Music Theory
The series »Schriften der Musikhochschule Lübeck« (Olms-Verlag, published by Oliver Korte) includes works on the method of canon composition of Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries (written by doctoral candidate Immanuel Ott of the HML) as well as the miscellany »Welt – Zeit – Theater. Neun Untersuchungen zum Werk von Bernd Alois Zimmermann«. Currently in the work is a book on the »Makroharmonik« of Gustav Mahler (by doctoral candidate Michael Jakumeit of the MHL) and a collection of writings by composer, music ethnologist and music theorist Dieter Mack, who worked as a professor for composition at the MHL for many years.
The conferences organised by the Music Theory Section reflect the main areas of research, such as the 2021 international conference ‘The Sound-Lab of Professor Bad Trip’ on the music of Fausto Romitelli, the 2023 symposium ‘Sinn | Sinne’ (Sense | Senses) in cooperation with Christian Albrecht University in Kiel and Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel on post-hermeneutic approaches to new music, and the 2025 annual conference of the Society for Music Theory (GMTH).
In addition to the main subject courses in music theory and aural training in the Bachelor of Music and music theory in the Master of Music, the MHL also has the right to award doctorates in music theory. The work of doctoral candidates is firmly integrated into the university's research structures. With intensive support from their colleagues, young researchers in music theory, musicology and music education advance their research projects in regular interdisciplinary doctoral colloquia.
