Editor (Baltimore): To date, RIPM offers access to some 291 full-text searchable music periodicals, to over 1.1 million full-text pages online and to some 901,000 annotated citations. Over the past two years, RIPM’s Associate Editor Nicoletta Betta has presented a paper dealing with RIPM’s recently completed and current indexing projects at the annual congress of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML, held respectively in Rome, 2016; and Riga, 2017).
Today we continue with the second installment of this series.
* * *
In 2016, fourteen journals were indexed and will be available in the Retrospective Index, along with, in most cases, the full-text of the indexed titles.
In my presentation, I will provide basic publication information for all periodicals, the name of the RIPM editor or collaborator responsible for its indexing, and then select one or more journals for discussion, explaining why they were chosen for inclusion in RIPM. For clarity, the journals are grouped by country of publication.
RIPM collaborators Peter Sühring (Berlin) and Alexander Staub (Leipzig) continued indexing the monumental Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (NZM) by expanding its index to include the “Kleine Zeitung” (little newspaper), a section dedicated to reporting on musical life in Germany. This column, which increased in length and content year after year, regularly contains information about concerts, tours of composers and performers, obituaries, music festivals, and new opera productions. After indexing the “Kleine Zeitung” sections, our colleagues indexed the “Tagesgeschichte” (daily history) and “Vermischtes” (miscellaneous) sections. The Neue Zeitschrift für Musik is currently available in the Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text from the years 1834 to 1859.
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik Vol. LIV No. I (1861): 7.
* * *
Two Viennese publications were also treated: Sühring indexed Musikalischer Kurier (Vienna, 1919-22); and Staub, Musikbote (Vienna, 1924-26).
Edited by Max Graf, a pupil of Eduard Hanslick and Anton Bruckner, Musikalischer Kurier typified the complex nature of post-World War I Austria, by reflecting both the desire to preserve the old values of Austro-German musical culture and the need to accept modernist ideas. Below is the cover of the special August 1921 issue, which contains writings on the then-new Salzburg Festival.
Vol. 3 Nos. 31-35 (August 1921).
* * *
Collaborator David Sommerfield (Washington, D.C.) completed the index to the English-language journal, Opera Magazine (New York, 1914-16). This periodical focused on bolstering a distinctly American musical identity by reporting on musical events in this country, such as opera productions, and repertoire, as well as singers. Alongside the sample cover below is a photo of Léonide Massine, Leon Bakst, and Igor Stravinsky from the 1916 American tour of the Ballets Russes.
Vol. 3 No. 3 (March 1916): 15.
* * *
Four Italian journals have been indexed; three by RIPM collaborator Elvidio Surian (Pesaro, Italy) and I indexed Rassegna Musicale.
The monumental Musica d’Oggi, with a publication run of over forty years, represented something new for the influential Milan publishing house, Ricordi. While Ricordi’s previous periodicals were mainly informative bulletins, Musica d’Oggi was more scholarly, focusing principally on contemporary music.
An article in Musica d’Oggi dedicated to the namesake of the Ricordi publishing house on its 150th anniversary
Vol. 1 No. 1 (January 1958): 5.
* * *
La Melodia had a brief publication life, and was printed in an older newspaper-style layout. Generally, its content included information about local music events and Italian musical life, and numerous music examples.
Vol. 1 No. 3 (1 August 1869)
Vol. 1 No. 1 (1 July 1869): [1]; Vol. 1 No. 3 (1 August 1869): [1].
* * *
Each issue of L’Arte pianistica, published in Napoli, included a biographical article of a distinguished musical figure. Below is just an example: the medieval music theorist Guido D’Arezzo.
Vol. 1 No. 24 (15 December 1914.
* * *
RIPM’s Editor of French periodicals Doris Pyee (Bordeaux) indexed the Belgian journal Sirène (Brussels, 1937-46; title changed during publication to Syrinx) and the French title, Le Domaine musical (Paris, 1954).
Sirène was founded by a group of young Belgian composers, which included Albert Huybrechts, Marcel Poot, Fernand Quinet, and André Souris. While primarily an informative bulletin about these composers’ activities, the journal also contained information about new music produced abroad, music bibliography, concerts, radio programs, and recordings. Its cover displays a distinctly modern design.
Issue 1 (March 1937).
* * *
Le Domaine musical focused on contemporary music. It was founded by the late composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, and includes contributions from influential composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. The journal also contains photographs, including the one below of Stockhausen’s experimental music studio in Cologne, Germany.
Issue 1 (1954): [1p] 128/129.
* * *
Finally, RIPM added one Argentinian, one Chilean, and two Russian journals. Gabriel Caballero (New York) indexed Revista de Musica (Buenos Aires, 1927-28, 1930) and Musica Chile (Santiago, 1920-23) and collaborator Natalia Ostroumova (Moscow) treated Russian musical vestnik (1880-82) and Muzikal’naya nov (1923-24), both published in Moscow.
The main aim of La Revista de Musica was to inform its readers about foreign musical trends: the decline of the tonal system, the flourishing of new harmonic theories, and the birth of new media. The journal also reported on Western artists performing on tour in Argentina.
Vol. 1 No. 1 (July 1927): 1.
For all RIPM publications, visit:
http://ripm.org/?page=AllTitles&SortBy=date
Click here to subscribe to RIPM’s Curios, News, and Chronicles!
When is our next posting? To find out, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
***
RIPM is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing access to music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres, RIPM produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and RIPM Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).
WWW.RIPM.ORG
“Keeping in Touch with World’s Music Growth Through the Piano,”
Vol. 13 No. 22 (8 April 1911): 7. 
Vol. 18 No. 23 (11 October 1913): 2. 
Another Viafora caricature of Leoncavallo
A photograph of Montemezzi (left; in red) and Viafora (right; in red)
