Musicology

Overview

The Department of Musicology deals primarily with European music history from the Middle Ages to the present; additionally, courses are offered in musical analysis, European folk music and non-European music, as well as cultural studies questions about music.

Mirabellplatz 1
5020 Salzburg

Guide and tips for writing papers

Leitfaden und Tipps zum Erstellen von wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten

Downloads for students

The research fields of the department lie predominantly in the history of music from the 18th to the 20th century: analytical and interpretative aspects, changes in reception over the years, philology, and cultural, sociological and aesthetic questions are all examined. Further areas for study include popular music, baroque music, Viennese classical music and new music of the 20th century.

Other focal points of research are folk music of the alpine region and questions about music as a cultural phenomenon. Numerous interdepartmental projects as well as cooperation with national and international partners provide space for the exploration of a wide range of topics: questions of reception, treatises on composers, forms of cultural perception (European and American music in comparison) and much more.

In the field of teaching, the Department of Musicology offers a PhD programme as well as musicological courses for students of all music degrees Mozarteum and preparatory courses for academic practice. The teaching staff at the department supervise numerous academic theses (BA, MA, PhD) and cooperate on different levels with the artistic and pedagogical departments in order to emphasise the relevance of musicological competences for interpretation in the vocal, instrumental and conducting fields as well as for music pedagogy.

Courses

Interdisciplinary

Mozarteum-PLUS Joint PhD Programme

Music, Art Education

PhD Programme

German language courses

Details about german for studying

News

8.5.2025

‘Music and Migration’ nominated for the 2025 Award of the American Musicological Society

The handbook compiled by the inter-university research initiative ‘Music and Migration’ Wolfgang Gratzer / Nils Grosch / Ulrike Präger / Susanne Scheiblhofer (eds.), ‘The Routledge Handbook of Music and Migration: Methodologies and Theories’, Routledge 2024 has just been nominated for the prestigious 2025 Award of the American Musicological Society.

Awards & Successes
24.4.2025

Call for Papers: Mozart interpretations in sound recordings until 1950

In cooperation with the International Mozarteum Foundation, the Institute for the History of Musical Reception and Interpretation (IMRI) at the Mozarteum University Salzburg is organising a symposium on ‘Mozart Interpretations in Sound Recordings up to 1950’ in the Mozart Sound and Film Collection from 19 to 21 November 2025. We ask for proposals for papers relevant to the topic.

Open Call
4.3.2025

Call for Contributions: BioSphere – TechnoSphere

Music and Sound Beyond the Human: This conference aims to contribute to this ongoing development, and to put special emphasis on the ethical and political dimensions that come into play in regard of other-than-human creativity and aesthetics. Submissions from all musicological (sub-)disciplines are welcome, as well as from the music-related domains in neighboring scholarly and scientific disciplines and in interdisciplinary fields like human-animal studies, critical animal studies, critical plant studies, multispecies ethnography, and AI music studies.

Open Call
26.11.2024

Award of appreciation for Anna Hechenblaickner

Martin Schneider (graduate baroque violin / baroque viola with Mayumi Hirasaki, master's degree in historical performance practice with Reinhard Goebel) was awarded the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research's appreciation prize on 21 November 2024 in Vienna.

Awards & Successes