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Every Bärenreiter edition is 10% off through September 30. Browse by instrument or by the kind of music you're preparing.
Why Bärenreiter Urtext
Why Serious String Players Choose Urtext
"Urtext" isn't just a label. It's a promise. A Bärenreiter Urtext edition represents the closest possible reconstruction of what the composer actually intended, built from manuscripts, first editions, and every surviving source, then documented in a full critical commentary so you can see exactly where and why editorial decisions were made.
That scholarship comes wrapped in genuinely practical printing: page turns and cues placed where they belong, and for solo string repertoire, parts that include fingering and bowing suggestions. It's the difference between music you can trust and music you have to second-guess mid-rehearsal.
Take Schubert's Symphony No. 4. It was first published decades after his death, in an edition where a well-meaning editor added notes Schubert never wrote, thickening a passage he'd deliberately written sparse to sound like a curtain slowly rising. That "corrected" version was the only one available for over a century. Bärenreiter's 1990 Urtext edition restored Schubert's original intention, a small example of a bigger truth: the edition you play from shapes the music you make.
A Century of Bärenreiter
Founded 1923. Still the Standard.
Bärenreiter was founded in Augsburg, Germany, in 1923 by Karl Vötterle, and has been headquartered in Kassel since 1927. Over the past hundred years, the company's close ties to musicological research have produced landmark complete editions of composers including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, and Berlioz, the foundation of the Urtext editions musicians rely on today.
A family-owned publisher for a century, Bärenreiter remains committed to the same principle it started with: give musicians a text they can trust.
Christopher Hogwood
Conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood takes viewers behind the scenes at Bärenreiter, walking through the editorial and production process of an Urtext edition.
Jonathan Del Mar, "Searching for the True Beethoven"
Beethoven specialist Jonathan Del Mar explains how he works from the composer's manuscripts and historical sources, with conductor Sir Simon Rattle, pianist Igor Levit, and the Pierrot Quartett demonstrating the results in performance.
Ready to Build Your Library?
Bärenreiter Urtext editions are 10% off through September 30. No code needed, the discount is already reflected at checkout.
Terms & Conditions: This offer is valid for the named recipient only and is not valid on prior purchases. Discount applies to retail pricing only and may not be combined with instrument trade-in credit or rental equity. Only select Bärenreiter are included in this sale. Shar Music® reserves the right to limit quantities of any item, for any reason, without notice and while supplies last.