About Musik & Bildung

Musik & Bildung

Musik & Bildung is the German specialist journal for music education, published quarterly by Schott Music in Mainz with a circulation of around 7,000 copies. As one of the journals of the Schott Music journal division — alongside das Orchester, Musik in der Grundschule, Musik, Spiel und Tanz, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Organ, and üben & musizieren — it serves the music teachers, music educators, and music therapists: the professionals who teach music in the schools, the music schools, and the universities. The journal's editorial office (Redaktion: Friedrich Neumann) sits within Schott's Bildung & Pädagogik division under Christian Müller, and its readership includes the subscribers of the former Klasse Musik, which has been merged into Musik und Bildung since early 2008. In the German music-education press, Musik & Bildung is the Schott journal: the quarterly forum of the music-pedagogy profession.

Overview

The journal presents itself as the specialist publication for music education — the forum of the music teachers and music educators. Its editorial program covers the music-education field's full spectrum: the didactics and methodology of music teaching — the lesson planning, the classroom practice, the repertoire, and the assessment; the music-pedagogy scholarship — the research on musical learning, the educational theory, and the empirical studies; the music therapy — the therapeutic applications, the clinical practice, and the professional discourse; and the music-education policy — the curricula, the teacher training, the school structures, and the cultural-policy debates.

The readership is the German-speaking music-education community: the music teachers in the general schools, the teachers in the music schools (Musikschulen), the university lecturers in music pedagogy, the music therapists, and the students of the music-teaching programs. The journal's authority rests on its publishing house: Schott Music — the Mainz music publishing house with its 250-year history (celebrated in the 2020 volume "Die Schott Music Group. 250 Jahre Verlagsgeschichte") — and on its editorial continuity in the Bildung & Pädagogik division.

The quarterly rhythm — four issues a year — follows the school and academic terms: the issues for the semester planning, the teaching practice, and the professional discourse. The former Klasse Musik subscribers — the classroom-music teachers — joined the readership with the 2008 merger, broadening the journal's school-practice profile. The journal's media data and the fachzeitungen.de listing document its positioning: the specialist journal for music pedagogy, music therapy, music teaching, and vocal pedagogy — the professional readership's quarterly reference.

History

Musik & Bildung developed within the Schott publishing house's journal program as the music-education title. The Schott-Verlag (later Schott Music) in Mainz built its journal division around the music professions: das Orchester (11 times a year, 20,000 circulation) for the orchestral musicians, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (6 times a year, 5,000) for the contemporary-music discourse, üben & musizieren (6 times a year, 5,000) for the instrumental pedagogues, and Musik & Bildung (4 times a year, 7,000) for the music educators — the segmentation of the music-pedagogy readership into the school, instrumental, and general-education audiences.

The journal's editorial history includes the co-editorship of Peter W. Schatt — the Folkwang music pedagogue — from 1994 to 2002, and the current editorial office of Friedrich Neumann within Schott's journal division. The 2008 integration of Klasse Musik — the classroom-music journal — into Musik & Bildung consolidated the school-music readership in one title. The journal division's leadership: Christian Müller as head of the Bildung & Pädagogik publishing division and the journals (Journaux); the advertising service of Sebastian Burkart and Almuth Gilomen; the readers' service (Leserservice Schott-Zeitschriften) for the subscriptions. The journal's sibling titles — das Orchester for the orchestral musicians, üben & musizieren for the instrumental pedagogues, Musik in der Grundschule for the primary teachers — form the segmented readership that Musik & Bildung addresses in its general music-education role: the journal that speaks to the music teachers across the school types and levels.

The Schott Music Group's 250th anniversary in 2020 — documented in the anniversary volume — forms the publishing context: the journal as part of one of the world's great music publishing houses, alongside the sheet-music editions, the concert and opera catalogues, and the musicological publications.

Coverage and Content

The journal's coverage follows the music educator's world. Didactics and methodology form the core: the music-lesson planning — the lesson models, the repertoire selection, the media and materials; the classroom practice — the singing, the instrumental playing, the listening, the movement, and the music theory in the classroom; and the assessment — the evaluation, the examinations, and the standards. The journal's practice orientation serves the teachers' daily work.

Music-pedagogy scholarship provides the theoretical foundation: the research on musical learning and development, the educational psychology, the sociology of music education, and the empirical studies — the journal as the forum of the discipline's academic discourse. Music therapy coverage addresses the therapeutic profession: the clinical methods, the professional training, and the health-policy framework.

Music-education policy articles cover the institutional conditions: the school curricula, the teacher-training programs, the music schools' structures, and the cultural-education policy — the journal as the profession's policy voice. The reviews — of the new teaching materials, the textbooks, the sheet-music editions, and the scholarly literature — connect the readers with Schott's and the other publishers' programs.

The journal's special issues (Musik & Bildung spezial) — such as the "Teamwork" volumes on new music for student ensembles — extend the quarterly program into the thematic deep-dives: the focused collections on the current pedagogical topics, published as separate editions alongside the regular journal.

Organization and Ownership

Musik & Bildung is published by Schott Music in Mainz — the music publishing house (Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG / Schott Music & Media GmbH; managing directors Dr. Thomas Sertl and Denis Martin Freiberg). The journal belongs to the Verlagsbereich Bildung & Pädagogik (head: Christian Müller; deputy head: Dr. Astrid Opitz) and the Journaux division. The editorial office: Friedrich Neumann (Redaktion Musik & Bildung). The journal's circulation of around 7,000 copies documents its specialist scale.

The commercial model is that of a specialist education journal: subscriptions to the music teachers, the music schools, the universities, and the institutions (including the former Klasse Musik subscribers); advertising from the music publishers, the instrument manufacturers, and the educational institutions; and the Schott publishing house's integrated program — the journal alongside the educational sheet-music editions, the textbooks, and the pedagogical literature.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is musik-und-bildung.de, where the quarterly print journal's program extends into the online presence. The Schott Music portal (schott-music.com) carries the journal division's offerings: the journals' presentations, the subscription service (Leserservice Schott-Zeitschriften), and the advertising contacts. The Yumpu kiosk's Schott channel — with the reading samples (Leseproben) of the journals — provides the digital browsing of the print issues.

The Schott Music digital infrastructure — the online shop, the digital sheet-music editions, and the educational platforms — forms the ecosystem in which the journal's content circulates. The music-education associations' networks — the AfS (Arbeitskreis für Schulmusik), the university institutes, the music schools' federations — extend the journal's reach into the profession's daily life. In print and online, Musik & Bildung remains the Mainz music-education journal: the quarterly forum of the music teachers, therapists, and educators, four times a year from Schott. From the Peter W. Schatt co-editorship of the 1990s to the Friedrich Neumann editorial office of today, the journal has accompanied the music-education profession's development — and, with the Klasse Musik readership aboard since 2008, it serves the school-music teachers as their quarterly professional companion.