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The Institute for Music Aesthetics

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The Institute for Music Aesthetics
TypePublic
Established1967 (1967)
Total staff
ca. 8
Location
Graz
,
Styria
,
Austria
Websitemusikaesthetik.kug.ac.at//

The Institute for Music Aesthetics, founded in 1967 as the "Institute for Valuation Research", is an institution of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. As the only institute of its kind in the German-speaking area, it is specifically dedicated to the philosophical exploration of musical phenomena.

Concept

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The Palais Meran, seat of the Institute for Music Aesthetics

The institute promotes and conducts research and teaching in the field of music aesthetics. The field of music aesthetics concentrates on fundamental premises that underlie musical theory, practice, and the perception of music—for instance, form, structure, content, time, expression, understanding, or interpretation. Music aesthetics is conceived of as a philosophical endeavour that is both historically situated and relevant to present contexts. Typically, music aesthetics proceeds in an interdisciplinary manner, making the conceptual richness of the philosophical tradition interact with empirical approaches to music.[1]

History

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Kaufmann Era

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Harald Kaufmann, Fingerübungen (1970)

The Institute for Music Aesthetics was founded on September 29, 1967, as the "Institute for Valuation Research" at the then Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Graz. [2] Initially, it was planned as an "Institute for Cultural Journalism".[3] The academy appointed Harald Kaufmann, who had conceived the institute in 1966, as its first head.[4]

At the symposium in the founding year of 1967 Theodor W. Adorno (who held Kaufmann in high regard[5]) gave a keynote address.[6] Kaufmann programmatically outlined a concept for the new research facility[7] in two of his publications (Spurlinien. Analytische Aufsätze über Sprache und Musik and Fingerübungen. 'Musikgesellschaft und Wertungsforschung[8]) and exemplarily applied its principles in case studies.

The Saarbrücken musicologist Werner Braun characterized Kaufmann's program as follows: "Modern 'valuation research' is about illuminating as many hidden premises as possible for the 'anticipatory' aesthetic judgement. Harald Kaufmann, the head of the Graz institute set up for this purpose, wants to use tests to expose the chains of association and relations, and thus track down the 'group norms'".[9]

From December 16 to 19, 1969, György Ligeti taught a course 'about avant-garde Composition Techniques and the Identification of Criteria' at the institute.[10]

On June 1, 1970, Kaufmann was diagnosed with septic pleuropneumonia.[11] On June 29, 1970, he was appointed full university professor by resolution of the Federal President of the Republic of Austria, Franz Jonas. Kaufmann died on July 9, 1970, at the age of 42 in Graz.[12]

Kolleritsch Era

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South wing of Palais Meran, Graz

After Kaufmann's sudden death in 1970, Otto Kolleritsch (1934 – 2023) took over the directorate of the institute in the same year and held that position until his retirement in 2002. In the Kolleritsch era, the institute was moved from Palais Saurau to the south wing of Palais Meran.

During this period, the opportunity arose to link the symposia to the "Steirischer Herbst" (international festival of contemporary art in Graz). This required a thematic coordination with the avant-garde festival's "Musikprotokoll" concert series (founded by Peter Vujica and Emil Breisach).

In terms of the institute’s line of inquiry, Kolleritsch shifted its focus towards the history of reception. During the 1990s, he linked this approach with discussions of modernism and postmodernism, booming at the time in cultural studies.[13]

Kolleritsch excluded the methods of empirical social research favoured by Kaufmann and limited the procedures of the institute's work to those cultivated by the humanities and cultural studies. Value analysis was replaced by (partly rather intuitive) valuation.[14]

As Harald Kaufmannʼs ideas were pushed into the background,[15] Erika Kaufmann, his widow and heiress, transferred his estate from Graz to the archive of the Academy of Arts Berlin.[16] A Festschrift to honour Kolleritsch's work was published in tribute to his 60th birthday.[17] According to the theologian and musician Johann Trummer (1940 – 2019), Kolleritsch’s achievements culminate in an "unsurpassable life’s work".[18]

Dorschel Era

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Andreas Dorschel, Vienna 2019

In autumn 2001, the institute's professorship was advertised internationally for the first time.[19]

From 2002 on, Andreas Dorschel, who was appointed professor, (together with Federico Celestini)[20] has given the institute a more philosophical orientation.[21] Since the term "valuation research" had not been accepted as the name of a research discipline in four decades,[22] Dorschel decided to rename the institution "Institute for Music Aesthetics" (since 2007).[23] Nevertheless, Harald Kaufmann's legacy regained relevance at the institute.[24] At the same time, the institute has opened up its research projects to the international discussion, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world. In May 2019, the Institute for Music Aesthetics, together with the Institute for Ethnomusicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, organized an international symposium on the (ethnographically) comparative aesthetics of music.[25]

A European group of experts [26] stated in 2018 that the Institute for Music Aesthetics had developed into an "internationally unique flagship institution" in its field during the 2010s.[27] In addition to scientific research, which forms the basis of the institute's work, journalistic aspects have been incorporated in the form of reviews and essays for non-academic journals such as Lettre International.

Research Projects

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Institute logo (2017)

The Institute for Music Aesthetics hosted (or hosts) the following research projects funded by the Austrian Science Fund:

  • P 25061-G15 What and How Does Music Express? Integrating Music Philosophy and Musical Analysis. FWF project to research the idea of musical expression and its analysis. Duration: 2013–2019 (Andreas Dorschel/Deniz Peters)
  • AR 188 Emotional Improvisation. FWF/PEEK-Project on the question of how harmonious interaction ("togetherness") unfolds in improvisations. Duration: 2014–2019 (Deniz Peters)
  • AR 259-G21 TransCoding: From ‚Highbrow Art‘ to Participatory Culture. FWF/PEEK-Project on the possibilities of expanding participation in contemporary music with artistic claims through social media. Duration: 2015–2018 (Barbara Lüneburg/Kai Ginkel)[28]
  • M 2072-G26 Music as Life-Affirmation. FWF project to research the role of music in the philosophy of life in its historical context and in its possible current significance. Duration: 2016–2018 (Manos Perrakis/Andreas Dorschel)[29]
  • P 34449-G The Epistemic Power of Music. FWF project on the question how knowledge enters music and how it emerges from it. Duration: 2021– (Andreas Dorschel/Férdia Stone-Davis)

Studien zur Wertungsforschung [Studies on Valuation Research]

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Studien zur Wertungsforschung Volume 1, 1968

The studies on valuation research, founded by Harald Kaufmann in 1968, is the most long-standing book series specifically dedicated to music aesthetics in the German-speaking world. It is published by Universal Edition (Vienna/London/New York, NY), Austria's only international music publisher.

Bibliography (alphabetically)

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  • Andreas Dorschel: Arbeit am Kanon. Ästhetische Studien zur Musik von Haydn bis Webern. Universal Edition, Vienna – London – New York, NY 2010 (Studien zur Wertungsforschung 51) (together with Federico Celestini)
  • Andreas Dorschel: Vollkommenes hält sich fern. Ästhetische Näherungen. Universal Edition, Vienna – London – New York, NY 2012 (Studien zur Wertungsforschung 53) (together with Philip Alperson)
  • Harald Kaufmann: Spurlinien. Analytische Aufsätze über Sprache und Musik. Lafite, Vienna 1969
  • Harald Kaufmann: Fingerübungen. Musikgesellschaft und Wertungsforschung. Lafite, Vienna 1970
  • Otto Kolleritsch: Hier wird’s Ereignis. Kritische Ästhetik zwischen künstlerischer Praxis und Forschung mit der Kunst. Leykam, Graz 2014.
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References

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  1. ^ Elisabeth Freismuth (ed.): Entwicklungsplan 2016 bis 2019. Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Graz 2016, pp. 27–28.
  2. ^ Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv Graz, K. 30/no. 59, quoted in Ingeborg Harer: Visionen einer Pionierin: Vera Schwarz (1929–1980) und ihre Konzepte zur Etablierung des Fachgebietes Alte Musik/Aufführungspraxis. In: Barbara Boisits, Ingeborg Harer (eds.): Alte Musik in Österreich. Forschung und Praxis seit 1800. Mille Tre, Vienna 2009 (= Neue Beiträge zur Aufführungspraxis. vol. 7), pp. 359–390, specifically pp. 360–361, for source see p. 385.
  3. ^ Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv (STLA), Box 78, X-38, GZ AK-38-1966-67
  4. ^ Gottfried Krieger: Ein Pionier der Musikpublizistik in Österreich. Zum Leben und Wirken von Harald Kaufmann (1927–1970). In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift. vol. 65, 2010, no. 7–8, pp. 4–12.
  5. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Brief an Harald Kaufmann vom 31. Oktober 1967. In: Werner Grünzweig, Gottfried Krieger (eds.): Von innen und außen. Schriften über Musik, Musikleben und Ästhetik. Wolke, Hofheim, 1993, pp. 274–275, specifically p. 274: „Selten habe ich bei einem Menschen geistige Integrität und strategische Begabung so glücklich verbunden gefunden wie bei Ihnen; das Ihnen zu sagen, drängt es mich sehr.“ (“Hardly ever I have found such a felicitous combination of intellectual integrity and talent for strategy in a human being; I am eager to tell you this.”)
  6. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Reflexion über Musikkritik. In: Harald Kaufmann (ed.): Symposion für Musikkritik. Institut für Wertungsforschung an der Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Graz 1968, pp. 7–21, reprint in Theodor W. Adorno: Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 19, ed. Rolf Tiedemann and Klaus Schultz. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1984, pp. 573–591.
  7. ^ His most programmatic text are Thesen über Wertungsforschung, first presented as a talk in 1967 and printed in Fingerübungen. Musikgesellschaft und Wertungsforschung. Lafite, Vienna 1970, pp. 12–23. Here Kaufmann provides “a survey of the foundations and the categories of inquiry at the Graz Institute for Valuation Research” („einen Überblick über die Grundlagen und Kategorien der Arbeit am Institut für Wertungsforschung in Graz“, as Gerhard Schuhmacher puts it: Musikästhetik. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1973, p. 51).
  8. ^ Lafite, Vienna 1969 and 1970. Fingerübungen are dedicated to the memory of Theodor W. Adorno who had died the year before.
  9. ^ Werner Braun: Musikkritik. Versuch einer historisch-kritischen Standortbestimmung. Gerig, Köln 1972 (= Musik-Taschen-Bücher Theoretica. Vol. 12), pp. 116–117.
  10. ^ Dietmar Polaczek, in: Neue Zeit, 18 December 1969, p. 4. The Ligeti-Kaufmann correspondence, running from 1958 to 1970, has been published in Werner Grünzweig, Gottfried Krieger (eds.): Von innen und außen. Schriften über Musik, Musikleben und Ästhetik. Wolke, Hofheim 1993, pp. 164–262. On Kaufmann/Ligeti cf. Julia Heimerdinger: Sprechen über Neue Musik. epubli, Berlin 2014, pp. 144–145.
  11. ^ Archiv der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, Persakt Harald Kaufmann AV 96/1, 10 P.
  12. ^ The Swedish music editor and friend of Ligeti Ove Nordwall dedicated his monograph György Ligeti (Schott, Mainz 1971) to the memory of Harald Kaufmann (p. 5: "Dem Andenken Harald Kaufmanns gewidmet").
  13. ^ Vgl. Otto Kolleritsch (ed.): Wiederaneignung und Neubestimmung. Der Fall „Postmoderne“ in der Musik. Universal Edition, Graz 1991, and, in a more systematic approach, Susanne Kogler: Adorno versus Lyotard. Moderne und postmoderne Ästhetik. Alber, Freiburg i. Br./Munich 2014. Kogler was Kolleritsch’s doctoral student, completing her PhD in 2001.
  14. ^ Hellmut Federhofer argued that this had been a major flaw, research substituted by partisanship: Neue Musik und moderne Demokratie. In: International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music (IRASM). XXX (1999), no. 1, pp. 3–13, specifically p. 12, cf. pp. 5–6).
  15. ^ Gottfried Krieger: Erleben – Analysieren – Kritisieren. Zum Wechselverhältnis von Praxis und Theorie bei Harald Kaufmann. In: Werner Grünzweig, Gottfried Krieger (eds.): Von innen und außen. Schriften über Musik, Musikleben und Ästhetik. Wolke, Hofheim, 1993, pp. 9–14.
  16. ^ https://www.adk.de/de/archiv/archivabteilungen/musik/
  17. ^ Doris Leitinger (ed.): Kritische Musikästhetik und Wertungsforschung. Zum 60. Geburtstag des Herausgebers. Universal Edition, Graz/ Vienna 1996 (= Studien zur Wertungsforschung. Vol. 30).
  18. ^ Johann Trummer: Glückwunsch für Otto Kolleritsch. In: Doris Leitinger (ed.): Kritische Musikästhetik und Wertungsforschung. Zum 60. Geburtstag des Herausgebers. Universal Edition, Graz/ Vienna 1996 (= Studien zur Wertungsforschung. Vol. 30), pp. 120–130, specifically p. 124.
  19. ^ Vgl. Die Zeit. Nr. 47, (15. November) 2001, p. 87.
  20. ^ Celestini conducted research and teaching at the institute from 2008 to 2011.
  21. ^ Cf. Federico Celestini, Andreas Dorschel: Arbeit am Kanon. Ästhetische Studien zur Musik von Haydn bis Webern. Universal Edition, Vienna/London/New York, NY 2010 (= Studien zur Wertungsforschung. Vol. 51)
  22. ^ It seems that initially Dorschel had hoped that discussions of canonization could offer a backbone to save the label "valuation research"; cf. Andreas Dorschel: Was ist musikalische Wertungsforschung? In: Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Instituts für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz 2004. Schott, Mainz/London/Madrid 2005, pp. 371–385. The label has been preserved in the name of the institute’s series of publications.
  23. ^ Kolleritsch expressed his misgivings concerning the new name: Hier wird’s Ereignis. Kritische Ästhetik zwischen künstlerischer Praxis und Forschung mit der Kunst. Leykam, Graz 2014, pp. 339–340.
  24. ^ From 20th to 21st October 2010 the institute held the first international conference on Kaufmann’s intellectual legacy. Vol. 58 of Studien zur Wertungsforschung, published in 2015, contains texts by Kaufmann from the Berlin archive: Harald Kaufmann: Musikalische Reisebilder. ed. Werner Grünzweig and Gottfried Krieger, Universal Edition, Vienna/London/New York, NY. Cf. also Andreas Dorschel: Vera Schwarz und Harald Kaufmann: Neues Musikdenken in den frühen Jahren der Zweiten Republik. In: Ingeborg Harer, Gudrun Rottensteiner (ed.): Wissenschaft und Praxis – Altes und Neues. Leykam, Graz 2017 (= Neue Beiträge zur Aufführungspraxis. Vol. 8), pp. 29–37.
  25. ^ Ethnoaesthetics of Music. Concepts, Criteria, Case Studies; cf. Doris Griesser: Warum Schönheit überall anders klingt. In: Der Standard, Forschung Spezial, 15 May 2019, p. 10. For the conceptual issues see Andreas Dorschel: Introduction. In: Gerd Grupe (ed.): Towards a Comparative Aesthetics of Music: Concepts, Criteria, Case Studies. Shaker, Düren 2021 (= Graz Studies in Ethnomusicology. Vol. 27), pp. 3–10.
  26. ^ Bruce Brown (Brighton, UK); Rachel Cooper (Lancaster, UK); Jürgen Faust (Stuttgart, DE); Kirsten Merete Langkilde (Basel, CH); Keith Negus (London, UK); Mick Wilson (Göteborg, SE)
  27. ^ Antonio Loprieno, Kerstin Mey (ed.): Reflexionen zur Weiterentwicklung der Kunstuniversitäten. Österreichischer Wissenschaftsrat, Vienna 2018, p. 96.
  28. ^ Cf. Barbara Lüneburg: TransCoding: From „Highbow Art“ to Participatory Culture. Social Media – Art – Research. Transcript, Bielefeld 2018 (= Culture & Theory. Vol. 155).
  29. ^ Cf. Manos Perrakis (ed.): Life as an Aesthetic Idea of Music. Universal Edition, Vienna/London/New York 2019 (= Studien zur Wertungsforschung. Vol. 61).
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