Music theory research at the MHL is embedded in the interdisciplinary academic specialisation "Composition/Creation" together with the specialist disciplines of musicology, music education, educational science, composition and digital creation. Research in music theory focuses on the 20th/21st century and early music, such as the work of Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Gustav Mahler as well as compositional technique around 1500 (Oliver Korte), the aesthetics and technique of microtonal composition (Sascha Lemke) and the partimento tradition of the 17th and early 18th centuries (Luis Ramos).

The publication series "Schriften der Musikhochschule Lübeck" (Olms-Verlag, edited by Oliver Korte) has published volumes on methods of canon composition in Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries (written by HML PhD student Immanuel Ott) as well as the anthology "Welt - Zeit - Theater. Nine studies on the work of Bernd Alois Zimmermann". A volume on "Macroharmonics" by Gustav Mahler (by MHL doctoral student Michael Jakumeit) and a collection of writings by the composer, ethnomusicologist and music theorist Dieter Mack, who was a professor of composition at the MHL for decades, are in preparation.

The conferences organised by the Music Theory department reflect the research focus, such as the international conference "The Sound-Lab of Professor Bad Trip" on the music of Fausto Romitelli in 2021, the symposium "Sinn | Sinne" in cooperation with Christian Albrechts Universität zu Kiel and Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel on post-hermeneutic approaches to new music in 2023 and the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH) in 2025.

In addition to the Music Theory and Aural Training Bachelor of Music and Music Theory Master of Music degree programmes, the MHL also has the right to award doctorates in Music Theory. The doctoral candidates' work is firmly integrated into the university's research structures. Young academics from the fields of music theory, musicology and music education are intensively supervised by their peers and advance their research projects in regular interdisciplinary doctoral colloquia.

Members of the Music Theory department

• Professorships
  Prof. Dr. Oliver Korte (Speaker)
  Prof. Sascha Lino Lemke
  
  
• Scientific-artistic collaboration
  Luis Ramos
  Teaching assignments
  Dr. Shengying Luo
  Oliver Mathes
  Lars Opfermann
  Ya-Chuan Wu
  Prof. Erasmus Zipfel

Music Theory at the MHL
Große Petersgrube 21
23552 Lübeck

Prof. Dr. Oliver Korte
Mail to Prof. Dr. Korte