Easily recognised from afar, the distinctive bright yellow study scores of Edition Eulenburg trace their history back to 1874. Ernst Eulenburg, the son of a Jewish doctor, began to sell teaching material and choral works in his music and book shop in Leipzig. In the early 1890s, he acquired two series of study scores heralding his breakthrough as an editor. In 1894, he published Eulenburg’s kleine Partitur-Ausgabe (Eulenburg’s Edition of Miniature Scores) which laid the foundation of the editions known throughout the world today.

In 1905, Ernst’s son Kurt joined the company, became partner, publishing director and, after his father’s death, sole owner of the publishing house. He expanded the range of the repertoire and furthered the reputation, making Edition Eulenburg a highly-regarded publisher of top-quality scores. Recognising the rising dangers of remaining in Germany, Kurt founded the British branch, Ernst Eulenburg Ltd, in 1939 and sought refuge in Switzerland with his family. Soon afterwards, the publishing house in Leipzig was expropriated, ‘Aryanized’ and sold through the SS Trust to Horst Sander, head of the publishing house Leuckart (Leipzig).

In 1954 Kurt Eulenburg resumed possession of his catalogue and three years later sold the publishing house to Schott Music Ltd. (London). Kurt Eulenburg remained in charge of the miniature score series until he retired in 1968 at the age of 89.

Today, the Eulenburg catalogue contains more than 1,200 works, including the miniature scores in the original format, Eulenburg Audio+Score editions, which come with recordings from the Naxos label, and e-books.