Die Reihe
Encyclopedia
Die Reihe was a German-language music journal
, edited by Herbert Eimert
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
and published by Universal Edition
(Vienna
) between 1955 and 1962 . An English edition was published, under the original German title, between 1957 and 1968 by the Theodore Presser Company
(Bryn Mawr
, Pennsylvania
), in association with Universal Edition . A related book series titled Bücher der Reihe was begun, but only one title ever appeared in it, Herbert Eimert's Grundlagen der musikalischen Reihentechnik (Eimert 1964).
(NWDR) in Cologne (later WDR
) under the influence of Werner Meyer-Eppler
, and the realisation that technology was becoming an important element in the work of younger composers (Grant 2001, 55). The contributions from composers working in the studio were frequently based on their projects there, and in the early stages of competing with the radio-play department for resources, Eimert found having such a journal useful. It helped to raise the studio's educational and academic profile above the entertainment aims of other departments of the radio station, as well as providing opportunities to young authors for publication (Custodis 2004, 86).
") reflected the intent of the editors, but was changed for the English edition to "A Periodical Devoted to Developments in Contemporary Music" owing to the narrower English usage of the word "serial" at that time to refer to the twelve-tone technique
of Arnold Schoenberg
and his followers. Die Reihe was not, however, a periodical in the usual sense of the word, but rather appeared at irregular intervals (and not always in numerical order), for which reason it is sometimes referred to as an aperiodical. There were just eight volumes published, each under a thematic title. Further issues had been planned, but publication was broken off when deteriorating relations between the two editors reached the point of open rupture. In 1958, a competing journal, the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik, was launched by Wolfgang Steinecke, director of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. When Stockhausen agreed to let Steinecke co-publish an article that Eimert had expected exclusively for Die Reihe (Stockhausen 1958), Eimert felt he was being disloyal. When other young composers began following Stockhausen's lead, and Stockhausen himself authorised a short version of another article originally published in Die Reihe (Stockhausen 1957b), it put increasing pressure on Eimert, who was threatened with a cut in funding by Alfred Schlee of Universal Edition (Custodis 2004, 86–87). On the other side, on 24 May 1961 Eimert published in the Kölnischer Rundschau a glowing review of Hans Werner Henze
's opera Elegy for Young Lovers
. Since Henze's style was comparatively old-fashioned, Stockhausen regarded this as a betrayal of the principles of serial music underlying Die Reihe, and vehemently broke with Eimert over it (Kurtz 1992, 111).
Die Reihe excited considerable controversy, especially after the English editions began appearing in 1957. George Perle
(1960) and John Backus
(1962) wrote particularly scornful reviews (Grant 2001, 3, points out an example of wilful misquotation in Backus's review), but even in his relatively factual report on the first volume, Arthur Jacobs
could not resist making a joke with reference to the contentiousness surrounding the journal, in connection with a suggestion that the title should also have been translated: "if 'The Row' is open to mispronunciation, 'the Series' would have done" (Jacobs 1959). Dika Newlin
, reporting on volume five, concludes (apparently with reference to the item in it by John Cage
) by saying "Many readers will be disquieted by the periodical's continuing mixture of worthwhile investigation with pretentious phoniness" (Newlin 1962, 619).
One of the most severe critiques was published in the last issue of Die Reihe itself. This was by the Dutch physicist Adriaan Fokker
, and was directed primarily at Stockhausen's article "… wie die Zeit vergeht …" (Fokker 1962; Stockhausen 1957a). A response defending Stockhausen was published by his colleague, the composer Gottfried Michael Koenig
, in the same issue (Koenig 1962).
Academic journal
An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as forums for the introduction and presentation for scrutiny of new research, and the critique of existing research...
, edited by Herbert Eimert
Herbert Eimert
Herbert Eimert was a German music theorist, musicologist, journalist, music critic, editor, radio producer, and composer.-Life:...
and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and published by Universal Edition
Universal Edition
Universal Edition is a classical music publishing firm. Founded in 1901 in Vienna, and originally intended to provide the core classical works and educational works to the Austrian market...
(Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
) between 1955 and 1962 . An English edition was published, under the original German title, between 1957 and 1968 by the Theodore Presser Company
Theodore Presser Company
The Theodore Presser Company is an American music publishing and distribution company located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and formerly based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. It is the oldest continuing music publisher in the United States.-Theodore Presser:...
(Bryn Mawr
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Bryn Mawr from Welsh for "big hill") is a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue and the border with Delaware County...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
), in association with Universal Edition . A related book series titled Bücher der Reihe was begun, but only one title ever appeared in it, Herbert Eimert's Grundlagen der musikalischen Reihentechnik (Eimert 1964).
Origin
The journal, whose title means "The Row" or "The Series", owes its genesis to the founding of the electronic music studio of the Nordwestdeutscher RundfunkNordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 until 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in West Berlin...
(NWDR) in Cologne (later WDR
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
) under the influence of Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler , was a German physicist, experimental acoustician, phoneticist, and information theorist....
, and the realisation that technology was becoming an important element in the work of younger composers (Grant 2001, 55). The contributions from composers working in the studio were frequently based on their projects there, and in the early stages of competing with the radio-play department for resources, Eimert found having such a journal useful. It helped to raise the studio's educational and academic profile above the entertainment aims of other departments of the radio station, as well as providing opportunities to young authors for publication (Custodis 2004, 86).
Character and history
The subtitle of the original edition, "Information über serielle Musik" ("information on serial musicSerialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
") reflected the intent of the editors, but was changed for the English edition to "A Periodical Devoted to Developments in Contemporary Music" owing to the narrower English usage of the word "serial" at that time to refer to the twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and his followers. Die Reihe was not, however, a periodical in the usual sense of the word, but rather appeared at irregular intervals (and not always in numerical order), for which reason it is sometimes referred to as an aperiodical. There were just eight volumes published, each under a thematic title. Further issues had been planned, but publication was broken off when deteriorating relations between the two editors reached the point of open rupture. In 1958, a competing journal, the Darmstädter Beiträge zur Neuen Musik, was launched by Wolfgang Steinecke, director of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. When Stockhausen agreed to let Steinecke co-publish an article that Eimert had expected exclusively for Die Reihe (Stockhausen 1958), Eimert felt he was being disloyal. When other young composers began following Stockhausen's lead, and Stockhausen himself authorised a short version of another article originally published in Die Reihe (Stockhausen 1957b), it put increasing pressure on Eimert, who was threatened with a cut in funding by Alfred Schlee of Universal Edition (Custodis 2004, 86–87). On the other side, on 24 May 1961 Eimert published in the Kölnischer Rundschau a glowing review of Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
's opera Elegy for Young Lovers
Elegy for Young Lovers
Elegy for Young Lovers is an opera in three acts by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman.-Background:...
. Since Henze's style was comparatively old-fashioned, Stockhausen regarded this as a betrayal of the principles of serial music underlying Die Reihe, and vehemently broke with Eimert over it (Kurtz 1992, 111).
English edition
Differences between the German and English editions can be seen from a comparison of their respective tables of contents. Occasionally items were omitted or substituted, but more commonly these involve the order of the articles. In some cases, however, these resulted in a different tone or emphasis, contributing to the problematic reception of Die Reihe in America (Grant 2001, 6). For example, the foreword to the first volume (1955) of the German edition declared it to be the mouthpiece for the younger generation, but this foreword was omitted in the 1957 English edition (Grant 2001, 19).Subject matter
Each of the eight issues of Die Reihe was dedicated to a different theme, announced in a subtitle:- (1955) "Elektronische MusikElectronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
" / (1957) "Electronic Music" - (1955) "Anton WebernAnton WebernAnton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
" / (1958) "Anton Webern" - (1957) "Musikalisches Handwerk" / (1959) "Musical Craftsmanship"
- (1958) "Junge Komponisten" / (1960) "Young Composers"
- (1957) "Berichte—Analyse" / (1961) "Reports—Analyses"
- (1958) "Sprache und Musik" / (1964) "Speech and Music"
- (1960) "Form—Raum" / (1964) "Form—Space"
- (1962) "Rückblicke" / (1968) "Retrospective"
Reception
Die Reihe became the most important source of information about European serial and electronic music, thanks in part to the appearance of the English edition (Grant 2001, 2).Die Reihe excited considerable controversy, especially after the English editions began appearing in 1957. George Perle
George Perle
George Perle was a composer and music theorist. He was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. Perle was an alumnus of DePaul University...
(1960) and John Backus
John Backus (acoustician)
John Graham Backus was an American physicist and acoustician.John Backus was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, where he studied at Reed College, receiving a BA in 1932. He went on to graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did research in nuclear physics at the...
(1962) wrote particularly scornful reviews (Grant 2001, 3, points out an example of wilful misquotation in Backus's review), but even in his relatively factual report on the first volume, Arthur Jacobs
Arthur Jacobs
Arthur David Jacobs was an English music critic, musicologist, teacher, librettist and translator. Among his many books, two of the best known are his Penguin Dictionary of Music, which was reprinted in several editions between 1958 and 1996, and his biography of Arthur Sullivan, which was praised...
could not resist making a joke with reference to the contentiousness surrounding the journal, in connection with a suggestion that the title should also have been translated: "if 'The Row' is open to mispronunciation, 'the Series' would have done" (Jacobs 1959). Dika Newlin
Dika Newlin
Dika Newlin was a pianist, professor, musicologist, composer and punk rock singer. She received a Ph.D from Columbia University at the age of 22. She was one of the last living students of Arnold Schoenberg, a Schoenberg scholar and a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond from...
, reporting on volume five, concludes (apparently with reference to the item in it by John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
) by saying "Many readers will be disquieted by the periodical's continuing mixture of worthwhile investigation with pretentious phoniness" (Newlin 1962, 619).
One of the most severe critiques was published in the last issue of Die Reihe itself. This was by the Dutch physicist Adriaan Fokker
Adriaan Fokker
Adriaan Daniël Fokker , was a Dutch physicist and musician.Fokker was born in Buitenzorg, Dutch East Indies ; he was a cousin of the aeronautical engineer Anthony Fokker...
, and was directed primarily at Stockhausen's article "… wie die Zeit vergeht …" (Fokker 1962; Stockhausen 1957a). A response defending Stockhausen was published by his colleague, the composer Gottfried Michael Koenig
Gottfried Michael Koenig
Gottfried Michael Koenig is a contemporary German-Dutch composer.-Biography:Koenig studied church music in Braunschweig, composition, piano, analysis and acoustics in Detmold, music representation techniques in Cologne and computer technique in Bonn. He attended and later lectured at the...
, in the same issue (Koenig 1962).