Die Reihe — LLMpedia

Die Reihe
Title	Die Reihe
Discipline	Musicology
Language	German
Country	Austria
Firstdate	1955
Finaldate	1962
Frequency	Irregular
Editors	Herbert Eimert; Karlheinz Stockhausen
Publisher	Universal Edition

Contents

Die Reihe was an avant-garde German-language serial publication associated with postwar serialism, electronic music, and contemporary musicology debates. Founded in the mid-1950s in Vienna and published by Universal Edition, it became a forum for composers, theoreticians, and critics from across Europe and North America to discuss twelve-tone technique, total serialism, musical acoustics, and technologies such as the oscilloscope and tape recorder. The journal's circulation connected networks including the WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk), the Cologne School, and institutions such as the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music.

History

The serial appeared amid postwar cultural reorganization involving figures from Austrian Cultural Forum, European Cultural Foundation, and the reconstruction of institutions like the Vienna State Opera and Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. Its foundation in 1955 coincided with debates sparked by works premiered at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music and by performances at the Donaueschingen Festival. Founding editors drew on discussions happening at the Studio for Electronic Music (WDR), the Schott Music publishing house, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop as electronic techniques spread. Through the late 1950s and early 1960s, the serial documented exchanges among proponents associated with the Cologne Workshops, the Paris Conservatoire, IRCAM precursors, and institutions like the Royal College of Music and the Juilliard School. Its cessation in 1962 followed shifts linked to the rise of fluxus, changes at Universal Edition, and new journals such as Tempo (journal) and Perspectives of New Music gaining prominence.

Editorial control initially centered on editors connected to the Wiener Staatsoper milieu and the WDR electronic studios. Prominent editors and contributors included composers and theorists who had ties to the Cologne School, the Darmstadt circle, and the Royal Academy of Music. Regular correspondents and essayists came from networks around Stockholm, Paris, London, Prague, Milan, New York City, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. The serial published essays, scores, diagrams, and translated manifestos by figures associated with Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and John Cage, alongside analyses by musicologists from University of Vienna, King's College London, Columbia University, Harvard University, and the Sorbonne. Technical reports linked practitioners at the Cologne Radio studios, the Graz electronic workshop, and the Bell Labs research group. Publishers and institutions such as Universal Edition, Schott, Boosey & Hawkes, and Faber Music facilitated distribution.

Articles addressed theoretical systems like twelve-tone technique, serialism, integral serialism, and critiques involving chance music and indeterminacy. The serial featured analyses of scores by Webern, Schoenberg, Boulez, Stockhausen, Nono, Ligeti, and Cage, and discussions of performance practice tied to ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Technological themes covered work at Studio for Electronic Music (WDR), the Radiophonic Workshop, and experiments using the magnetic tape recorder, heterodyne generator, and early synthesizer prototypes. Interdisciplinary links connected to researchers affiliated with the Institute of Sonology, MIT Media Lab precursors, Stanford University laboratories, and acousticians at Bell Labs. The serial published translations and debates involving manifestos from movements like fluxus, pieces premiered at Donaueschingen Festival, and polemics referencing concerts at Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.

Reactions came from critics at publications such as Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Le Monde, and from scholars at University of California, Berkeley, Yale University, Princeton University, and Oxford University. The serial influenced programming at festivals including Donaueschingen Festival, Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music, Festspiele Baden-Baden, and ensembles such as the Ensemble InterContemporain and the London Sinfonietta. Composers and theorists later affiliated with IRCAM, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, and the Birmingham Conservatoire cited articles in the serial in their early careers. Major music publishing houses and broadcasters like ARD (broadcaster), BBC, and ORF adjusted commissioning strategies after discussions featured in the serial.

Controversies involved polemics between advocates of total serialism and proponents of aleatoric music associated with figures around John Cage and Morton Feldman, and sparked debates at venues including the Darmstadt courses and the Donaueschingen concerts. Accusations of ideological narrowness drew criticism from periodicals such as Die Zeit and Neue Zürcher Zeitung and from composers aligned with fluxus, the New York School, and the Polish School represented by Witold Lutosławski. Editorial disputes linked to the WDR studio politics, rights issues with Universal Edition, and disagreements involving contributors from Paris Conservatoire and Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg further fueled contention. Debates also touched on aesthetics associated with Arnold Schoenberg and polemics against perceived dogmatism endorsed by some contributing theorists.