Musical periodicals (entry)

Categories / Press. Mass Media/Periodical Press
MUSICAL PERIODICALS. Around the 1790s first musical journals, containing light adaptations of popular operetic arias and ensembles (chorals), clavier, harp, guitar pieces started to appear, among them were: St. Petersburg Musical Shop for Clavichord or Fortepiano,for the Education of Women (1794-95), Journal of Italian, French and Russian Arias for the Accompaniment of Guitar Zh. B. Englez (1796-97), Severnaya Arfa (1822-29), Nuvellist. Myzykalny Zhurnal dlya Fortepiano (1842-1906) and others, (all bearing French names). I. D. Gerstenberg published Karmannaya Knizhka dlya Lyubiteley Muzyki in 1795 and 1796, the first music journal intended for reading. It contained biographies of celebrated musicians, a musical dictionary, presentation of musical inventions, games, musical pieces and paintings for music books, and were sold in Gerstenberg's store. The 1840s saw the publication of periodicals, specialising entirely in music (or music and theatre): Muzykalnoe Obozrenie Nuvellist, (1840-41, appearing monthly), Literaturnye Pribavleniya k Nuvellistu (1844-74, appearing monthly); in the 1870s, weekly journals appeared Muzykalny Listok (1872-77), Voskresny Listok Muzyki i Obyavleniy (1878-80), Muzykalny Mir, (1882-83). Special publications provided coverage of musical events, publishing articles on the history of music. Reviews of new books and print music started to appear from the mid-1880s: V. V. Bessel's journal Muzykalnoe Obozrenie (1885-88), N. F. Findeizen's Russkaya Muzykalnaya Gazeta (1894-1917), A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov's journal Muzykalny Sovremennik (1915-17). It was in this period too that highly specialised journals such as Izvestia Sankt Peterburgskogo Obshchestva Muzykalnykh Sobrany (1896-1908), Grammofon i Fonograf (1902-04), Khorovoe i Regentskoe delo (1909-17) appeared. After October of 1917 publications were shut down. Attempts to revive musical periodicals were undertaken in the 1920s but until now neither Moscow nor St. Petersburg could boast a competent and comprehensive academic music periodical. The 1990s saw the publication of Mariinsky Teatr, Pro musica, Skripichny Klyuch, which were dedicated to music, while Zhurnal Lyubiteley Iskusstvaalso contained a special musical section.

References: Яголим Б. С. Русская музыкальная периодика до 1917 года // Книга: Исслед. и материалы. М., 1960. Сб. 13. С. 163-181; Музыкальный Петербург: Энцикл. слов. Т. 1: XVIII в. СПб., 1996-1999. Кн. 1-3.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Bessel Vasily Vasilievich
Englez Zh.B.
Findeizen Nikolay Fedorovich
Gerstenberg Iogann Daniel
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Яголим Б. С. Русская музыкальная периодика до 1917 года // Книга: Исслед. и материалы. М., 1960
Музыкальный Петербург: Энцикл. слов. Т. 1: XVIII век. СПб., 1996