Ulrich Morgenstern
Folk Music research at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Past and present
Folk music can be roughly defined as styles and genres of music historically related to the social strata that, in the late 18th century, were labelled as the “common people.” This is the time when folk music became a research-intensive field. In the German-speaking tradition, since the time of Curt Sachs, folk music has been understood as distinct from (and increasingly as interrelated with) “art music”.
When Walter Deutsch (1923–2025) founded the Institut für Volksmusikforschung, Austrian folk music research was increasingly overcoming the nationalist legacy of the powerful influencer (and academic outsider) Josef Pommer (1845–1918). At that time, our academic disciplines were roughly divided into three fields:
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Vergleichend-systematische Musikwissenschaft (Walter Graf)
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Volksmusikforschung (within one language group or region)
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Europäische Musikethnologie (folk music research in a comparative and often in a historical perspective)
Walter Deutsch focused on the latter two fields. He established the baselines of folk music research valid at our department until now:
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Austrian-Alpine folk music: analysis, context-oriented and performer-centred research
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Urban folk music
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European folk musical instruments and instrumental music
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European multipart music
Within our university, Walter Deutsch developed particularly intensive collaboration with music theory (Franz Eibner) and music sociology (Kurt Blaukopf). Gerlinde Haid (1943–2012) established the musica alpina as comparative research of Alpine music. She also strengthened the focus on contemporary expressive culture, including critical perspectives on purist and nationalist forms of revival. As both a researcher and a musical pedagogue, Rudolf (Rudi) Pietsch (1951–2020) was a key figure in fieldwork-based folk music revival. In 2003, Ardian Ahmedaja established the Research Centre for European Multipart Music. During the last decade, the intellectual history of folk music research became a new research area in our department.
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Ulrich Morgenstern (b. 1964) from 1986 to 1993 studied Systematic Musicology, East Slavic Studies and History at the University of Hamburg. In 2003 he gained a PhD in Systematic Musicology, at the same University. Full Professor of History and Theory of Folk Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (from 2012).
Main areas of research: European folk music and folk musical instruments; multipart instrumental music; European history of folk music research and music anthropology; revival and revitalization; research and political ideologies, ethnomusicology of violence. Fieldwork since 1989 in Belarus, Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Turkey, and Georgia.