often in different versions);
Many of them contain substantial corrections by the composers.

The materials from the Schott archive will be processed in the course of 2020 and should be made available for research as quickly as possible."