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Musik-Welt

(Berlin, 1880-1882)

Prepared by Claudia Stalb
1 volume (1992)

Published weekly in Berlin, the Musik-Welt: Musikalische Wochenschrift für die Familie und den Musiker addressed both the general public and the professional musician. The editor, Max Goldstein, worked as a music critic in New York from 1874 until 1880, joining the staff of the New Yorker Musik-Zeitung in 1878 and purchasing the journal the following year. Upon his return to Germany in 1880, Goldstein founded the Musik-Welt, and made numerous contributions to its content ranging from analysis to criticism.

The contents of the Musik-Welt were chosen with contemporary issues and interests in mind. The feature articles, often published in a series, deal with subjects ranging from Wagner’s use of medieval literature for Der Ring des Nibelungen to the problem of fire prevention in contemporary theatres. Each of the seventy-five issues contains something about Wagner, his works or his artistic principles. The Berlin première of Der Ring des Nibelungen, a high point in the city’s musical life, further stimulated emphasis on these topics. In response to reader interest, Goldstein selected twenty-two posthumously published letters of Hector Berlioz and translated them for publication in the Musik-Welt.

Among the music critics who contributed to the journal are Eduard Hanslick (reviews and articles on aesthetics), Gustav Engel (performance practice), Gustav Doempke (musical life of Königsberg), and Martin Roeder (musical life in Italy); among the musicologists, Martin Gustav Nottebohm, a Beethoven specialist, and, Paul Wilhelm Runze, an authority on the ballad composer Karl Loewe; and, among the composers, Robert Musiol, Benjamin Godard and Edmond Uhl. Other contributors reported from Paris, Mainz and Frankfurt; Hermann Wolff contributed reviews of new music.

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