Grundlagentexte der Musikwissenschaft

Guido Adler’s 1885 essay "Scope, Method, and Aims of Musicology" is arguably the most influential founding document of musicology as a university discipline. But even before Adler—and especially after him—scholars in the field have continually reexamined what musicology can and should be, how it relates to musical production, and how it should respond to social and political demands.

This volume contains over 50 such foundational conceptions of musicology and its subfields by German-speaking authors dating back to 1777. These texts are reprinted here (in some cases as excerpts) and accompanied by commentary that contextualizes the text within the history of the discipline and its era. In this way, musicology’s self-reflection becomes comprehensible. The various motivations for changes in content or methodology, as well as the engagement with the questions and challenges of the respective present, also become apparent.

The volume is therefore suitable for students of musicology and related cultural and humanities disciplines, as well as for practicing musicologists and anyone interested in aspects of the history of universities and academia. The texts were selected in collaboration with recognized experts in musicology: Barbara Boisits (Austrian musicology), Veronika Busch (systematic musicology), Wolfgang Fuhrmann (sociology of music), Ulrich Konrad (19th-century German musicology), Julio Mendívil (ethnomusicology), Pamela Potter (Nazi musicology), Matthias Tischer (musicology in the GDR), and Melanie Unseld (gender studies in musicology).