We understand music education as an umbrella term for all practical and theoretical approaches to music-related processes of appropriation and mediation that are significant for education, teaching, learning, and instruction, in- and outside of the music classroom. Music education centers on the relationships between people and musics, and the music-related experiences tied to them. At the University of Oldenburg, there are focal areas in diversity-oriented, cultural-studies-oriented, and systematic music education.

→ Music Education

For centuries, there has been a close connection between music and media. From the notation of music using sheet music, its recording and production for sound carriers or radio broadcasting, to current digital music cultures – anyone involved in the aesthetics, sociology or economie of music should be aware of the importance of media.

→ Music and media

Making music involves many people: those who compose it, those who publish and perform it, those who promote it, listen to it, reflect on it, judge it, or write about it... Music and musicians are part of the cultural, political, and social forces of their time and the past. Exploring this diversity of musical action, thought, and feeling is the goal of Cultural History of Music.

→ Cultural History of Music

Systematic Musicology combines natural science and humanities approaches to music in an equal manner. Musical production and reception processes, as well as their effects on other areas of human life and actions, are at the forefront. The methodological spectrum encompasses physical (e.g. room and instrument acoustics), biological (e.g. physiology of hearing), psychological (e.g. psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology) and sociological approaches, as well as information science and neuroscience approaches.

→ Systematic Musicology

In the “Music Perception Lab”, we study how listeners with diverse hearing profiles make sense of musical sound and intpret features such as pitch, tone color, sound mixtures, and multimodal cues. We conduct psychoacoustic experiments, develop auditory perception models, and design music audio processing algorithms.

→ Music Perception

Practice creates knowledge creates practice... Music theory is a dynamic discipline between practice and science that examines composed, improvised, produced or performed works through analysis, reconstruction and imitation, as well as through the realisation of one's own ideas. The stylistic range extends from early music to contemporary, from Abbey Road to Yebba, from symphonic to techno. Digital tools in music production, notation and live electronics are central components of our work.

→ Music Theory/Composition

In addition to individual vocal and instrumental lessons, which cover almost the entire course of study, the many ensembles at the Institute of Music play a key role. Here, students work on artistic and musical projects across styles and genres, which extend far beyond the university campus and help shape the cultural life of the city and the Oldenburg region.

→ Instrumental/Vocal Practice

The profile focus ‘Music, Scene, Theatre’ combines the study areas of music practice with musicology and music education and is divided into two areas, each of which carries out music theatre projects: artistically oriented music theatre productions, mostly at the university, on the one hand, and projects in cooperation with schools on the other. Both areas also take place in collaboration with professionals and external partners.

→ Music, Scene, Theatre

Media Music Practice combines teaching and research on electronic and digital music production as a (techno-) cultural, aesthetic, and socially shaped practice. It focuses in particular on the technologies, processes, and aesthetics of popular and experimental music and sound art, which are explored in artistic, educational, and research contexts and critically reflected through cultural and media-theoretical perspectives.

→ Media Music Practice