Fields of Research
In its research field ‘Performance and Interpretation’, the Institute Interpretation examines music and theatre from the 18th to 21st centuries and puts the research findings into practice. Other key areas of research include ‘Musical Instruments’, ‘Music Theory’, and ‘Pop and Jazz in Context’. The research field ‘Intersections of Contemporary Music’ illuminates the shifts in the relationship between authorship and interpretation in all the arts.
Performance and Interpretation
The field of research ‘Performance and Interpretation’ examines artistic practices and the way that instructions for performances are laid down in advance in the form of texts, images, scores or choreographies, versus how they are actually realised in performances. The focus is on music and theatre from the 18th century onwards. They are examined using methods from source-based music, theatre, literature, visual and historical studies and put into practice using artistic means.
Person responsible: Annette Kappeler
Music and Cultural Heritage
Music as a cultural phenomenon is significantly shaped by social and historical influences. Our research focuses on intangible musical heritage – such as practices and knowledge – as well as tangible heritage, including musical instruments. In particular, we research folk music and wind music in the Alpine region as well as instrument making, taking into account the challenges posed by digitalisation and social change.
Our goal is to create sustainable value through innovative solutions and to actively help shape the future by examining musical phenomena within their broader societal context.
Person responsible: Yannick Wey
Music Theory
The projects in the research field ‘Music Theory’ focus on questions of historically informed compositional theory and musical analysis and participate in the international research discourse within the subject. The focus is on the period of the late 18th and 19thcenturies, with methodological and didactic aspects playing a central role. The results can be applied to current teaching practice and open up questions relating to music education.
Person responsible: Claudio Bacciagaluppi
Pop and Jazz in Context
The interdisciplinary research field deals with music, media, cultural and social science perspectives on musical forms, which are expanded to include contexts of meaning from cultural studies, gender studies, sound studies and new approaches to analysis. Complementary to the classical hermeneutic approach of analyzing musical content in terms of its meanings and values, we focus our research on the social, cultural, economic and media contexts in which cultural objects (such as songs) are turned into carriers of meanings and values.
Person responsible: N. N.
Intersections of Contemporary Music
This field of research is concerned with threshold phenomena in contemporary music that are situated between classical genres and established patterns of thought. The research interest is less directed on work structures than on artistic practices and their social interaction mechanisms. The focus is on the investigation of creative production and organisational processes and experimental research into the artistic means of contemporary music.
Person responsible: Leo Dick
