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{{short description|Austrian classical music publisher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox publisher
| image        = [[File:Universal Edition logo.png|150px]]
| founded      = {{start date and age|1901}}
| country      = [[Austria]]
| headquarters = [[Vienna]]
| publications = [[Sheet music]]
| url          = {{URL|www.universaledition.com|universaledition.com}}
}}

'''Universal Edition''' ('''UE''') is an Austrian [[classical music]] [[publishing]] firm. Founded in [[1901 in music|1901]] in [[Vienna]], it originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market. The firm soon expanded to become one of the most important publishers of [[modernist music|modernist]] and [[contemporary classical music]].

== History ==
=== 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]].

=== 21st century ===
On 19 October 2007, Universal Edition entered legal proceedings against the [[International Music Score Library Project]] (IMSLP), an online entity which seeks to make musical scores in the [[public domain]] available digitally. In response to a [[cease-and-desist]] letter from Universal Edition demanding that certain scores still covered by Austrian copyright be removed, IMSLP closed itself voluntarily, amidst controversy that UE's demands lacked reasonable legal grounds. While Austrian copyright governs works published up to 70 years after its composer's death, IMSLP is hosted in Canada, where copyright lasts twenty years fewer. The Internet Law professor [[Michael Geist]] wrote a column for the BBC, suggesting UE's actions lacked reasonable legal ground.<ref>{{cite news |last=Geist |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Geist |date=12 November 2007 |title=Music Copyright in the Spotlight |access-date=7 December 2022 |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7074786.stm }}</ref> The International Music Score Library maintained that UE's actions lacked legal justification, and reopened on 30 June 2008.

==References==
===Notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official website|www.universaledition.com}}
* [https://imslp.org/wiki/Universal_Edition Universal Edition] on [[IMSLP]]

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Record labels established in 1901]]
[[Category:Music publishing companies]]
[[Category:Sheet music publishing companies]]
[[Category:Opera publishing companies]]
[[Category:Austrian record labels]]
[[Category:Classical music record labels]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1901]]