Editing Universal Edition (section)

=== 20th century ===
Universal Edition was founded on 1 June 1901 in [[Vienna]].<ref name="Grove">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Simeone |first=Nigel |year=2001 |encyclopedia=[[Grove Music Online]] |title=Universal Edition |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28800 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000028800 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}</ref>{{efn|It was originally founded with a hyphen, "Universal-Edition.<ref name="OurHistory">{{cite web |title=Our history |publisher=Universal Edition |url=https://www.universaledition.com/our-history |access-date=20 June 2023 }}</ref>}} It was formed by the publishers [[Bernhard Herzmansky]] (himself from the {{ill|Musikverlag Doblinger|de|lt=Doblinger}} firm), {{ill|Adolf Robitschek|de}} and {{ill|Josef Weinberger|de}} as an attempt to compete with the [[Leipzig]]-based publishers [[Breitkopf & Härtel]] and [[Edition Peters]].<ref name="Grove"/> UE itself describes this as an attempt to "simply to counter the predominance of the foreign music trade in Vienna with a domestic music publishing house".<ref name="OurHistory"/> In a financial boost for UE, the Austrian Ministry of Education gave a 5 July 1901 decree that Austrian music schools should prefer UE editions over those by German publishers.<ref name="Grove"/> The firm's creation was announced next month in the ''[[Neues Wiener Tagblatt]]'':

{{Verse translation|lang=German|
"Die neue Musikausgabe, welche unter Zusammenwirken der hervorragendsten Interessenten des österreichisch-ungarischen Musikverlages gegründet wurde, [...] [wird] sowohl die Werke der Classiker wie auch die hervorragendsten Werke instructiver Art umfassen [...], denen sich Schöpfungen bedeutender moderner Meister, [...] anreihen werden."
|"The new music publisher is a joint venture founded by leading publishers of Austria-Hungary. [...] As well as publishing the classics and significant instructive works, it will also publish compositions by important modern masters ..."
|attr1=''[[Neues Wiener Tagblatt]]'', 9 August 1901, p. 6{{efn|There original newspaper may be seen online: {{cite web |title=Page 6 |work=[[Neues Wiener Tagblatt]] |publisher=[[Austrian Newspapers Online]] |url=https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=nwg&datum=19010809&seite=6&zoom=33 |access-date=20 June 2023 }} (see the middle column)}}
|attr2=Translation by [[Nigel Simeone]] in ''[[Grove Music Online|Grove]]''
}}

In 1904, UE acquired Aibl publishers, and so acquired the rights to works by [[Richard Strauss]], [[Max Reger]], and other composers. The arrival of [[Emil Hertzka]] as managing director in 1907, who remained until his death in 1932, really pushed the firm towards new music. Under Hertzka, UE signed contracts with a number of important contemporary composers, including [[Béla Bartók]] and [[Frederick Delius]] in 1908; [[Gustav Mahler]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]] and [[Franz Schreker]] in 1909. Mahler's ''[[Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)|Symphony No. 8]]'' was the first work UE acquired an original copyright to. [[Anton Webern]] and [[Alexander von Zemlinsky]] were signed in 1910, [[Karol Szymanowski]] in 1912, [[Leoš Janáček]] in 1917 and [[Kurt Weill]] in 1924. Through their association with Schoenberg, it also published many works by [[Alban Berg]].

The firm's avant garde directions continued after [[World War II]], when UE published works by a number of significant composers, among these [[Luciano Berio]], [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Morton Feldman]], [[Mauricio Kagel]], [[György Kurtág]], [[György Ligeti]] and [[Karlheinz Stockhausen]]. Later important additions to the catalogue include [[Harrison Birtwistle]], [[Friedrich Cerha]], [[Georg Friedrich Haas]], [[Cristóbal Halffter]], [[Georges Lentz]], [[Arvo Pärt]], [[Wolfgang Rihm]], [[David Sawer]], [[Gisela Selden-Goth]], and [[Johannes Maria Staud]].

UE have also published several significant historical editions, including the complete works of [[Claudio Monteverdi]]. In collaboration with [[Schott Music|Schott]], they have published the Wiener Urtext Edition series since 1972. Originally consisting of works for one or two performers by composers from [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] to [[Johannes Brahms]], the series was later expanded to include a limited number of later works, such as the ''[[Ludus Tonalis]]'' of [[Paul Hindemith]].