Research in music theory at the MHL is embedded in the interdisciplinary scientific focus "Composition/Creation" together with the disciplines of musicology, music education, educational science, composition and digital creation. Research foci in music theory are 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) published volumes on methods of canon composition in Josquin des Prez and his contemporaries (written by HML promoter Immanuel Ott) as well as the anthology "Welt - Zeit - Theater. Nine Studies on the Work of Bernd Alois Zimmermann". In preparation is a volume on "Macroharmonics" in Gustav Mahler (by MHL promoter Michael Jakumeit) and a collection of writings by the composer, ethnomusicologist and music theorist Dieter Mack, who shaped the MHL for decades as professor of composition.

The congresses organised by the Music Theory Department reflect the research foci, such as the international conference "The Sound-Lab of Professor Bad Trip" on the music of Fausto Romitelli in 2021, the symposium "Sinn | Sinne" (Sense | Senses) in cooperation with the Christian Albrechts University of Kiel and the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts Kiel on post-hermeneutic access to New Music in 2023, and the annual conference of the Society for Music Theory (GMTH) in 2025.

In addition to the main subject programmes 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 the doctoral candidates is firmly integrated into the research structures of the university. Intensively supervised by their specialist colleagues, young academics from the fields of music theory, musicology and music education drive their research projects forward in regular interdisciplinary doctoral colloquia.

Members of the music theory section

• Prof Dr. Oliver Korte (Speaker)
• Prof. Sascha Lino Lemke
• Luis Ramos
• Sebastian Knappe
• Dr. Shengying Luo
• 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