In music, the series 1-2-3 describes an archetype, the gradual ascent from the root to the third.

When, in 2004, the quarterly “Music Concepts” with the number 123 said goodbye to their founders and editors Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn, the Dioscuri couple of the avant-garde scene after Adorno, and henceforth expressly as “New Continuation”, well-meaning people might even like to read this innocent number as a code for what is still intended: further development in continuity, respect for what has been achieved so far, but also openness to what has not previously been thought of.

However, as is obligatory with such changes, there were not only well-meaning ones back then either, and Ulrich Tadday, the “newcomer” who had just joined at the time, remembers scenes of demonstrative ignorance in relevant circles – especially since the first issue he was responsible for featured Charles Ives artist who strayed somewhat apart from what Metzger and Riehn were willing to incorporate as "musical progress".

When Edvard Grieg, Richard Strauss and finally even the “Weißes Rössl” appeared between the softcover covers, the old-dogmatic faction must have felt confirmed in their anger.

Tadday, who teaches in Bremen, can now look back on almost twenty years and more than seventy numbered editions;

the larger special volumes, one per year,

appear without a continuous count.

Today he has less to deal with thematic-conceptual challenges than with the suspicion that gender equality is missing in the selection of his authors or that postcolonial ignorance prevails.

"There's no escaping the zeitgeist," is Tadday's comment.

This applies all the more if topicality is and should remain the program of a serial publication.

Of the twenty composers who have graced the covers and content of “Musik-konzepte” over the past four years – the last to date were Heinz Holliger and Sidney Corbett – twelve are still active, and Alvin Lucier, who died last year, was there when “his” booklet appeared, still among the living.

But since artistic vanity is one of the few reliable constants in this sensitive business, it is little wonder if the honor of being recognized in the series sometimes coincides with the need to help shape one's own image for posterity, even if it is "more appropriate" through recommendations. Authors or symbolically charged photo motifs for the front page.

59 pages of 119 bars

Tadday has partners with “edition text + kritik”, which is based in Munich-based Richard-Boorberg-Verlag, and particularly with the editor responsible for the design, Johannes Fenner, who have been supporting the project for decades.

Since he took over as editor, there has also been a scientific advisory board.

The extraordinarily carefully examined, graphically attractively embedded text form is striking in today's non-fiction publishing industry.

In each issue you will find a solid and clear set of sources with bibliographical references, timeline and author's notes.