Sheet Music

The publication and sale of music on paper began in the 15th century after the invention of the printing press. European publishers worked out different methods for printing music during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first publisher to specialize in printed music was Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf of Leipzig, Germany. He founded his printing firm in 1719 and decided to specialize in printing music in 1754. In 1795, Gottfried Christoph Härtel acquired the company and it was renamed Breitkopf & Härtel, now the oldest music publishing house in existence.

In the United States, sheet music became popular after the American Revolution, when European music publishers immigrated to the United States and opened shops in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Sheet music became even more popular after the Civil War. By 1880, publishers began to print advertising on sheet music. They also included pieces of music as promotional items, including pull-out sections of newspapers. Sheet music hit its peak during the decade of 1900 to 1910.

Vintage sheet music is easy and economical for collectors to acquire, as so much of it was produced. Collectors enjoy these pieces due to their often colorful cover art and significance in modern music history. The value of vintage sheet music depends on its rarity and its condition, not its age. Sheet music produced in the United States after 1880 was so plentiful that much of it has little value today.

Quick Facts

• The publishing house of Breitkopf and Härtel published many original works of famous composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert and Wagner
• A copy of the "Buffalo Bill March" by Henry Weinskowitz, published about 1880 picturing Buffalo Bill on the cover was sold by Heritage Auctions in 2010 for $658
• In 2007, a collection of 14 pieces of Confederate sheet music from the American Civil War era was sold by Heritage Auctions for $4,481.25