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Publications
The Staatliche Institut für Musikforschung publishes the results of its research in various publications, including its own scientific series, catalogs, museum guides and CD series.
The core publication activities of the State Institute for Music Research concern its research on the performance and interpretation of music, a central focus of the Institute's work. The series Klang und Begriff. Perspektiven musikalischer Theorie und Praxis (Sound and Concept. Perspectives on Musical Theory and Practice) has been dedicated to questions concerning the sonic reality of music since 2004.
The current focus of our publication activity is the project Geschichte der musikalischen Interpretation im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (History of Musical Interpretation in the 19th and 20th Centuries). This is the first major consolidated account of the history of musical interpretation over the last two centuries. Its scope and variety of inquiry makes the project internationally unique.
The Bibliographie des Musikschrifttums (Bibliography of Music Literature, BMS) forms the central contribution to musicological research of the Department of Musicological Documentation at the SIM: The BMS is the international, interactive and worldwide freely accessible bibliography for musicology. Together with the Archiv des Konzertlebens (Archive of Concert Life), likewise freely accessible, it provides the scientific foundation for interpretive research at the SIM.
The Jahrbuch des Staatlichen Instituts für Musikforschung (Yearbook of the State Institute for Music Research) covers a broad spectrum of musicological issues going beyond the research foci of the institute. It includes the work of the museum's restorers and topics of current research developed in cooperation with other musicological institutions in Berlin.
Comprehensive catalogs of the special exhibitions in the Musikinstrumenten-Museum, as well as of individual instrument families, are published regularly. The CD series Klingendes Museum (Sounds of the Museum) publishes sound recordings of instruments in the collection.
Research results in the area of systematic musicology are published primarily as articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, as well as conference and congress papers.
The music of the Viennese School is another focus of the Institute’s research: The Institute is home to the Briefwechsel der Wiener Schule (Correspondence of the Viennese School), an edition that makes accessible one of the most important complexes of source material for 20th-century music. The library systematically collects and digitizes, among others, the sound recordings of performers of the Viennese School in order to create a comprehensive, critically assessed index.
Institute publications appear in German and English. Most of its publications are printed by major German music publishers. A number of research papers are available on the Institute's website.