Musicology

As a joint foundation of the University of Paderborn and Detmold University of Music, the Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Seminar constitutes an interface between academic and artistic practice. This working partnership has generated a broad range of courses for the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes. Engagement with historical and contemporary musical cultures, both European and global, comprises the core area of teaching and research. You will be supported on the one hand by a lively dialogue with musical practice, music theory, music pedagogy and media production, and on the other hand by an in-depth exchange with other specialist disciplines, particularly in the realms of culture, the humanities and IT. International research projects and networks are connected with the Musicology Seminar, including the Zentrum Musik – Edition – Medien, projects related to musicological gender research, as well as the long-term editorial project, the Carl-Maria von Weber Gesamtausgabe and Beethovens Werkstatt. Participating in study projects, the results of which are promulgated at events and in publications, together with collaboration in research projects, gives students an early insight into musicological fields of work. The Bachelor of Musicology study programme with additional artistic qualification is unique to Detmold. The double-subject study courses in the Cultural Science Faculty offer a wide range of combination options; the specialist professionalisation options in the Master’s degree programme offer a choice between writing, the use of digital technology and practical music making. Centrally located in the FORUM Wissenschaft | Bibliothek | Musik, the Musicology Seminar provides ideal conditions for an individually supervised study programme that is as practically as it is academically based.

At the Detmold/Paderborn Musicology Institute students are given the opportunity to take responsibility for devising and presenting their own projects with assistance from the teaching staff. For example, in one seminar students collected and analysed the musical stories of 17 people from Germany and other countries using qualitative social research methodology. The result was an audiobook entitled ‘Musikgeschichte(n) der Leute – erinnert, gesammelt, erzählt’ (Musical stories – remembered, collected and told). The choice of an audiobook as the medium for presenting the results was based on the idea of allowing the people involved to speak for themselves. Hearing the voices and emotions of those with whom the students spoke brings the musical story of each individual to life. The audiobook CD is supplemented by a booklet explaining the methods used and the academic conclusions drawn. Both the CD and the booklet were put together and produced by the students themselves.