Nagels Verlag

Nagels-Verlag which was founded in Hanover and is known for its well-known „Nagels Musik-Archiv“ series, has belonged to the Bärenreiter publishing group since 1952.

The music shop was founded by Carl Bachmann in Hanover in 1819 and included an affiliated hire library, a music printing press and a music instrument shop. In 1835 this was taken over by its managing director (Georg Wilhelm) Adolph Nagel (1800–1873) as the “Hofmusikalienhandlung Adolph Nagel”.

The music shop and publishing house was at first continued by Nagel’s son Theodor Georg Nagel (1836–1888). His children, Adolf and Elsbeth Nagel, sold the music shop and large parts of the publishing business but retained a small interest in the publishing activity, issuing, for example,  the edition of the chorale book of the Church of Hannover in 1939.

From 1898/99, the music shop had various owners and in 1913 it was bought by the music dealer Alfred Grensser (1884–1950). In 1927 he commenced  publication with the series „Nagels Musik-Archiv“ (Verlag Adolph Nagel). This series was intended for the youth movement and he made a great contribution to the revival of recorder music. He attracted notable editors such as Hans-Joachim Moser and Friedrich Blume for his performing editions of 16th to 19th century music.

In 1941, after the death of Adolf and Elsbeth Nagel, the two separate publishing companies, Verlag Adolph Nagel and Nagels Verlag, could again be merged. Following the complete destruction of the company in 1943, Grensser moved to Celle in 1944. Here, after his death in 1950, his widow Ernestine Grensser directed the business until the company was taken over by Bärenreiter.

The profile of the company and the„Nagels Musik-Archiv“ series have been retained, and in the 1950s a new area of publishing, namely music for male voice choir, was added. Now the publishing programme concentrates on performing editions of chamber music by Lorenzo Allegri, Carl Philipp Emanuel and Johann Christian Bach, Luigi Boccherini, Christoph Graupner and Georg Philipp Telemann.