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The Musical Courier

(New York, 1880-1881, 1883-1961)

RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals (2020-2023)

Editors: William E. Nickerson, Marc A. Blumenburg and Otto Floersheim

Publisher: Howard Lockwood, Musical Courier Company

Periodicity: Weekly

Language: English

Previous Titles:
Musical And Sewing Machine Gazette;
Musical and Sewing Machine Courier;
Musical and Dramatic Courier

Lacunae: Vol. 1 no. 18; Vol. 13 no. 11; Vol. 26 no. 22; Vol. 27 no. 6. A copy of these issues could not be located. Issues for 1960-1961 are forthcoming.

"The Musical Courier, which began publication in 1880 as The Musical and Sewing Machine Gazette and appeared weekly for most of its life until its demise in 1962, was one of the most widely read music journals in the United States before World War I. Its editors, Otto Floersheim and Marc Blumenberg, relished controversy and found themselves the targets of lawsuits on a number of occasions.

...

From the beginning, this journal also provided extensive coverage of 'Music Trades,' meaning the manufacturing and marketing of musical instruments and scores. This emphasis on the music business was unique in the late nineteenth century and provides a useful record of the week-by-week evolution of American music manufacturing. Because of the wide range of topics covered in the journal, and because of the 'insider' stories that so frequently appeared in its pages, it is extremely valuable to historians."

E. Douglas Bomberger, Review of An Annotated Index to Selected Articles from the Musical Courier, 1880-1940 by Peter H. Adams. Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 66, no. 3 (March 2010): 579-580.

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