''Dwight's Journal of Music'' (1852–1881, ''DJM'') was an American music journal, one of the most respected and influential such periodicals in the country in the mid-19th century.

John Sullivan Dwight John Sullivan Dwight (May 13, 1813 – September 5, 1893) was a transcendentalist, America's first influential classical music critic, and a school director. Biography Dwight was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of John Dwight, M.D. ...

created the Journal, and published it in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. Among the early writers was

Alexander Wheelock Thayer Alexander Wheelock Thayer (October 22, 1817 – July 15, 1897) was an American librarian and journalist who became the author of the first scholarly biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, still after many updatings regarded as a standard work of refer ...

, who would become one of the first major music historians in the country. Other contributors have included

John Knowles Paine John Knowles Paine (January 9, 1839 – April 25, 1906) was the first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music. The senior member of a group of composers collectively known as the Boston Six, Paine was one of those ...

, William F. Apthorp, W. S. B. Mathews and C. H. Brittan. The ''Journal'' was eventually purchased by music publisher

Oliver Ditson Oliver Ditson (October 20, 1811 – December 21, 1888) was an American businessman and founder of Oliver Ditson and Company, one of the major music publishing houses of the late 19th century. Early life and career Oliver Ditson was born in Bos ...

.''Continuum''

Publication details

The ''Journal'' was published weekly beginning on Saturday, April 10, 1852, with each volume consisting of 26 numbers. Thus, the odd-numbered volumes ran from April to near the end of September, and the even-numbered volumes, from early October to the end of March of the following year. In 1865 the journal was published biweekly and each volume ran for one complete year. In 1879, starting with Vol. XXXIX (39), the publication year began running from January to December. The last issue was Vol. XLI (41), No. 16 (September 3, 1881).

Online copies

Public domain scans of bound volumes from libraries are available online. Links are to copies at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

(or in some cases

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

). An index covering two volumes was issued with the final number for each even-numbered volume (or one volume for the biweekly volumes), and libraries typically bound all the issues for two volumes together with the index often, but not always, at the front of the relevant volume(s). (Some of the online copies are missing pages, or pages are out of sequence.) * 1852–1853 : Vols. I & II
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* 1853–1854 : Vols. III & IV:
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* 1854–1855 : Vols. V & VI
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* 1855–1856 : Vols. VII & VIII
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* 1856–1857 : Vols. IX & X
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* 1857–1858 : Vols. XI & XII
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* 1858–1859 : Vols. XIII & XIV
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* 1859–1860 : Vols. XV & XVI
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(both at Google Books) * 1860–1861 : Vols. XVII & XVIII
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* 1861–1862 : Vols. XIX & XX
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* 1863–1864 : Vols. XXI & XXII
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* 1864–1865 : Vols. XXIII & XXIV
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* 1865–1867 : Vols. XXV (biweekly, 27 nos.) & XXVI (biweekly, 26 nos.)
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* 1867–1869 : Vols. XXVII (biweekly) & XXVIII (biweekly)
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(at Google Books) * 1869–1871 : Vols. XXIX (biweekly) & XXX (biweekly)
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* 1871–1873 : Vols. XXXI (biweekly) & XXXII (biweekly)
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* 1873–1875 : Vols. XXXIII (biweekly) & XXXIV (biweekly)
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* 1875–1877 : Vols. XXXV (biweekly) & XXXVI (biweekly)
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* 1877–1878 : Vols. XXXVII (biweekly) & XXXVIII (biweekly, 19 nos., ending on Dec 21)
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* 1879–1880 : Vols. XXXIX (biweekly, Jan–Dec 1879) & XL (biweekly, Jan–Dec 1880)
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* 1881 : Vol. XLI (biweekly, 16 nos., ends on Sept 3, 1881, the last issue)
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(at Google Books)

References

Notes Sources * *{{cite book, editor1=John Shepherd, editor2=David Horn , editor3=Dave Laing , editor4=Paul Oliver, editor5=Peter Wicke, editor5-link=Peter Wicke, publisher=Continuum, year=2003, location=London, isbn=0-8264-6321-5, title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume 1: Media, Industry and Society 1852 establishments in Massachusetts 1881 disestablishments in Massachusetts Music magazines published in the United States Weekly magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1852 Magazines disestablished in 1881 Magazines published in Boston