John Sullivan Dwight's journal appeared on a weekly basis until March 1863 and thereafter fortnightly until its demise. This chronicle of the development of music in the United States during the period immediately before and after the Civil War is a historical document of the utmost importance in American music history. Dwight, the journal's sole editor, was a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School, and from 1848 he pursued the career of a freelance writer on musical subjects. An idealist with a deep dedication to the finest aspects of European music making, Dwight sought to bring news of the European musical scene to American readers and to blend it with considerable coverage of the growing musical activities in the United States. The result was a full-fledged American music journal in the grand tradition of the finest French, British and German publications.
Reviews constitute an important part of the journal.
The development of performing organizations in the United States is richly documented by Dwight. The orchestra of the Germania Musical Society, the New York Philharmonic, Theodore Thomas's orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Handel and Haydn Society are reviewed throughout the journal's run. Concerts of chamber music, miscellaneous concerts with a variety of performers, and vocal concerts are prominently featured, and deal, in the main, with activities in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. A number of outstanding American writers are contributors to Dwight's Journal of Music . Thayer's own books on topics related to the Beethoven biography are also found in the journal.