Welcome

To begin this blog we will be including some of the most popular articles that have featured in Stainer & Bell's award winning newsletter 'The Bell' - started 25 years ago in 1987.

Below is a brief history of Stainer & Bell, together with details about our current areas of activity. For a more detailed account of the fascinating Stainer & Bell story, we have compiled a series of pages to mark our first 100 years.

The Birth

Founded in 1907, Stainer & Bell Ltd is a small, independent, family run business, specialising in the publication of quality music and books.

There was neither a Mr Stainer nor a Mr Bell. Tradition has it that the six original partners chose the firm's name because it had a creditworthy ring to it. However, a direct family link with the present management team can be traced back to 1912.

Childhood

Composers published in the early years included Charles Villiers Stanford, Percy Buck, Harold Darke, Thomas Dunhill, Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. Works by all these writers are still in print, and we are especially pleased to publish many works by Ralph Vaughan Williams, including A Sea Symphony, Toward the Unknown Region, Five Mystical Songs and A London Symphony.

Adult Years/Parenthood

Later, the publishing pedigree was enhanced by the acquisition of Augener, famous for its practical editions of the classical masters; Joseph Williams, one of the oldest British publishing houses, founded in 1808; and Galliard, bringing to the parent company a fine range of cello music.

Carefully nurtured over many years, the catalogue now contains some of the richest treasures from three centuries of British musical achievement, including works by Frank Bridge, Alan Bush, Geoffrey Bush, William Byrd, Frederick Delius, Edward Elgar, Herbert Howells, John Ireland, Gordon Jacob, Hubert Parry, Henry Purcell and Peter Warlock, and acclaimed tutors and textbooks by Dorothy Bradley & Raymond Tobin, Adam Carse, Neil Mackay, Stewart Macpherson and William Squire.

The four principal contemporary composers in the catalogue are, Morgan Hayes, Bayan Northcott, Rhian Samuel and Roger Steptoe. Their challenging range of songs, concertos and other instrumental pieces is complemented by exciting new educational works from the younger generation of specialist music teachers such as Peter Lawson, Patric Standford and Jeffrey Whitton.

The company has had a number of homes over the years, but in 1991 it moved to Victoria House, a spacious turn-of-the-century building in North London. Up-to-the-minute technology ensures that music in a wide variety of styles is speedily invoiced and despatched to numerous countries throughout the world.
Click on the picture of Victoria House to come in and meet the staff.

100th Birthday...

2007 saw the company celebrating its 100th birthday. A healthy, vibrant and lively centenarian, S&B is actively involved in a diverse range of publishing activities. New hymnody, scholarly volumes, jazz publications, educational music, 'light' organ music and CD-ROMS, combine with the extensive back catalogue to make the rich musical resource that is the Stainer & Bell catalogue.