![Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung I 1798-1799](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Allgemeine_musikalische_Zeitung_I_1798-1799.jpg)
The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' (''General music newspaper'') was a German-language periodical published in the 19th century. Comini (2008) has called it "the foremost German-language musical periodical of its time". It reviewed musical events taking place in many countries, focusing on the German-speaking nations, but also covering France, Italy, Russia, Britain, and even occasionally America.
Its impartiality and adherence to basic principles of credibility and discretion regarding the personal position of those reviewed, assured and established itself in a high position as a periodical in the musical German society of the time, exercising great influence on the period.
History
The periodical appeared in two series: a weekly
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
published between 1798 and 1848, and a revived version which lasted from 1866 to 1882.
The publisher was
Breitkopf & Härtel
Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf.
The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...
in
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
for the first period of publication and for the first three years of the second period; for the remainder of the periodical's history it was published by J. Reiter-Biedermann.
For a time during the second era it went by the title ''Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' ("AmZ of Leipzig").
Much important material appeared in the magazine, including the serialized first version of
Georg August Griesinger Georg August von Griesinger (8 January 1769 – 9 April 1845) was a tutor and diplomat resident in Vienna during the late 18th and 19th centuries. He is remembered for his friendships with the composers Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, and f ...
's biography of
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions ...
, and articles by scholar
Gustav Nottebohm
Martin Gustav Nottebohm (12 November 1817, Lüdenscheid, Westphalia – 29 October 1882, Graz) was a pianist, teacher, musical editor and composer who spent most of his career in Vienna. He is particularly celebrated for his studies of Beethoven. ...
and critic
Eduard Hanslick.
The journal employed the famous critic
E. T. A. Hoffmann and published his influential review of
Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
's
Fifth Symphony. Both
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
and
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
published in the journal.
Somewhat less to its credit, the magazine also published the so-called "Rochlitz anecdotes," a series of vignettes about
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition r ...
written by the first editor. Today these anecdotes are widely considered to be heavily contaminated by material coming entirely from Rochlitz's own imagination (see
Biographies of Mozart and
Mozart's compositional method).
Editors
The editors of the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' during its first 50-year period were:
[Barbour, J. Murray (1948]
"''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'': Prototype of Contemporary Musical Journalism."
''Notes'', Second Series, 5:325–337.
*
Johann Friedrich Rochlitz
Johann Friedrich Rochlitz (12 February 1769 – 16 December 1842) was a German playwright, musicologist and art and music critic. His most notable work is his autobiographical account ''Tage der Gefahr'' (''Days of Danger'') about the Battle o ...
, for the first twenty years; he continued to contribute material for another seventeen.
*
Gottfried Christoph Härtel
Gottfried Christoph Härtel (January 27, 1763July 25, 1827) was a music publisher in Leipzig, companion to Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. He took over their company, Breitkopf & Härtel, in 1796 from Breitkopf, who was having financial difficultie ...
, the owner of the journal's publishing house, anonymously taking on editorship of the journal for ten years
*
Gottfried Wilhelm Fink
Gottfried Wilhelm Fink (8 March 1783 – 27 August 1846) was a German composer, music theorist, poet, and a Protestant clergyman.
Life
From 1804 until 1808 Fink studied theology at the University of Leipzig where he joined the Corps Lusati ...
, who edited for fourteen years
*
Carl Ferdinand Becker
Karl Ferdinand Becker (17 July 1804 Leipzig – 26 October 1877 Plagwitz section of Leipzig), was a German writer on music, composer and an organist.
Biography
Becker was the son of physician and writer Gottfried Wilhelm Becker. He attended t ...
, a Leipzig organist, in 1842
*
Moritz Hauptmann
Moritz Hauptmann (13 October 1792, Dresden – 3 January 1868, Leipzig), was a German music theorist, teacher and composer. His principal theoretical work is the 1853 ''Die Natur der Harmonie und der Metrik'' explores numerous topics, particular ...
, cantor at
St. Thomas Church, Leipzig
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in 1843
* a three-year hiatus without an editor
*
Johann Christian Lobe
Johann Christian Lobe (May 30, 1797 – July 27, 1881) was a German composer and music theorist.
Born in Weimar, Lobe was either self-taught as a musician (Anon. 1885–92) or had music lessons from the age of seven (Brandt 2001). In 1810, he b ...
, for the last two and a half years.
''Répertoire international de la presse musicale''
The ''
Répertoire international de la presse musicale
Répertoire international de la presse musicale (Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Internationales Repertorium der Musikzeitungen), commonly known as RIPM, provides access to music periodical literature published between 1750 and 1966 throu ...
'' has published volumes on both series:
*Ole Hass, ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1798–1848''. 14 vols. ''Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale'' (Baltimore, Maryland: RIPM, 2009).
*Karl Kügle, ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung 1863–1882''. 7 vols. ''Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale'' (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI, 1995.
Introduction
/ref>
The ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' is not to be confused with the ''Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'', a different musical journal which was published in Berlin, or with the ''Wiener allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' which was published in Vienna.
References
External links
* All issues (1798–1848, 1863–1882) from Wikisource
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung
Classical music magazines
Defunct magazines published in Germany
German-language magazines
Music magazines published in Germany
Music criticism
Magazines established in 1798
Magazines disestablished in 1882
Weekly magazines published in Germany
Magazines published in Leipzig