The Musical Standard: A Newspaper for Musicians, Professional and Amateur
- Place of Publication: London, United Kingdom
- Language: English
- Date of Publication: 1871-1893
- Periodicity: Weekly
- Editors: John Broadhouse, John Crowdy & T. L. Southgate
- Publishers: George Carr and Company, Reeves and Turner, William Reeves & UMI & LC
- Type: Full Text
- Preceded by: The Musical Standard
Printed by William Bowden, 1871-1878; Thomas Danks, 1872; Bowden, Hudson and Company, 1879-1893.
The Musical Standard was a long-lived and bibliographically-complicated journal. While the First Series has been treated in the RIPM Retrospective Index with Full Text, this Preservation Series publication concerns series two (also called the New Series, 1871-1878), three (1879-1880), and four (1881-1893); a fifth and sixth series are forthcoming in the Preservation Series. (For more information, see Diana Snigurowicz, Introduction to The Musical Standard (First Series, 1862-1871), fn 1.)
The second series, under the editorship of T. L. Southgate, begins an expansion of topics with the editor's desire “to obtain many new subscribers.” (No. 353, 6 May 1871: 1). The fourth series is declared with the appointment of E. H. Turpin as editor who futher commits the journal to “the development of the higher interests of music.” (no. 857, 1 January 1881: 8). As noted by Leanne Langley, "Apart from its value as a documentary source - the obituaries, for example, are rich and full, and include figures of local musical prominence such as Dr Henry Watson of Manchester - the [Musical] Standard is important for having developed the audience for music books, issued in turn by the journal's publisher William Reeves."
Leanne Langley, "Music" in Victorian Periodicals and Victorian Society (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995): 99-126, at 120.