This English-language seminar is primarily aimed at the doctoral students of the “GLAREAN College” and the German-Swiss doctoral schools, but it is also open to other students with advanced music theory knowledge and interest. It takes place on four dates in Freiburg and at the participating partner institutions. Travel costs for students from Freiburg can be covered. If you are interested, please register at “ro.bauer@mh-freiburg.de”.

“Artistic research” is still a fairly new concept within conservatories and universities. However, it can be argued that it has actually been carried out in music for centuries (be it in the investigation of acoustic phenomena, in instrument making, in the development of new compositional techniques or musical forms of expression). The subject of music theory in particular has always been at the interface between art and research. This seminar is intended to link the theoretical discipline of musical analysis back to what is its central precondition: artistic practice. This question is particularly relevant for musicians who are interested or already involved in a personal artistic research project: All of us who are engaged in such projects deal with existing works that we interpret, arrange, recompose or that influence us in a broader sense in our work as composers. The aim of the seminar is to present compositions that are relevant to our artistic work or our research projects. This will inevitably lead to a very colourful mixture of styles and epochs. We are going to to analyse these compositions and consciously ask how analysis can be made useful for our practice or our specific project and, conversely, how our practical experience influences our subjective analytical findings.