Music in a divided world
Annual conference of the Society for Music Research with around 500 participants in Weimar
The 77th annual conference of the Society for Music Research (GfM) will take place from 6 to 9 October 2025 in Weimar. Organised by the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, the conference will focus on the theme of ‘Music in a Divided World’.
In a time perceived as politically, economically and culturally crisis-ridden, the conference will focus on contrasts and polarizations that are also familiar in the field of music, such as serious versus popular music, new versus old, West versus East, Wagner versus Brahms, secular versus sacred, ‘natural’ intelligence versus AI.
Within the framework of the overarching theme of a musically divided world, the conference will examine how music makes both dividing lines and bridges in different societies and epochs audibly tangible and negotiable.
The call for papers for the conference, which is expected to attract around 500 participants, states: ‘Deep rifts are opening up in societies, between world regions and religions. With new conflicts between East and West, South and North, city and country, democratic and authoritarian, etc., the confrontational thinking of the Cold War seems to be resurfacing.’
The connecting – shared – element here is music, which has a mediating effect like hardly any other medium. ‘And this is true both on a subjective level, through the relationship between body and mind, and on a social, even global level,’ says Weimar musicology professor Dr Nina Noeske. ‘This is precisely where the analytical and social potential of music lies. In view of the current global challenges, it is essential to rediscover a common basis that is as tolerant as it is democratic, both in politics and in music.’
In addition to specialist symposia, free lectures, poster presentations, discussion panels and experimental formats that impressively showcase the diversity of current music research, the academic programme focuses on two main symposia that approach the ‘divided world’ from different historical perspectives.
The first explores musical orders and boundaries from the 19th century to the present day, for example in relation to identity politics or the relationship between the various political systems of the 20th century; the second focuses on music between North and South, East and West up to the 16th century.
The opening keynote lecture will be given by Weimar conductor and musicologist Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Peter Gülke, who has experienced the division of Germany from a biographical, artistic and journalistic perspective and at the same time stands for a professional culture that transcends boundaries.
The conference programme will be accompanied by several concerts that take up the main theme in various formats: Bach and Gubaidulina, Jaëll and Liszt, Biber, Kreidler and a concert of Transcultural Music Studies will be performed. Pianist and professor of Jewish music history Dr. Jascha Nemtsov will also present piano music by female composers from East and West.
As the venue for the conference, Weimar is particularly well suited, coming as it does a good 20 years after hosting the international congress of the GfM (2004) with its wide range of musicology (historical and systematic musicology, history of jazz and popular music, history of Jewish music, transcultural music studies).
The symposia and panels will take place in various venues at the Bauhaus University Weimar and the Weimar Music University.
Further information: www.hfm-weimar.de/gfm2025
[31 July 2025]