Distinguished Lecture Series Music and Digital Humanities

Digital methods are playing an increasingly important role in musicology. They enable new approaches to musical sources, research data and analytical processes while also raising fundamental questions about the modelling, interpretation and communication of knowledge. The field ranges from digital editions of scores and letters, digital publishing, research data management and digital archives to music visualisation, automated transcription and machine learning. The planned lecture series at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna addresses these developments and makes current Digital Humanities approaches accessible for research and teaching at the university. 

About the project 

The lecture series is jointly organised by the Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil (IWK) and the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies (IMI). It aims to highlight existing expertise at the mdw while promoting exchange with external experts from the fields of musicology and Digital Humanities. Digital resources already developed at the mdw include MEI Friend, a tool available through the SSH Open Marketplace that supports work with data encoded according to the Music Encoding Initiative. 

The lecture series will comprise twelve public lectures on current topics in digital music research. The programme will address areas including: 

• digital music editions and publishing formats 

• music visualisation and digital data models 

• automated music transcription 

• machine learning in music research 

• digital archives and research data management 

The individual sessions will combine conventional lectures with application-oriented formats. Approximately half of the events will include hands-on components in which participants can explore digital tools, methods and workflows in practice. The lecture series will be delivered in a hybrid format and will address students, researchers and other interested audiences both within and beyond the mdw. 

A particular focus will be placed on Master’s students, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. The lecture series will introduce them to current developments in the Digital Humanities and demonstrate their potential applications in musicological and artistic research. It will also bring together existing activities, support networking within the university and provide impulses for the further development of digital research strategies at the mdw. 

The lectures and accompanying materials will be documented and archived on a publicly accessible Moodle platform. This will ensure that the content remains available for teaching, research and continuing education beyond the summer semester. According to the interim report, the lecture series is currently in the planning stage. Its implementation is scheduled for the summer semester 2027.