Monuments of German Musical Art - 1st series

Starting in 1892, the series 'Denkmäler deutscher Tonkunst' ('Monuments of German Musical Art') published selected works from various epochs and genres by composers from the German region. The strict editorial guidelines of the ‘Musikgeschichtliche Kommission’ (Music Historical Commission) (under the direction of Rochus v. Liliencron, Hermann Kretzschmar, Hermann Abert and Arnold Schering) stipulated the greatest possible fidelity to the sources and reproduction of the original score arrangement.

The 65 volumes of the first series, which appeared until 1931, contain vocal and instrumental music from the 16th to the 18th century. A large part of the volumes is dedicated to sacred music of Saxon and Thuringian origin, but larger-scale works such as operas, oratorios and ballets from the Baroque and early Classical periods are also represented. Instrumental works by almost forgotten masters such as J.Ch. Pezel, J. Schobert and J. Rosenmüller are included in this series alongside highlights of the Baroque period such as the cantatas of Buxtehude and Graupner, Telemann's ‘Tafelmusik’, Walther's organ works and the most representative operas by Keiser, C.H. Graun, Jommelli, Benda and Holzbauer.

The series was republished in 1957 to 1960 in partially revised form, but this is a digital copy of the first edition published in Leipzig by Breitkopf & Härtel from the holdings of the music department of the BSB.

The music prints of the collection are captured by OMR (Optical Music Recognition) and can be searched via the application musiconn.scoresearch.