Academic content
The Bachelor’s degree in Musicology provides a comprehensive introduction to the historical, systematic, and cultural-ethnomusicological sub-disciplines of the field. Its focus lies on the analysis, interpretation, and critical contextualisation of musical sources, practices, and discourses from diverse periods and cultural contexts.
The programme includes a four-semester survey of music history from its beginnings to the present, complemented by modules in compositional techniques, music analysis, and musicological sources. Students develop both notation-based and aural analysis skills and engage with the materiality, mediality, and performativity of music. Ethnomusicological perspectives, empirical methods, and performance-related approaches broaden the historical understanding of music and provide trans-cultural and global-historical insights.
The degree serves as a solid foundation in historical musicology while acknowledging that the history of music extends beyond the Western world. Historical questions are approached as perspectives on past contexts, methodologically informed by questions relating to contemporary musical cultures. As a broadly based foundational programme, it prepares students for professional practice within today’s pluralistic cultural landscape.
The Musicology Department underwent a comprehensive restructuring in 2019. The establishment of the Research and Teaching Centre for Music (FZM) by the University and the Freiburg University of Music created new structural, personnel, and content-based opportunities for research and teaching. The collaboratively developed staff structure covers Historical Musicology, Systematic Musicology, and Ethnological and Cultural Music Research comprehensively, shaping the programme’s content in a sustainable way. Another distinctive feature is the collaboration with the Museum of Historical Keyboard Instruments in Bad Krozingen, which exhibits, among other items, loans from the Musicology Department.
Graduates of the Bachelor’s degree in Musicology
- have a thorough overview of music history from its beginnings to the present and are familiar with key research debates and methods,
- are able to analyse, critically evaluate, and historically and culturally contextualise musical sources of various types (written, aural, or media-based),
- master fundamental compositional, analytical, and methodological procedures and can apply them to different musical repertoires,
- have a foundational understanding of ethnomusicological, empirical, and performance-related research approaches and are sensitised to trans-cultural and global contexts,
- can independently develop, research, and present scholarly questions and produce written work,
- are familiar with the main career paths in musicology and can strategically reflect on their studies in view of further academic or professional opportunities.
Recommended prerequisites and skills:
- General interest in music: Enjoyment of listening to, understanding, and discussing music from different periods and cultures.
- Score-reading skills and basic musical knowledge: Ability to read music, recognise harmonic structures, and understand musical relationships.
- Instrumental or vocal experience: Practical experience with an instrument or singing facilitates understanding of compositional techniques and performance practice.
- Curiosity and openness: Willingness to engage with historical, systematic, and ethnomusicological questions.
- Analytical skills: Enjoyment of critical engagement with sources, texts, and musical structures.
- Oral and written communication skills: Ability to structure ideas, argue scientifically, and present results clearly.
- Interdisciplinary interest: Openness to explore the cultural, societal, and historical contexts of music.
Subject combinations
An overview of all possible combination subjects for Musikwissenschaft (Musicology):
- Archaeological Sciences
- Business Administration
- Educational Science and Education Management
- Cultural Analysis/European Ethnology
- English and American Studies
- Cultural and Social Anthropology
- Geography
- German Studies: German Literature
- History
- Islamic Studies
- Jewish Studies
- Catholic-Theological Studies
- Classical Philology
- Classical and Christian Archaeology
- Cognitive Science
- Art History
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Romance languages and literatures
- Sinology
- Scandinavian Studies
- Sociology
- German Linguistics
- Economics
- Ancient Near Eastern Studies
As part of the Bachelor of Arts degree programme, the major subjects can also be combined with one of the three minor subjects offered by the Freiburg University of Music - aural training, music physiology and music theory - instead of one of the above-mentioned minor subjects, each of which has a scope of 40 ECTS credits. In the case of such a combination, the relevant examination regulations of the Freiburg University of Music apply to the study of the minor subject offered by the Freiburg University of Music.
Information on the aptitude test for the minor subjects Aural Training, Music Physiology and Music Theory.
Statutes
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Zulassungs- und Immatrikulationsordnung (ZImmO)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Rahmenordnung
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Rahmenordnung § 18
(Nur bei Studienbeginn vor dem 1. Oktober 2015 und sofern nicht Anwendung von § 18 Absatz 12 n.F. beantragt wurde)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Musikwissenschaft (Hauptfach)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Anlage A
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Musikwissenschaft (Hauptfach)
(Nur bei Studienbeginn vor dem 1. Oktober 2024; Abschluss des Studiums bis spätestens 30. September 2028)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Musikwissenschaft (Hauptfach)
(Nur bei Studienbeginn zwischen dem 1. Oktober 2011 und dem 30. September 2013; Abschluss des Studiums bis spätestens 30. September 2018)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Anlage C
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Anlage D
(Nur bei Zulassung zum Interdisciplinary Track vor dem 1. Oktober 2014)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Rahmenordnung
(Nur bei Studienbeginn vor dem 1. Oktober 2011 und sofern nicht ab dem Wintersemester 2011/2012 eine Neueinschreibung für ein anderes Haupt- oder Nebenfach erfolgt ist)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Anlage A
(Nur bei Studienbeginn vor dem 1. Oktober 2011 und sofern nicht ab dem Wintersemester 2011/2012 eine Neueinschreibung für ein anderes Haupt- oder Nebenfach erfolgt ist)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Musikwissenschaft (Hauptfach)
(Nur bei Studienbeginn zwischen dem 1. Oktober 2007 und dem 30. September 2011)
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Prüfungsordnung B.A.: Anlage D
(Nur bei Studienbeginn vor dem 1. Oktober 2011 und sofern nicht ab dem Wintersemester 2011/2012 eine Neueinschreibung für ein anderes Haupt- oder Nebenfach erfolgt ist)
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Satzung über ergänzende Regelungen zum Zulassungs- und Prüfungsrecht
The versions of statutes with relevance to teaching and learning provided on this page by the Department of Legal Affairs (in particular admission and selection regulations as well as subject and examination regulations) are primarily for information purposes. This means that all amendments subsequently agreed upon by the University Senate have been integrated into the respective text of the original statutes; in the case of the examination regulations for bachelor's and master's degree programmes, this generally relates to extracts of the respective examination regulations (framework examination regulations, subject-specific provisions, and appendices).
The greatest care has been taken in writing these versions. Nevertheless, it cannot be entirely ruled out that errors may have occurred. Consequently, it is solely the officially announced statutes and statute amendments that are legally binding, i.e. as published in the Amtlichen Bekanntmachungen der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg im Breisgau [de] or, up to the year 2000, in the official gazette of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts.