[1] The journal, whose title means "The Row" or "The Series", owes its genesis to the founding of the Studio for Electronic Music of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) in Cologne (later WDR) under the influence of Werner Meyer-Eppler, and the realisation that technology was becoming an important element in the work of younger composers.
[2] The contributions from composers working in the studio were frequently based on their projects there, and in the early stages of competing with the radio-play department for resources, Eimert found having such a journal useful.
It helped to raise the studio's educational and academic profile above the entertainment aims of other departments of the radio station, as well as providing opportunities to young authors for publication.
Since Henze's style was comparatively old-fashioned, Stockhausen regarded this as a betrayal of the principles of serial music underlying Die Reihe, and vehemently broke with Eimert over it.
[15] Dika Newlin, reporting on volume five, concludes (apparently with reference to the item in it by John Cage) by saying "Many readers will be disquieted by the periodical's continuing mixture of worthwhile investigation with pretentious phoniness".
Werner Meyer-Eppler's article in volume 1 is singled out as the sole exception: "an interesting account of some experimental results in psychoacoustics, [which] is adequately supplied with references, and is a model of lucidity".