HalLeonard.com Provider of printed sheet music for chorus, band, and orchestra
Hal Leonard Online
Hal Leonard Online is the internet home of the world's largest sheet music publisher. Over their 50 year history, the company moved from supplying arrangements of popular music designed for high school bands into an empire.
Of their more than 97,000 available titles, over 10,000 can be downloaded over the internet from the sister company Sheet Music Direct.
Contact
Administrative:
-
- MILWAUKEE WI
- United States 53213
-
- 414 774 3630
Registrant:
- Hal Leonard Corp
-
- Milwaukee WI
- United States 53213
Corporate History
Excerpted from the website description:
- In the late 1930s in Winona, Minnesota, Harold "Hal" Edstrom, his brother Everett "Leonard" Edstrom and their friend Roger Busdicker had formed a very popular dance band. The Edstroms' father didn't approve of his sons becoming traveling musicians, and did not want them to use the family name. Consequently, Harold and Ev took parts of their names and called the band Hal Leonard. As leader of the Hal Leonard Band, Ev eventually became known as "Hal Leonard.
- Hal Leonard – the print publishing company – was founded in 1947, after the Hal Leonard Band broke up. At the time, Ev started a music store using the Hal Leonard name while Roger and Harold were both directing award-winning high school bands in Winona. In those days, most school bands played serious literature, but Harold and Roger had the unique ability (because of their professional experience) to arrange "popular" music for school bands. Soon band directors across the U.S. wanted their arrangements. They started to mimeograph copies and sell them. They realized that to successfully launch a new publishing company, they needed to license songs, so they ventured to New York's Tin Pan Alley in search of copyrights. What they got on their trip was an education in publishing and the rights to "I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now," one of the most popular songs of the day. Eventually, many music publishers in New York were licensing Hal Leonard to do school band arrangements of their songs. Thus began their publishing business and a new industry.
- The company grew and soon choral arrangements and a wider variety of band arrangements were added to their catalog of publications. In the early 1950s, the home organ industry began to grow rapidly. That is when Hal Leonard published The Pointer System for Organ, which eventually became the bestselling organ instruction method ever created. That method soon led to the first organ "benchpack," which featured instruction books and songbooks packaged in the bench of an organ. In the late 1950s, The Pointer Systems for Guitar and Piano debuted, introducing millions of beginners to instant playing success.
Related Domains
