Link to home page

Musikalisches Wochenblatt: Organ für Tonkünstler und Musikfreunde

(Leipzig, 1870-1910)

RIPM Preservation Series: European and North American Music Periodicals (2017)

Publishers: E.W. Fritzsch, 1870-1903; C.F.W. Siegel's Musikalienhandlung (R. Linnemann), 1904-1908; Oswald Mutze, 1909-1910

Editors: Dr. Oscar Paul, E. W. Fritzch, Carl Kipke, Ludwig Frankenstein

Printers: Breitkopf und Härtel, 1870; C.G. Naumann, 1870-1881; C.G. Röder, 1882-1906; G. Kreysing, 1907-1908; Oswald Mutze, 1909-1910

Periodicity: Weekly

"Newspapers have become necessities for us and I fear that we have even become used to reading musical scandal sheets. Having admitted this, I think that the one by Fritzsch is the most practical, tolerable and, I hesitate to say, the best."1 Such is Johannes Brahms's opinion of the Musikalisches Wochenblatt, published and edited by Ernst Wilhelm Fritzsch (1840-1902). While the journal was initially edited by Oscar Paul, Fritzsch assumed control with issue no. 14 and continued until his death. The Musikalisches Wochenblatt maintained a focus on contemporary music, and although the journal was pro-Wagner, Brahms appreciated Fritzsch's objectivity and fairness.2 The journal provides a broad yet detailed chronicle of musical activities throughout the German-speaking lands. Articles and reviews of new compositions introduce most issues; of note are the copious contributions of Hugo Riemann. Other contributors include Moritz Wirth, Wilhelm Tappert, and Hermann Kretzschmar.

With the issue of 4 October 1906 (vol. 37 no. 40) the Musikalisches Wochenblatt merged with the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. The journal continued under a joint masthead, subtitled "Vereinigte Leipziger musikalische Wochenschriften," until the end of 1910 after which time the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik continued on and the Musikalisches Wochenblatt ceased. This RIPM publication includes these years of joint publication.

1Johannes Brahms to Elisabet von Herzogenberg, 1 March 1887. As quoted in, and translated by, Siegfried Kross, "The Establishment of a Brahms Repertoire 1890-1902." Brahms 2: Biographical, Documentary and Analytical Studies, ed. Michael Musgrave. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1987): 21.

2Kross, 22.


“The Musikalisches Wochenblatt began publication in January 1870 under the editorship of the music historian Oscar Paul. The paper, aimed—as its masthead declared—at both "Musicians and Enthusiasts" (für Tonkünstler und Musikfreunde), featured a diverse array of articles, from reviews of concerts and new books and scores to essays on aesthetic questions and biographical portraits. Its appearance thus represented a conspicuous challenge to Leipzig's other musical weekly, the similar yet older and more widely read Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, with which it merged in October 1906, shortly after which its name disappeared from the masthead of the "united" (vereinigte) weekly.”

"Musikalisches Wochenblatt." Schenker Documents Online, URL, accessed 15 December 2020.

×