Review of Michael Kassler, 'A.F.C. Kollmann's Quarterly Musical Register (1812). An Annotated Edition with an Introduction to his Life and Works' Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008, xx, 307 pp. ISBN 978-07546-60644

Abstract

At first glance, the title of Michael Kassler's book might suggest the usual humdrum affair of a facsimile edition of a difficult-to-access primary source for English music studies from the early years of the nineteenth century. However, upon closer inspection the reader will discover that a detailed essay on August Fredric Christopher Kollmann (1756-1829) and his immediate descendents, consisting of no less than 182 pages, serves to contextualize not only the edition but indeed all of Kollmann's writings on music and his immediate descendents' place in nineteenth-century English history. The following fourteen pages preface the black-and-white facsimile edition of The Quarterly Musical Register that runs to 168 pages (including reproductions of the front and back covers). Kassler's extensive annotations to the 'Register', a comprehensive list of extant sources of Kollmann's writings and sources concerning Kollmann, and an index complete the volume. The hardback is printed on high-quality papers that will ensure a long life on library shelves and in research collections.