George E. Blake

Title page

Contents

History

George E. Blake was born in England in 1775. He began his own business in Philadelphia in 1802 when John Isaac Hawkins transferred the rights for the manufacture and sale of his portable upright piano to Blake. The first music published under Blake's name dates to 1803. By 1810 Blake advertised that he had available the largest assortment of music in America.

Blake was notable as a music publisher for issuing collections of popular songs from operas, the only publisher in the United States to adopt this European practice. From 1808 to 1825 Blake published a complete edition of Thomas Moore's Irish Melodi es and during the 1820s and 1830s he published the complete vocal works of George Friderich Handel in piano-vocal score. This latter venture, amounting to fifteen folio volumes, was the most ambitious music-publishing effort in the United States up to that time.

George E. Blake stopped publishing music in the 1850s although he maintained his store and continued to sell earlier publications.

Editions

Imprints, Addresses, Agencies

Imprints

  • George E. Blake

Addresses

  • Philadelphia

Plate Numbers

Authority Control

Sources Consulted