Chord and Discord

Chord and Discord: A Journal of Modern Musical Progress [CHD] was issued irregularly with eight issues published between 1932 and 1936, five issues published between 1938 and 1941, and single issues appearing in 1946, 1948, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1960, 1963, and 1969. A “final issue” appeared in 1998.

The journal was published by the Bruckner Society of America, an organization founded in 1931 whose aims were the promotion of the music of Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler. Initially led by Harriet Bishop Lanier, the Society’s longtime chairman was Martin G. Dumler (1868-1958), a composer largely active in Cincinnati. Chord and Discord was edited by the composer Gabriel Engel (1892-1952) until 1950. Charles Eble (1915-2009), then President of the Society, edited the journal until its cessation.

Chord and Discord served to promote the music of Bruckner, Mahler, and those seen by the society as continuing “modern musical progress,” namely Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, Anton Webern, and Ernst Krenek.  Analyses and compositional histories of individual works, recording and radio broadcast reviews, and biographical explorations predominate in the first half of each issue. Interspersed between articles are notices on the recipients of the Kilenyi Bruckner and Mahler Medals, medallions created by the sculptor Julio Kilenyi and given by the Society in the main to conductors who frequently performed the works of these composers. Issues frequently conclude with a “Symphonic Chronicle,” a list of works recently performed by orchestras in the United States and press reviews of performances. Much attention is paid to advocacy for the works of Bruckner and Mahler; contributors and editors frequently highlight of positive critical reception to demonstrate the popularity of these works in order to discount assumptions that audiences disliked them.

Contributors to Chord and Discord included the conductor Bruno Walter on romanticism and a musical-personal comparison of Bruckner and Mahler, the music historian Dika Newlin on Mahler-related topics, the conductor Philip Greely Clapp on individual compositions and the composer Warren Storey Smith on work reception. A symposium led by Deryck Cooke on his realization of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony can be found in the 1963 issue. Many other writers—Donald Mitchell, Egon Wellesz, Willi Reich—are excerpted or copied from other publications.