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The Musician

(London, 1897)

Prepared by Liesbeth Hoedemaeker
Online only (2015)

The Musician, a Registered Newspaper Devoted to the Art of Music [MSN] was published weekly in London from May 12 to November 17, 1897. Editorial and publishing offices were located at 187b Piccadilly, London. The name of the editor is not given in the journal but was identified in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, third edition, as Robin Grey. The first volume comprises twenty-six issues (May 12 to November 3, 1897), while the second volume has two issues only, nos. 27 and 28 (November 10 and 17, 1897). Advertisements are found at the beginning and end of each issue on pages numbered in lower-case Roman numerals, and also scattered throughout the journal’s numbered pages. Indices of authors and subjects are provided in a supplemental issue. The sudden cessation of publication is not explained in the journal’s last issue.

Each issue is organized in two parts. The first comprises a column of news and gossip entitled “Musical notes” gathered by the journal’s editor, followed by any number of reviews of important London concert and operatic performances and reports about the musical life in significant cities in Europe. These review articles are signed with initials and with the proper names of many well-known critics, among them are Herman Klein, R. A. Streatfield, A. Kalisch, Louis Grein, Ernest Forester, Robert Hichens, William Wallace, William Barclay Squire, H. Sutherland Edwards and Ernest Newman. Other reviews, which deal with current publications of sheet music and books about music, are generally unsigned. The second part is headed by a repetition of the journal’s title and the current date followed by editorial articles on topics relevant to contemporary musical life including Wagner’s Jesus of Nazareth libretto, a study of Anton Rubinstein’s oratorio Christus, a forecast of the possible compositional styles of twentieth-century composers, French realist composer Alfred Bruneau and the modern lyric drama, contemporary French composers and the personal reminiscences of Hans von Bülow. Biographical sketches, studies of compositions by major composers and foreign news items are found in abundance.

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