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Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung

(Berlin, 1824-1830)

Prepared by Martina Lang and Martina Wurzel
(1994)

Published weekly, the Berliner allgemeine musikalische Zeitung [BAM] was founded by the well-known music theorist Adolf Bernhard Marx in collaboration with the Berlin music publisher Adolph Martin Schlesinger. Marx created the journal out of what was originally a supplement to Der Freymüthige, entitled Zeitung für Theater, Musik und bildende Künste. The publication of a new music periodical in Berlin occurred at a time when the city, not then noted for its musical life, was on the verge of becoming a cosmopolitan center. The new journal enjoyed an unexpectedly high degree of popularity owing in large part to Marx’s editorial style. In contrast to the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, the BAM focused on detailed analyses of works as opposed to reports on individual musical events.

The numerous authors contributing to the BAM include critics, theorists, musicologists and performers. Among the latter were vocal pedagogue Antonio Benelli—who contributed a discussion of various voice teachers—J. F. W. Kuhnau—who wrote about the singing of chorales during the Reformation—and, Franz Stöpel, who contributed an historical survey of French opera. Occasional contributors include the theorists Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn who wrote about Möser’s Akademien in Berlin, and Gottfried Weber who contributed an article on stringed instruments. Distinguished scholars contributing to the BAM include the philosopher Bilroth, and the connoisseur of fine arts Karl Seidel. There are also reports from collaborators outside Berlin, miscellaneous news, announcements of new compositions and books on music. Among the regular correspondents are Carl Friedrich Ebers (Leipzig) and Johann Gottfried Heintzsch (Breslau). Poems by authors such as Ludwig Rellstab and Carl Friedrich Ferdinand Sietze enrich the variety of material offered in each issue. Reviews of new compositions and new musical instruments were contributed by the composer Carl Girschner. A regular Supplement entitled Literarisch-artistisch-musikalischer Anzeiger [Literary-artistic-musical advertiser] consists of four pages of extensive advertising from publishers of new compositions and books on music.

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