Scientific conferences, Transfer of Science or Research

FRANKFURT. Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, in collaboration with the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts and the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, is hosting the 78th Annual Conference of the Society for Music Research in Frankfurt am Main. Although most often associated with trade fairs, book printing, banking, and commerce, as well as air and rail transportation, the city of Frankfurt has also been one of Germany’s most important centers of music since at least the 19th century, with a diverse and thriving musical life shaped in particular by civic engagement.

Frankfurt is also home to numerous music-related collections, archives, and publication projects: music printing dates back to the 1530s; the University Library houses an extensive music collection; and the German National Library, headquartered in Frankfurt, is home to the German Music Archive in Leipzig. The city is also home to the German Radio Archive, the Music Archive of the German Film Institute & Film Museum, the Archive for Women and Music, and the Hindemith Institute; the Historical Museum houses an extensive collection of musical instruments. Until recently, RISM’s internationally active central editorial office was based at Goethe University, and the Institute of Musicology at GU focuses on major musicological editorial projects, including the recently completed OPERA project and the Complete Works of Gluck, as well as the long-term editions of the works of Korngold and Zimmermann.

This provides an opportunity to dedicate the 2026 GfM Annual Conference to the theme “Institutions of Memory and Media of Musical Memory”—looking beyond Frankfurt and examining the topic from the various subdisciplines and methodological approaches of musicology.

Two main symposia will address the diverse aspects of the theme from different perspectives:
- Main Symposium 1, September 30, 2026: Institutions of Musical Memory: Agency – Discourses – Social Practices
- Main Symposium 2, October 1, 2026: Points of Discontinuity in Musical Memory: On the Interplay of Memory Contents, Media, and Institutions.

In addition, there will be individual presentations by more than 140 music researchers that tie into the theme but may also touch on other areas of music research. These will take the form of small symposia, open presentations, workshops, panel discussions, poster presentations, and other formats, some of which are experimental. The supporting program includes guided tours of the “Frau und Musik” Archive and the University Library’s collections, concerts at the HfMDK, and demonstrations of the roll piano housed at the institute.

The annual conference is hosted by: Barbara Alge (Goethe University), Fabian Kolb (HfMDK), Daniela Philippi (Goethe University), Christina Richter-Ibáñez (HfMDK), Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann (MPIEA), and Magdalena Zorn (Goethe University).

For further information and to register via ConfTool, visit https://www.fb09.uni-frankfurt.de/176658317/GfM_Tagung_2026

Short interview with Prof. Daniela Philippi on the 78th Annual Conference of the Society for Music Research: https://tinygu.de/q6pfK

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Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Institute for Musicology
Rostocker Str. 2
60323 Frankfurt am Main
Gfm2026@uni-frankfurt.de