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Casa Ricordi is a publisher of primarily classical music and opera. Its classical repertoire represents one of the important sources in the world through its publishing of the work of the major 19th-century Italian composers such as Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, Giuseppe Verdi, and, later in the century, Giacomo Puccini, composers with whom one or another of the Ricordi family came into close contact.〔Gossett 2006, p. 97〕 Founded in Milan in 1808 as G. Ricordi & Co. by violinist Giovanni Ricordi (1785–1853), the Ricordi company became a totally family-run organization until 1919, when outside management was appointed. Four generations of Ricordis were at the helm of the company, Giovanni being succeeded in 1853 by his son Tito (1811— 1888) (who had worked for his father since 1825). Tito's son was Giulio (1840—1912). He had also worked for his father, beginning full-time in 1863, and then took over from 1888 until his death in 1912. Finally Giulio's son, also named Tito, (1865—1933) replaced his father until 1919.〔Macnutt (i) 1998, p. 1317〕 By the 1840s and throughout that decade, Casa Ricordi had grown to be the largest music publisher in southern Europe and in 1842 the company created the musical journal the ''Gazzetta Musicale di Milano.'' As younger employees under their fathers and then as leaders of the company, the succeeding Ricordis made great strides in establishing publishing relationships with opera houses outside of Milan, including La Fenice in Venice and Teatro San Carlo in Naples. They also established branches of the company within Italy — in 1864 it expanded to Naples and then to Florence (1865), Rome (1871) and Palermo, as well as in London (1875) and Paris (1888). With this expansion under the elder Tito, another of his accomplishments was in modernizing printing methods. With the acquisition of rival publishers, by 1886 Ricordi handled 40,000 editions as well as the Italian rights to Wagner's operas.〔 In the 20th century, the company's expansion continued with acquisitions and new branches, which included those in New York (1911), São Paulo (1927), Toronto (1954), Sydney (1956), and Mexico City (1958).〔Macnutt (i) 1998, p. 1318〕 In its early days, the company established itself under the portico of the Palazzo della Ragione and then close to the La Scala opera house after 1844, eventually moving to its present location on the via Berchet. However, these premises suffered severe damage from aerial bombardment during World War II, but its collections had already been safely stored away. Following reconstruction after the war, Ricordi was converted to a limited corporation by the family in 1952 and in 1956 it became a publicly traded company. With 135,500 editions by 1991, Ricordi was acquired in 1994 by BMG Music Publishing, which in turn was purchased by Universal Music Publishing Group in 2007. It is now Italy's largest music publisher. ==Beginnings== Giovanni Ricordi, a violinist, leader of a small orchestra in Milan, as well as "a genius and positive force in the history of Italian opera",〔 in 1803 had a firm, a "copisteria", which specialized in producing manuscript copies of music for local music groups,〔 and very quickly, he became official copyist for two theatres. He entered into what became a short-term partnership with Felice Festa, an engraver and music seller, but that ended in June 1808. The first work which the new company published in 1808 was a piece for guitar by Antonio Nava, and this was followed in 1814 by the first catalogue, which contained 143 items. 〔(Ricordi Company history ) on ricordicompany.it〕 The 1814 catalogue included mostly piano arrangements of operatic tunes and some individual numbers as well as pieces for guitars, but Macnutt notes the most important single inclusion as being the complete vocal score of Simon Mayr's 1806 opera, ''Adelasia ed Aleramo'',〔 which was regularly performed at La Scala until 1820. Throughout these years he was acutely aware of the limitations of copyright law, as varied as it was throughout the both the country and the continent. While he was able to secure performance rights to individual numbers and then, engraving them onto copper plates, easily make reproductions from there, he found that the full orchestral scores were still guarded in Italy, although German and French publishers were printing entire scores with impunity.〔Gossett 2006, pp. 98—99〕 In fact, in regard to the printing of full scores in Italy, Macnutt in his article "Publishing" in Sadie, notes that: "The full scores published in Italy in the first half of the century were eight Rossini scores printed in lithography by (rival publishers ) Ratti Cencetti & Comp. in Rome in the 1820s and a single Bellini opera, ''Beatrice di Tenda'', published by Pittarrelli about 1833, also in Rome."〔Macnutt (ii) 1998, p. 1163〕 It was through the gradual accession to the rights to control La Scala's archives, as well as subsequently-produced operas, that he was able to bypass the limitations on publishing full scores, and—as Gossett notes—"not be its employee but a private entrepreneur from whom theatres rented materials".〔 In contrast, many of Ricordi's competitors produced "hackwork manuscripts" in no way based on the composers' autographs.〔 In 1844, the company produced its "Gran Catalogo", focused on music for the theatre, and includes the work of what it called its "house composers" which included Rossini, Bellini, Mercadante, Donizetti and Verdi.〔 In addition, another of Giovanni's strategies was to acquire—beyond just the publishing rights—the right to represent the composers in relation to the opera companies and theatres where their work would be presented, in order that successive performances elsewhere would bring in additional royalties. In that way Giovanni and later, his successors, acquired more-or-less total rights to their composers' works and, as Rossini's operas gave way to those of Bellini, the rise of Donizetti following until his death, and then the preeminence of Verdi, the position of each composer was strengthened by this growing strategy.〔Gossett 2006, p. 100〕 As business expanded, it became clear to Giovanni that also producing string and choral parts, for which there would be great demand by opera house orchestras, was another means of expanding the firm's involvement and also assuring composers that there would be uniformity.〔Gossett 2006, p. 101〕 However, although Ricordi began to publish full scores from the 1850s, they were never made available for sale, only for rent to opera houses.〔 Quite quickly, as Verdi's operas became more and more popular, this approach extended to producing all of the orchestral parts for each opera, most especially the three great successes of the 1850s, ''Rigoletto'', ''Il trovatore'', and ''La traviata'', and those which followed when Tito Ricordi headed the firm.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Casa Ricordi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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