The Institute for European Regional Music Research (IERM) sees itself as a center of excellence for research into (supra)regional developments in music culture. It brings together the previously independent research areas of Musical Ethnology and Salzburg Music History, whose members are developing promising new research directions while continuing to pursue their established areas of focus and projects.

The Institute for European Regional Music Research builds upon the established research profiles in Musical Ethnology and Salzburg Music History, further developing these as well as new, forward-looking research avenues—both through mutual exchange and in collaboration with national and international partners.

Musical Ethnology

Musical ethnology examines music and dance within their diverse cultural, social, and historical contexts. It focuses on both traditional vocal and instrumental forms of expression and contemporary musical practices, processes of cultural change, and the interrelationships between music, migration, and transcultural exchange. Its institutional roots lie in the research and documentation of folk music traditions in the Alpine region. This field of research, which has evolved historically and continues to shape the department’s profile today, is being further developed and situated within supraregional, European, and global contexts. At the same time, Musical Ethnology is opening itself up to additional topics and fields of research within the international discourse.

Salzburg Music History

The research focus on Salzburg’s musical history examines the history of music in Salzburg from its beginnings to the present from a social and cultural-historical perspective. The focus is on musical and cultural practices of various social groups and communities of interest; furthermore, the research explores social spheres of action, developments in historical mentalities, networks, and processes of identity formation and the construction of otherness. Particular attention is paid to the causes and manifestations of these phenomena, as well as their impact on social realities.

Tangent 1: Cultural Hegemonies and Underrepresented Groups

A special focus is placed on the causes and effects of cultural hegemonies, as well as on the musical practices of groups that have been underrepresented or marginalized in musicological research to date. Among other topics, the research examines musical protest and alternative cultures, practices that deviate from social norms, street music, music in camps, and the music of ethnic minorities. Academic discourses on discrimination and intersectionality serve as central theoretical reference points.

Tangent 2: Regional Music Cultures Between Locality and Globality

The Institute for European Regional Music Research examines urbanity and rurality in terms of their differences, similarities, and processes of transfer, and focuses on aspects of musical and music-cultural developments from their beginnings to the present, as well as their reception and significance for posterity. At the same time, locally and regionally oriented basic research is contextualized at the national and international levels in relation to other cultural spheres in order to highlight local, regional, and global developments and interconnections.

Tangent 3: Theories and Methods of Regional Music Research

The research conducted by the Institute for European Regional Music Research combines musicological approaches with those from the cultural and social sciences. In addition to musical analysis, music philological studies, and hermeneutic approaches, the institute employs, among other methods, network analysis, collective biography, thick description, grounded theory, qualitative content analysis, interviews, and selected participatory methods. Ethnographic field research plays a key role in the Institute’s methodology. It encompasses, in particular, the observation of and participation in musical and cultural practices and events within the contexts under study, as well as their multimedia documentation through audio, photo, and video recordings. Building on this foundation, the Institute further develops music-focused theoretical and methodological concepts for the field of European regional history through scholarly exchange.

The Third Mission activities of the Institute for European Regional Music Research promote exchange between the university and the public and make academic topics and research findings accessible beyond the university context.

A guided tour program, offered continuously since 2012, typically takes place once a month during the academic term and provides access to selected sites of regional music culture. The spectrum ranges from archives, museums, and historic sites to theaters, concert halls, and cultural institutions, as well as media outlets, workshops, and venues for contemporary musical practice. The guided tours are led by experts from the respective institutions and provide direct insights even into areas that are otherwise only partially accessible to the public.

The guided tour program is complemented by other public events such as themed walks, exhibitions, lectures and discussion forums, symposia, and workshops, as well as events that combine scholarly exchange with concerts and other forms of artistic practice. Many of these activities are organized in cooperation with cultural, educational, and research institutions.

Another Third Mission initiative is the annual concert series “Echoes of Diversity—Music of the Worlds in Tyrol,” which has been held since 2010. It emerged in 2004 from the field research and course “Music of Minorities in Tyrol” and has since provided an open platform for intercultural and transcultural musical practice by musicians of diverse backgrounds living in Tyrol.

• Geschichte der Universität Mozarteum Salzburg
• Feste feiern und Musik
• Black Musics in the Yugoslav Region. Nonaligned Afterlives and Globalized Present
• FWF-Projekt: „Music, Drama and Religion: Sepolcri in the 18th Century in the Habsburg Monarchy“
• Amish Music
• Fux-Werke-Verzeichnis, Band 2