Musicology
Musicology wants to interpret music as a cultural and historical phenomenon, raise awareness for its historical and social connections, and discuss its manifold methods in connection with music from technical analysis to cultural contextualisation, and through all this support the aesthetic dialogue.
Research and Teaching
The department of Musicology at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig combines research and editing projects with national and international partners. The main objective of this department is to classify the phenomenon “music” in current discussions and with that support the artistic and social standpoint of the young musicians and music teachers, whose objective it is to teach and impart music. Therefore, research and teaching correlate with each other: Things should not be depicted as established and irrefutable, but rather develop new questions concerning music (history) in changing circumstances. The subject’s main aim is to interpret, not to take everything that is given for granted.
Science and artistic practise
The embedding in the University of Music and Theatre allows interaction with the cultural subjects. Even in the Musicology Master programme you study close to practise. Exemplary for this is the musicological analysis of issues such as performance practise which importance is growing steadily in the current music scene. Such subjects of discussion extend from study of sources, the question of musical text to those subjects which are strongly linked to the interpretation of music from certain cultural contexts.
Neighbouring disciplines
Equally essential is the contact with other neighbouring disciplines: As a moment of music education, the practical application of musicological findings is discussed in school music and music education.
The history of reflecting over music in analysis, music aesthetics and the philosophy stays in close contact to the music theory and its history.
For example dramaturgy opens the view of media contextualisation of music.
Of course popular music research plays a well-established role in Leipzig, the venue of the annually Wave-Gotik-Treffen, and is supported by the cooperation with the department of Jazz/Popular music.
Lectures
Lectures and tutorials of
Music history at a glance (
Musikgeschichte im Überblick), build the foundation of the musicological studies at the HMT Leipzig. The four-semester course offers a broad insight into current methods of musicology as historical cultural studies. This overview is complemented by further advanced seminars which serve as a closer analysis of each topic.
Priorities
Priorities of the department are performance theory and interpretation research, connections of music and media (from music publishing to film music) as well as history and current methods of music theory.
Impressionen: das Institut im Haus am Dittrichring
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