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Departments
The State Institute for Music Research is divided into four departments: the Museum of Musical Instruments; the Department of Music Theory and History, which includes the Musicological Documentation Unit; the Department of Acoustics and Music Technology, Studio Technology and IT; and the Management and Administration Department.
Management and Administration
The management and administration report to the Director, Dr Rebecca Wolf. She is deputised by the Director of the Museum of Musical Instruments, Dr Emanuele Marconi. The administration ensures that the necessary human, material and financial resources and funds are available to carry out the tasks and projects undertaken by the specialist research departments of the State Institute for Music Research. This includes staff support and personnel development planning, as well as all internal administrative tasks, insofar as these are not reserved for the central administration of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The service also includes the implementation of the budget, including procurement and the awarding of contracts, contract management and a wide range of organisational matters. In cooperation with the property management and technical services, all building and land-related matters, construction projects and all other external services are managed.
Contact details for staff in the Directorate and Administration
Section I: Museum of Musical Instruments
The Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments collects musical instruments associated with European art music from the 16th to the 21st century. The museum currently holds some 3,200 instruments, many of which are in playing condition. A good 800 instruments are on display in the permanent exhibition. In terms of its diversity, it is one of the most representative collections in Germany. The entire collection is documented through specialist academic catalogues and other publications on instrumentology, as well as through articles in the Institute’s yearbook. The results of the work carried out in the restoration workshop are published in the form of technical drawings. The museum’s CD series and concerts also document the work of the researchers and restorers on the historical instruments in the collection.
The museum is headed by Director Dr Emanuele Marconi.
Department II: Music Theory and Music History
The Institute’s Historical Department is home to two major projects. The large-scale, 15-volume *History of Music Theory* project offers a historical account of music-theoretical thought from antiquity to the present day; each volume contains contributions from recognised experts and scholars. The project is complemented by the *Studies in the History of Music Theory* series.
The department’s second major project, the edition of the Correspondence of the Vienna School, makes accessible one of the most significant collections of source material on 20th-century music. The focus is on the correspondence of Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern.
The department is headed by Dr Rebecca Wolf, Director of the State Institute for Music Research.
The department has a unit attached to it:
Musicology Documentation Section
The Musicological Documentation Department is responsible for the Institute’s library, the bibliography of music literature (including the German contribution to the RILM Abstracts of Music Literature), and research projects relating to the library’s holdings. The library is a specialist academic library designed primarily to support the Institute’s researchers in their work. However, it is also open to external users.
The department is headed by Carsten Schmidt.
Department III: Acoustics and Music Technology | Studio Technology and IT
The research focus of Section III centres on the overarching question of how music is produced, transmitted and received. This encompasses issues relating to instrumental acoustics, performance, room acoustics, as well as electroacoustics, media aesthetics and the psychology of hearing. On the one hand, this focus has historical roots, as Department III was originally founded as the ‘Department of Acoustics and Music Psychology’; on the other hand, it stems from its proximity to the scientific and technical-artistic infrastructure and services that it also provides for the Institute.
Since human perception is the ultimate criterion for musical content and modes of performance, the department’s research combines technical procedures with experimental psychological and social science methods. For instance, the Virtual Concert Hall has been developed as a research tool that enables novel experiments into the interplay of hearing and seeing in musical perception. Currently, the department conducts basic research into audiovisual music perception, musical interpretation, and sounddesign and aesthetics, as well as application-oriented research into studio technology and technology-supported knowledge transfer.
Furthermore, Department III provides research infrastructure and services for the Institute’s researchers through its recording studio, digitisation facility and acoustic measurement technology. Infrastructure and services for events and media productions are provided, among other things, through the operation of an audio data network (e.g. in the Curt Sachs Hall and the Folklore Hall) and the provision of sound engineering and sound recording resources. Department III is also responsible for supplying the Institute with IT infrastructure and services, insofar as these are not provided by the Foundation or other institutions.
The department is headed by PD Dr Hans-Joachim Maempel.