INTRODUCTION: 1811—1836

“When there was no music.” Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii., Sc. 3. THE establishment of the publishing house dates from the year 1811, when Vincent Novello, then in his thirtieth year, issued his “Collection of Sacred Music,” in two folio volumes, dedicated to the Rev. Victor Fryer. The expenses of engraving and printing these volumes were provided for by himself out of his hard earnings as a professor of music : no publisher was to be found who would undertake the risk of giving the works to the world. so he himself became perforce his own publisher. and thus laid the foundation of the house. These works, performed by the members of the choir in the chapel of the Portuguese Embassy, in South Street, Park Lane, where he was organist, literally created the taste for compositions of a like kind. One of the peculiarities of the publication was the addition of an accompaniment for the organ fully set out, and not merely indicated by means of a figured bass. This was an innovation not at all approved by the generality of organists, probably because much of the difficulty and the mystery of their art was smoothed away, and made clear and available for the less skilful. The utility of the plan was silently recognised, and in course of time became general. At this present period no organist would think of printing an accompanying part with a figured bass only, and the school of players who persistently set their faces against the use of other means than the basso continuo lias fewr, if any, representatives.