Department of Musicology Weimar-Jena

Welcome ...

to the website of the Department of Musicology Weimar Jena!

... and thus in the musical diversity, which at this Department, as in few comparable institutes, is a central part of everyday life in research, teaching, artistic immersion and third-party funded projects!

On this page you will find the latest information from the Department and everything worth knowing about studying musicology in Weimar and Jena.

Whether it is the processing of the university's archive materials, a Jazz-o-Mat developed here, or the exchange with music research in countries in Europe and beyond, such as Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil, Colombia, Israel and Afghanistan: the list of teaching and research focuses at the Department is long. These include the processing of the Richard Wagner Collection in Eisenach, the index of music manuscripts in the Thuringian State Music Archive, a Cherubini Edition, the history of theatre and music in Weimar, the exhibition and symposium on persecuted musicians under National Socialism, the Afghanistan Music Research Centre, the Music in Africa Online course or the archive on Yiddish music from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Other focal points are Music and Gender, modal music from Persian, Turkish and Arabic music history, or deal with transcultural music aesthetics and with the UNESCO concept of music as a living cultural heritage.

All of this raises the question of a musical canon based on greater variety and diversity. At the Department, pursuing this question remains cross-thematic and always present at the same time.

Against this background, even the historical core area of the subject, i.e. dealing with Western music history, does not remain untouched. The current references to diversity have also fundamentally expanded the study of music history. In addition, the topics of war, displacement and migration are currently having an impact on the teaching content at the Department. In this context, teachers and researchers from Afghanistan and Ukraine have recently been guests at the Institute.

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The almost six years as director of the Department will remain in my memory as a very eventful time. The Department has changed, new challenges have arisen. Without the cooperation of the entire faculty, the staff, the secretariat and our students, we would not be where we are today, as a consolidated and well-equipped Department of Musicology for the diverse tasks at a conservatoire and university.

I wish my successor as director of the Department, Prof. Dr. Michael Klaper, the same fulfilment in this task as I have experienced during the many great highlights of the past six years.

I wish us all an interesting exchange and a good, musically diverse time at the Department!

Prof. Dr. Tiago de Oliveira Pinto

UNESCO Chair on Transcultural Music Studies