Klang und Realität: Master of Music degree

The Klang und Realität master’s program is housed at the Institute of Music and Media, which brings together performative, compositional, and algorithmic forms of contemporary art. In keeping with this expansive vision, the program combines aesthetic, technical, and theoretical approaches.

Musical practice is not bound to musical instruments; it encompasses many approaches to art and research. Accordingly, the Klang und Realität master’s program is open to students from all disciplinary backgrounds. Student projects are at the center of this process, continually re-conceptualized over two years of study on the basis of critical and multi-perspectival feedback. During their studies, students are supported by an international and versatile team of lecturers and professors.

Students design and execute these projects in collaboration with their peers, working in one of two areas of focus, Epistemic Media or Transmedia Forms, each of which opens up innovative avenues of inquiry. The Epistemic Media concentration emphasizes independent research and the development of new methods in the humanities, sciences, and arts. The Transmedia Forms concentration, conceived as an extension of contemporary compositional environments, aims to actively translate and integrate musical, artistic, and media processes.

Over the course of their studies, students will develop positions independently, in relation to different forms of mediality and different artistic, economic, academic, and scientific contexts. They will graduate prepared to shape, advance, and even anticipate developments in the 21st century.

The application deadline is October 31, 2021. Further information can be found here.

*Images above:
Distel Kenye. Photo: Charlotte Schweizer. Awake and fed, I easily pick a shirt for the next photo shoot. The zigzag pattern cuts through black, like 440 saw wave generators.

Nathalie Brum. Photo: Wjatscheslaw Brum. In her exploration of hidden infrastructures, Nathalie Brum records the sounds of machines we need but never see. What at first may seem like acoustic rubbish is elevated onto sonic pedestals in her sound installation Gesang der Maschinen.

Maria Wildeis. Photo: Anna Siggelkow. In her master’s project, Maria Wildeis explores the topographical qualities of sound and the way we imagine them when we listen to music. Spatial audio, augmented audio, and altered sounds are topics of particular interest to her.