State Institute for Music Research

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Entrance to the SIMPK next to the Philharmonic car park

The State Institute for Music Research - Prussian Cultural Heritage (SIMPK) is a musicological research institute for musical instrument studies, music history and music theory in Berlin , which also operates the Musikinstrumenten-Museum Berlin .

history

The efforts of Prussian scholars to establish a research facility for music history and instrument studies go back to 1888, when Philipp Spitta and Joseph Joachim suggested the purchase of the Paul de Wit musical instrument collection from Leipzig . With its 240 objects and 34 musical instruments from the Kunstgewerbemuseum, the collection of historical instruments was founded at the Royal Academy of Music . Further acquisitions were made in 1890 and 1891. In 1902, Kaiser Wilhelm II made it possible to buy up a collection of 1,145 objects from Ghent .

On February 14, 1893, under the direction of Oskar Fleischer, the royal collection of old musical instruments was opened in the former building academy on Schinkelplatz. In 1917, after preparation , Carl August Rau founded the Princely Institute for Musicological Research in Bückeburg under the patronage of Prince Adolf zu Schaumburg-Lippe . After the First World War , Curt Sachs took over the management of the collection at the Berlin State University of Music in December 1919. As a Jew , Curt Sachs was relieved of his office in the spring of 1933 and escaped into American exile via Paris . Georg Schünemann became the new director of the collection .

In 1935 the State Institute for German Music Research was brought into being under the direction of Max Seiffert : The Princely Institute in Bückeburg was attached to it as a "historical department", the music archive of German folk songs in Berlin since 1917 formed the "Folk Music Department", initially under the acting management of Kurt Huber , who was replaced by Alfred Quellmalz after just one year. The third department was the Musical Instrument Museum, which had previously belonged to the University of Music and was attached in 1936. In the years of the Third Reich , the institute experienced an upswing, as most musicologists , if they had not emigrated, willingly supported National Socialism. In 1941 Max Seiffert retired; until 1945 the institute was under the provisional management of Hans Albrecht. On January 1, 1945, the institute was closed by decree of the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Public Education Bernhard Rust .

In the post-war years, the institute came under the sponsorship of the Berlin Senate and, after changing provisional accommodation, was able to move into Charlottenburg Palace in 1949 under the direction of Alfred Berner , where the Museum of Musical Instruments also received exhibition rooms, which was reopened in 1963. In 1962 the institute and its museum were incorporated into the association of the newly established Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation . After several moves, a new building opened on December 14, 1984 at Tiergartenstrasse 1 was built from 1979 to 1984 according to plans by the architect Hans Scharoun in the vicinity of the Philharmonie , which today houses the institute and musical instrument museum.

Alfred Berner retired in 1975. His successor was Hans-Peter Reinicke . He was followed in 1989 by the former director of the Musical Instrument Museum, Dagmar Droysen-Reber . The current director of the institute has been Thomas Ertelt since 2001 . In 1994, Conny Restle took over the management of the Musical Instrument Museum .

tasks

The State Institute for Music Research currently employs 55 people in four departments (“Musical Instrument Museum”, “Music Theory and Music History”, “Acoustics and Music Technology / Studio Technology and IT”, “Musicological Documentation”).

A practice-oriented music theory that reflects the relationship between musical theory and the practice of making music , historical instrument studies and the Bibliography of Music Literature (BMS) founded in 1936 form the main focus of the institute's work. A 15-volume long-term project on the history of music theory , based on the initiative of Carl Dahlhaus , is being developed here by around 50 musicologists. In this context, the employees also deal with historical performance practice , which is tested live on the instruments and in the museum's premises in the series of early music events .

In addition, the institute is working on a complete edition of the correspondence of the Vienna School (including 2300 letters from Schönberg , Zemlinsky , Berg and Webern as well as the correspondence of their leading interpreters Eduard Steuermann and Rudolf Kolisch ).

The building on Tiergartenstrasse has a library (approx. 67,000 volumes, 170 continuously available journals) as well as a sound carrier collection, an electronic laboratory , sound studio, reverberation room, digital editing rooms for research on acoustics as well as an event room with around 200 seats (Curt- Sachs Hall). Furthermore, under the leadership of the long-standing chairman of the German Record Critics' Prize , Martin Elste, the institute deals with the recording and distribution of commercially produced and duplicated sound carriers (discology). In addition to music and music manuscripts (650 manuscripts, including 320 autographs), the archive stores more than 6000 musicians' letters, including from the bequests of Joseph Joachim and Franz Wüllner . The archive of the Berlin Philharmonic is also located here.

The institute presents the results of its research to the public with regular public concerts, symposia and lectures. The documentation project BMS online makes the ongoing bibliography of musicological literature accessible to a wide range of users.

Literature and Sources

  • Yearbook of the State Institute for Music Research , 1968 ff., ISSN  0572-6239
  • State Institute for Music Research Prussian Cultural Heritage (Hrsg.): Paths to Music. Published on the occasion of the opening of the new house. Editor: Dagmar Droysen-Reber. SIMPK, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-922378-04-8
  • Thomas Ertelt (Ed.): Work and History: Musical Analysis and Historical Design. Festschrift for Rudolf Stephan . Schott, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-7957-0508-8
  • Stefan Lieser: Cologne, city of music? A musical instrument museum is to be built. In: Guitar & Laute 8, 1986, Issue 1, pp. 28–35; here: p. 30.

Web links

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 ′ 34.9 "  N , 13 ° 22 ′ 15.3"  E