The Rise of Novello up to 1866

By the time Novello came to publish Elgar's works, the firm had established a pre-eminent position in its chosen market. This was as a result of certain key business decisions which were initially taken by Vincent Novello and then carried on by his son Alfred, who managed the business from 1830 onwards. These decisions were then built upon by Henry Littleton and his sons, Alfred and Augustus, after the business had been bought in the early 1860s.

The first key decision was to identify the growing demand by amateur performers for the sheet music of sacred and secular works, for use by choral societies, church choirs and in the home. The amateur performer was Novello's chosen market and the belief in rational recreation was the mainspring for this sector. With the benefit of hindsight, and given the Novello family's expertise in music, one could argue that they were bound to succeed, but this has to be balanced against the fact that competition was intense and many music publishers failed. The real genius of Vincent and Alfred Novello was not only to focus intensely on their chosen market, to the exclusion of other growing sectors such as that for light music and brass bands, but to provide their customers with sheet music which they both wanted and could afford. Unlike many entrepreneurs who are so convinced by their products that they delude themselves as to the actual demand – and in this sense are producer-led – the Novellos, and especially Alfred, were totally consumer-led.