Urtext Publications

To see the full range please choose Urtext from the category dropdown list in Advanced Search below.

There is a widespread misconception that a definitive manuscript or source exists for most works, and that an Urtext edition is essentially nothing more than a printed reproduction of this. In reality there are usually several sources, often with serious discrepancies, and all authenticated or authorised to some extent by the composer. The role of an Urtext editor is therefore to present us with these alternatives, and give us expert guidance in evaluating their respective merits.

Edition Peters was perhaps the first mainstream publishing house to embrace the concept of Urtext, in the latter half of the twentieth century. Now, almost 150 years on, the company remains in the forefront of defining and developing the term for the benefit of modern-day musicians.