About Musik in der Grundschule

Musik in der Grundschule

Musik in der Grundschule is the German specialist magazine for music teaching in primary schools, published quarterly by Schott Music in Mainz. Founded in 1996 by the music educators Johannes Bähr, Bettina Küntzel, Friedrich Neumann, and Frigga Schnelle — who presented a self-published pilot issue at a congress of the Arbeitskreis für Schulmusik (AfS) before the Schott-Verlag offered its publishing partnership in the same year — the magazine has served the primary-school music teachers for three decades with practice-tested teaching materials. With the subtitle "Zeitschrift für den Musikunterricht in den Klassen 1–4" (covering in part grades 5 and 6), a circulation of around 7,000 copies, and the ISSN 1433-1489, it is the journal of the Grundschule music classroom: the quarterly collection of lesson ideas, songs, and materials for the teachers who bring music to the youngest pupils. Since February 2024, the children's musician and primary-school teacher Oliver J. Ehmsen has joined Friedrich Neumann and Frigga Schnelle as co-publisher.

Overview

The magazine presents itself as the practice journal for music teaching in grades 1 to 4 (and in part 5 and 6): the quarterly source of classroom-ready materials. Its editorial program is built around the teaching practice: the lesson units — the tested teaching sequences on the curriculum topics; the songs and pieces — the singing repertoire, the instrumental pieces, and the listening examples; the movement and dance — the rhythmic and choreographic materials; and the interdisciplinary ideas — the connections to art, language, and the other subjects. The materials are practice-tested (praxiserprobt): developed and trialed in real classrooms before publication.

The readership is the German primary-school teaching community: the music teachers and the classroom teachers who teach music, the music-school teachers working with the young beginners, and the students of the primary-teaching programs. The journal's authority rests on its founding team and its author network: the founders' music-pedagogy expertise, and the regular authors — including Meinhard Ansohn, Wolfgang Hering, and Heinrich Herlyn — who contribute the tried materials. The editorial office (Redaktion: Friedrich Neumann) sits within Schott's Bildung & Pädagogik division.

The quarterly rhythm — four issues a year — follows the school terms: the issues for the seasonal planning (autumn, Advent/Christmas, spring, summer), the curriculum progression, and the school year's festivals. The magazine's materials are designed for the non-specialist as well as the specialist: the classroom teacher who teaches music alongside the other subjects finds the ready-to-use units.

History

The magazine's founding story is the practitioners' initiative: in 1996, Johannes Bähr, Bettina Küntzel, Friedrich Neumann, and Frigga Schnelle conceived a specialist journal with practice-tested teaching materials for music teaching in primary schools, and presented a self-published (Selbstverlag) pilot issue at a congress of the Arbeitskreis für Schulmusik (AfS) — the working group for school music. The Schott-Verlag in Mainz offered the publishing partnership in the same year; Frigga Schnelle and Friedrich Neumann accepted. Since then, Musik in der Grundschule has appeared quarterly at Schott, published to this day by the two founders.

The magazine's editorial continuity — the founders' three-decade stewardship — gave it its stable profile: the practice-tested materials, the primary-school focus, the author network. In February 2024, the children's musician and primary-school teacher Oliver J. Ehmsen joined as co-publisher (Mitherausgeber) — the generational renewal that brings the active classroom teacher's perspective into the editorial leadership. The regular authors — Meinhard Ansohn, Wolfgang Hering, Heinrich Herlyn, and others — provide the continuity of the materials.

The magazine developed within Schott's journal division as the primary-school title: alongside Musik & Bildung (the general music-education journal), Musik, Spiel und Tanz (the early-childhood journal), and üben & musizieren (the instrumental-pedagogy journal) — the segmentation of the music-pedagogy readership by the teaching level and context. The journal's ISSN 1433-1489 and its quarterly frequency document its established position in the German education-magazine market: the specialist title that the primary teachers reach for when the music lesson needs its materials.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's coverage follows the primary-school music classroom. Lesson units form the core: the tested teaching sequences — the topic introductions, the lesson plans, the worksheets, and the assessments — covering the curriculum's areas: the singing, the instrumental playing (Orff instruments, recorders), the listening, the music theory basics, and the movement. The materials include the notation, the lyrics, the audio references, and the differentiation tips for the heterogeneous classroom.

Songs and repertoire provide the musical substance: the children's songs — the traditional and the new; the seasonal songs — the autumn, Advent, Christmas, carnival, spring, and summer repertoire; and the listening pieces — the classical works introduced for the young ears. Movement and dance materials cover the rhythmic education: the body percussion, the dances, and the scenic interpretations.

The interdisciplinary and topical ideas connect the music teaching to the school's life: the project weeks, the school festivals, the concerts, and the cooperations with the music schools. The magazine's practice reports — the teachers' experiences with the materials — close the feedback loop between the authors and the readers.

The magazine's seasonal structure — the issues aligned to the school year's festivals and seasons — gives the teachers the timely repertoire: the autumn songs for the harvest season, the Advent and Christmas materials for the year's musical highlight, the carnival pieces, and the spring and summer songs for the year's end. The differentiation tips within the materials address the heterogeneous primary classroom: the inclusive approaches for the varying musical backgrounds of the pupils.

Organization and Ownership

Musik in der Grundschule is published by Schott Music in Mainz — the music publishing house, in the Verlagsbereich Bildung & Pädagogik (head: Christian Müller). The publishers (Herausgeber): Friedrich Neumann, Frigga Schnelle, and — since February 2024 — Oliver J. Ehmsen. The editorial office: Friedrich Neumann (Redaktion Musik in der Grundschule). The journal's circulation of around 7,000 copies and the ISSN 1433-1489 document its specialist scale.

The commercial model is that of a specialist education magazine: subscriptions to the primary-school teachers, the schools, the music schools, and the teacher-training institutions; advertising from the educational publishers, the instrument manufacturers (Orff instruments, recorders), and the children's-music producers; and the Schott publishing house's integrated program — the magazine alongside the primary-school sheet-music editions, the songbooks, and the pedagogical literature. The magazine's three-decade run documents the model's durability: the primary teachers' continuous demand for the practice-tested materials that the quarterly issues deliver.

Digital Presence

The magazine's digital home is musikindergrundschule.de, where the quarterly print magazine's program extends into the online presence. The Schott Music portal carries the journal's presentation, the subscription service, and the reading samples (Leseproben) — the digital browsing of the print issues via the Yumpu kiosk. The audio materials — the songs and listening examples — extend the print notation into the sounding practice. The magazine's digital reading samples give the prospective subscribers the browsing of the print issues before the subscription decision — the quarterly journal's open door into the primary-school music classroom.

The primary-teaching networks — the AfS (Arbeitskreis für Schulmusik), the teacher-training institutes, the music schools' federations — extend the magazine's reach into the profession's daily life. For three decades — from the 1996 AfS-congress pilot to the present — Musik in der Grundschule has been the primary-school music teachers' journal: the quarterly collection of practice-tested materials for grades 1 to 4, from Mainz — and, since 2024, with the children's musician Oliver J. Ehmsen at the editorial helm alongside the founders, the journal of the next generation of primary music teaching.