Lortzing in der Beurteilung der Neuen Zeitschrift für Musik

The “Neue Zeitschrift für Musik” (New Journal of Music) was a twice weekly published music magazine, founded in Leipzig by Robert Schumann in 1834. The journal was explicitly conceived of as an alternative to other music journals, in particular, the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, edited at the time by G. W. Fink.

Most of the articles in the early issues of the Neue Zeitschrift (NZM) were written by Schumann himself, although some other members of his Davidsbündler also contributed, the piano pedagogue Friedrich Wieck, and the pianists Julius Knorr and Ludwig Schunke. On 1 July 1844 Schumann resigned his editorship to find more time for his work as a composer, and the journal was sold to Franz Brendel, who took over as editor on 1 January 1845.

Music criticism had a special significance for Schumann and the Davidsbündler, and the NZfM was used as an instrument to promote young and promising talent.

By taking a stand against the mediocrity and stagnation of contemporary musical life, they attempted to give impetus to a new, glorious, and poetic era of the arts. (Annette Vosteen)

Albert Lortzing obviously didn’t fit into Schumann’s ideas of musical poetry, but now and then he is mentioned in the magazine.


Bert Hagels, whose lecture on Lortzing in the musical press I attended last year during the Lortzing seminar in Leipzig was kind enough to send me the references and also typed out all the entries on Lortzing in the NZfM. The only part of the job I have done, was to copy-paste it from the original word document and add some html-code, to make it available on this website.