Tempo: A Quarterly Review of New Music

Archived since No. 1 - January 1939

Modern Archive

299 issues

Note: Complete archive going back to 1939 will be available in 2026.

TEMPO provides unparalleled coverage of global contemporary music, featuring peer-reviewed articles, composer portraits, and reviews of premieres, recordings, and books. The journal’s online archive through Exact Editions offers seamless access to over eight decades of research and critical commentary — an essential resource for teaching, study, and performance.
Ensure your institution stays connected to the conversations defining today’s musical landscape.

Deadline for renewing your existing subscription is 30 November 2025!

Latest Issue:

Tempo No. 315 (January 2026) inaugurates a new phase for Tempo: The Quarterly Review of New Music as the first issue published by Wolke Verlag. Edited by Christopher Fox with an expanded editorial team, the journal continues its tradition of rigorous, critically engaged writing on contemporary music.

This issue presents essays, interviews, festival reports, and reviews addressing current compositional practices, listening cultures, and institutional contexts. Contributions engage with ecological and cross-cultural perspectives, feminist approaches to voice and technology, and questions of abstraction, identity, and politics in new music. An extended interview with Steven Kazuo Takasugi offers insight into composition, pedagogy, and activism.

A substantial focus on the 2025 Darmstadt Summer Courses examines education, power, and inclusion within contemporary music institutions. Reviews document recent international performances, festivals, and recordings.

Available via Exact Editions as a fully searchable and easy-to-read digital facsimile, Tempo No. 315 provides academic libraries and university departments with a reliable resource for research, teaching, and critical debate on contemporary music.

Want a taster of Tempo: A Quarterly Review of New Music’s content? Sign up here to New Issue Notifications to receive email alerts each time a new issue is published, alongside its editorial highlights.

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