About organ – Journal für die Orgel

organ – Journal für die Orgel

organ – Journal für die Orgel is the German-language music journal for the organ published by the Mainz music publisher Schott Music. Appearing quarterly since 1998, it is currently subscribed in 21 countries and is described as the highest-circulation independent organ journal in the German language. Alongside Ars Organi it is regarded as the most important German-language periodical in the fields of organ building, organ aesthetics and artistic organ music, covering repertoire, performance practice, interpreter portraits and reviews of CDs, DVDs, books and scores.

Overview

organ – Journal für die Orgel is a quarterly German-language specialist journal for the organ world, published by Schott Music in Mainz. Its programme spans the full breadth of the instrument's culture: articles on repertoire and performance practice, interviews and portraits of outstanding interpreters, portraits of historical and contemporary organs, and reviews of CDs, DVDs, books and sheet music, plus news from the organ scene and dates for conferences, masterclasses and competitions. Each issue is optionally available with an additional themed CD on the organ-CD label, making the journal a combined reading-and-listening medium — the recordings complement the articles, as with the REGER QUER CD accompanying the Reger issue. The 2026/01 issue was priced at 14.50 euros in the Schott shop. The journal's readership is international — subscribers in 21 countries — and its editorial identity is that of the independent organ journal: alongside the Gesellschaft der Orgelfreunde's Ars Organi, it is considered the most important German-language journal in organ building, the aesthetics of the organ and artistic organ music. The quarterly rhythm gives each issue the character of a themed volume, with the organ-CD as the audible counterpart.

History

The periodical first appeared in 1998 as a quarterly journal, founded and edited by Wolfram Adolph (1964–2019), a Protestant theologian and music publicist who was also managing director of the IFO label, at Schott Music in Mainz. Adolph led the journal for more than two decades, shaping it into the independent voice of the German-speaking organ scene. In 2003 the journal merged with the specialist periodical Orgel International, retaining the organ name — a consolidation that strengthened its position without diluting its identity. The 2016 and 2017 issues document the journal's programme at mid-life: the Reger 2016 theme with the Reger Institute's edition workshop, South Africa's organ scene in conversation with Gerrit Jordaan, the restoration of the 1627 Stephan Cuntz organ in Regensburg; the 2017 issue centred on the new Klais organ of the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and its first titular organist Iveta Apkalna, the 500 years of Reformation anniversary and the question of how much Luther is in Bach. After Adolph's death in 2019, Markus Zimmermann took over as editor-in-chief and has led the journal since. The 2023 issues show the matured format: the "Unterwegs" (on the road) theme with the organ landscape of the Rostocker Heide, the organ walk through Füssen with the works of Andreas Jäger, and the pilgrimage site Taizé as organ-music history. The Schott webshop lists the 2026/01 issue, documenting the journal's continuous quarterly publication into its 28th year.

Coverage and Content

The journal's contents reflect the organ world's three poles: the instrument, the music and the people. Organ building coverage follows new instruments and restorations — from the Klais organ of the Elbphilharmonie (Opus 1871) to the 1627 Stephan Cuntz organ in Regensburg's Historical Museum and the five Jäger organs of Füssen. Repertoire and performance-practice articles treat the organ literature from Froberger to Reger, with the Reger issues drawing on the Reger Institute Karlsruhe's edition work. The interpreter portraits and interviews introduce the artists — Iveta Apkalna at the Elbphilharmonie, South Africa's Gerrit Jordaan, Christoph Bossert's Reger recording project. The reviews section covers CDs, DVDs, books and scores, the material the readership buys and studies. The scene section carries the community's news: organ anniversaries in Chemnitz (Jehmlich) and Altenburg (Trost), obituaries such as the one for the long-time author Martin Weyer, and the dates of conferences, masterclasses and competitions. The journal thus serves the organ world's complete information cycle: the new instrument is built, the journal documents it; the interpreter records, the journal reviews the CD and portraits the artist; the anniversary comes round, the journal commemorates. The themed CD — the organ-CD label — extends the journal into sound: the Reger issue's REGER QUER CD offers the audible excerpt from Bossert's complete recording of Reger's organ works. The quarterly themes give the programme its rhythm: Reger 2016, 500 years of Reformation 2017, "Unterwegs" 2023 — each issue a small monograph on its subject, in articles, images and music.

Organization and Ownership

organ – Journal für die Orgel is published by Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG in Mainz (55116 Mainz), one of the world's oldest and leading music publishers, founded in 1770. The journal appears within Schott's magazine portfolio alongside das Orchester, the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, üben & musizieren and Musik in der Grundschule. The founder Wolfram Adolph (1964–2019), a Protestant theologian and music publicist and managing director of the IFO label, edited the journal from its 1998 launch until his death in 2019 — a 21-year editorship that defined its independent profile. Adolph's double identity — theologian and label manager — shaped the journal's signature: the scholarly interest in the organ's sacred history and the record producer's ear for the instrument in sound, the articles and the CDs as two halves of one programme. Since 2019 Markus Zimmermann has been editor-in-chief. The journal's commercial model is the subscription journal with international distribution — 21 countries — plus single-issue sales through the Schott webshop (14.50 euros for the 2026/01 issue) and the sheet-music retail trade such as Stretta Music. The organ-CD label's themed CDs are sold as the optional companion to each issue. The 2003 merger with Orgel International, under retention of the organ name, consolidated the independent German-language organ-journal market. The ISSN is 1435-7941. Detailed circulation figures are not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The journal's website is organ-journal.com, and the Schott Music webshop (schott-music.com) carries the full series: the magazine page lists the current issues with product numbers (ORGA 202601 for the 2026/01 issue), prices and the themed CDs of the organ-CD label — Organ Moves & Grooves, the Léonce de Saint-Martin volume, Christian Brembeck's Saarbrücken and Ludwigshafen recordings, Christian von Blohn at Junglinster, Philipp Christ at Suhl. The shop offers reading samples (Leseprobe) for the issues, and the Schott magazines page presents the title within the publisher's journal portfolio. The German Wikipedia article documents the journal's history and programme, and the sheet-music retailer Stretta Music lists back issues with their content descriptions — the 2016 and 2017 issues with their tables of contents preserved online. The journal's international reach — 21 subscriber countries — is carried by the Schott distribution and the webshop's multilingual storefronts. In the digital age the quarterly print journal with its optional CD remains the organ world's reading-and-listening medium: the articles on organ building, aesthetics and artistic organ music, the reviews of the media the readership consumes, and the themed CD that lets the reader hear what the issue discusses — from Mainz to the 21 countries, four times a year, since 1998 — the journal and the CD, the article and the sound, as one, every single quarter, without fail.