History of Steingräber Verlag

Since its very beginning, the publishing house devoted itself to the publication of musical material for students and instrumental training. With the ‚Damm Klavierschule’ it has made a highly respected name for itself in music education.

In addition, the Steingräber Verlag offers a wide range of instructional material by well- known teachers such as Frey, Pischna, Schmitt and Schütze, as well as adaptations of the sonatinas of Muzio Clementi by R. Kleinmichel and Willy Rehberg.

Our main editioral areas are therefore still publications for students and instrumental teaching as well as classical music and adaptations of classical repertoire.

The publishing house has always been able to attract outstanding musicians as collaborators, such as the renowned Swiss music professor, pianist and composer Walter Rehberg (1900-1957). He arranged concertos for piano and string orchestra by J. Ph. Rameau, and made a complete revision of Schubert’s piano sonatas, partly completing them and adding fingerings.

Numerous works by Henri Marteau (1874-1934), French violinist and composer, have appeared in the Steingräber Verlag together with around a hundred of his adaptations of the classical violin repertoire.

It was in 1909 that Marteau got to know Walter Friedel, director of the Steingräber Verlag, as an appreciative publisher, who had such high regard for his qualities as an educator, that he offered him the assignment for this comprehensive revision. The enormous task would keep him occupied for the rest of his life.

One of the most important adaptations, if not the most important, was the edition of the six solo sonatas by J. S. Bach, which encapsulated the essence of many years of experience of research and public performance.

After the end of the war, in 1919, the Steingräber Verlag resumed contact with Marteau.

In Lichtenberg in Franconia, where Marteau lived, the composer received a visit from the son-in-law of the deceased Walter Friedel, Georg Heinrich, architect and builder by profession, now director of the publishing house, accompanied by his musical advisor, Kapellmeister Gustav Groschwitz.

For the composer it constituted a gratifying appreciation of his art that the Edition Steingräber took on his works written during the war and immediately proceeded to print them.

Since 1982 the Marteau House in Lichtenberg in Upper Franconia has become a musical meeting place dedicated to continuing the intentions of the composer.

In the second century of its existence, the Steingräber Verlag wishes to continue this tradition and set an example with the current edition as well as with reprints and new editions.