Welcome to the first issue of The Journal of Music.

Our philosophy is simple: we look for the bigger picture in musical life, and we ask those at its coal face – musicians, composers and listeners – to write about it.

We connect across genres and provide the musical conversation that can mean something to you, regardless of your specialism.

For eight years, up until February 2009, we published the JMI: Journal of Music in Ireland. This magazine is the natural development from that.

Our base is in Ireland, a country that is enriched by centuries of musical expression, and which continues to produce a multitude of sounds and voices.

It is that sweep of different musics which has helped us to develop the approach of this new magazine, which encourages us to think about music, and write about it, in new ways.

Musical life is changing, and so too are we. We want to understand musical life in the twenty-first century as an expression of the lives we are living.

Here we are. We’re listening. Read and write.

Toner Quinn
Editor