For the past 29 years, Grancino Editions has published performing editions of Baroque and Classical music, providing musicians the world over a glimpse at musical treasures otherwise lost to modern ears. Our editorial policy ensures that every edition we publish is as close to the composer’s intention as possible while our use of conventional music notation ensures that our editions are accessible to modern performers.
Founded by cellist Dr. Nona Pyron, Grancino Editions is largely the result of her research into the early history of the cello and its music. Dr. Pyron’s research took her to museums and libraries across Europe including many collections that were then concealed behind the Iron Curtain. This research resulted in a remarkable collection of music numbering in excess of 8,000 works from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. Described by Gregor Piatigorsky as “... perhaps the most important discovery in the 20th century in terms of cello repertoire,” the Pyron Collection of Early Music (formerly the Grancino Collection of Early Cello Music) forms the core of Grancino Editions.
Extending the Repertoire ... Backwards
Musicians today are living in a unique period in history – a period in which for the first time, to any appreciable degree, their musical horizons are being expanded both forward into new concepts of tonality, timbre and sound production – and backward through history, allowing them access to the rich palette of nearly a millennium of musical creativity.
Our society, which is perhaps most strongly characterized by its preoccupation with the frontiers of the future, is at the same time extending, almost as assiduously, the frontiers of time backwards into its own history. At no other time has the musical past been made so readily available ... even to those with only the most casual interest in it.
Certainly, the technological developments of our forward-looking age have been indispensable partners in helping us to bring the past alive. For a musician, the proliferation of audio recordings springs immediately to mind – especially the recent refinements in this medium which have made the subtleties of Baroque and Classical sound (and that of earlier periods, as well) a reality even to those who might otherwise lack access to first-hand experience of the sound of "authentic" or "original" instruments. Similar comments could be made about film and video, which have enabled us all to share in the discoveries of scholars, and to experience almost first-hand the insight they give us into the lives and mind and creative genius of our predecessors.
Equally important, though less obvious and less glamorous, are other areas where modern technology has joined hands with historical scholarship to re-shape the dimensions of our musical environment. In another age, even one as recent as that just prior to the second World War, the amassing of a collection of music on the scale of the Pyron Collection would have been all but impossible. Yet considering only a few of the humblest work horses of modern technology available to us today – computers, email and the internet, photocopiers and scanners, digital photography, image enhancement software, digital storage and until recently, microfilm and microfiche – we now find ourselves equipped with the means to collect vast amounts of specialized material; to organize it, study it and ultimately to make it available to anyone wishing to acquire it. Even publication on the scale currently embarked upon by Grancino would have been a monumental undertaking prior to the days of computer engraving (for the Modern Editions) and modern photographic technology (for the Facsimile Reprints).
Thus, the very technology which is the result of the forward thrust of 21st century thinking serves to extend the frontiers of our performance repertoire back into musical history. Because of it, we now have access to large quantities of music from a broad spectrum of composers of varying backgrounds and nationalities. Through their works we can develop a much closer understanding of the musical world in which they lived and, at the same time, enrich our own musical repertoire with a constant stream of compositions which never deserved to be forgotten. To play this music, and to listen to it, is to provide ourselves with a musical time-machine in which we journey into the past, hearing music that was heard then and, in our minds and emotions, participating in that distant world.
What’s in a name?
Our publishing house was named in honor of two cellos, both made by members of the Grancino family, the famous luthiers of Milan. The first, a Baroque cello made in 1709 by the brothers Giovanni and Francesco Grancino is featured on our homepage. The second was made in 1716 and is the work of Giovanni Grancino. Both instruments are the property of Dr. Nona Pyron.
Environmental Policy
Just as we find merit in our position as stewards of the musical past, we recognize the importance of our collective role as stewards of our environmental future. To this end, our editions are printed only on Forest Stewardship Council and Green Seal™ certified paper containing 30% recycled post-consumer fiber.
