In addition to the traditional disciplines of musicology - historical and systematic musicology - the Department of Musicology offers courses on "Music of the World" and "Music and Media". A broad and tolerant understanding of music forms the basis of the specialised examination of historical genres and traditions, the physiological and psychological foundations of the perception and effect of music, the challenges of globalisation and migration and the immense changes in music through and in the media.

Music and media

The study and research focus"Music and Media" deals with questions and problems of aesthetic and social effects of media technology developments and upheavals in the past and present. The character and, above all, the cultural use of music have changed significantly over the course of history in the face of media technology developments. In this context, the recording systems of music - written notation, mechanical-chemical fixation or digital coding - have become particularly important. They have had a decisive influence on our understanding of what music actually is and how we can deal with it. more

Systematic musicology

Systematic musicology analyses music using natural and social science approaches. It draws on methods and theories from fields such as psychology (music perception and cognition), acoustics and physics (sound production and analysis), sociology (music in society), philosophy (aesthetics and meaning in music) and Computing Science (music information retrieval, artificial intelligence in music). Three characteristic features of systematic musicology are: (i) it focuses on fundamental aspects of music (e.g. pitch, rhythm, harmony, timbre, perception and triggering of emotions through music, musical expectation, etc.); (ii) it strives for generalisable knowledge about how music works or how people interact with music; (iii) it involves both empirical research (e.g. experiments, data analysis) and theoretical work (e.g. modelling, conceptual analysis). Systematic musicology is thus close to what is known in English-speaking countries as musicology/music technology.

Cultural history of music

Music is created through the interaction of many people: those who compose music, those who publish and perform it, but also those who promote it, listen to it, think about it, judge it and write about it... Reflecting on this diversity of activities associated with music is the aim of a cultural-historical perspective on music. It also raises awareness of the fact that composers are part of this interaction, that they are in constant dialogue with the cultural, political, social and gender-specific forces of their time and the past.