Gesellschaft für Musikforschung

The Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (Society for Music Research) is the professional association for musicologists in Germany who are involved in study, research and teaching. It is open to all who are interested in issues concerning music. It was founded in 1946 by Karl Vötterle and Friedrich Blume in Kiel. By the following year, publication of its quarterly periodical Die Musikforschung had begun. The Gesellschaft für Musikforschung organises an annual congress every autumn. It also arranges numerous conferences and symposia. The society supports and encourages young musicologists through the Hermann Abert Prize.

The first bulletin from February 1947 contained the following:

“For many long months, all interested parties have observed with increasing concern the absolute stagnation in German music research caused by the collapse of Germany. The sudden loss of the many and varied publications and other collective enterprises, the lack of a periodical and the inadequate opportunities for personal contact amongst individual musicologists has created a vacuum. One of the most urgent tasks to all concerned seems to be to breathe life into this vacuum again.”

Today, the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung has approximately 1,600 members worldwide.

www.musikforschung.de