Classical Concert Studies

»Classical Concert Studies: A Companion to Contemporary Research« and Performance is a landmark publication that maps out a new interdisciplinary field of Concert Studies, offering fresh ways of understanding the classical music concert in the twenty-first century. It brings together essays, research articles, and case studies from scholars and music professionals including musicians, music managers, and concert designers. Gathering both historical and contemporary cases, the contributors draw on approaches from sociology, ethnology, musicology, cultural studies, and other disciplines to create a rich portrait of the classical concert’s past, present, and future.

Based on two earlier volumes published in German under the title »Das Konzert« (The Concert), and with a selection of new chapters written for the English edition, this companion enables students, researchers, and practitioners in the classical and contemporary music fields to understand this emerging field of research, go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries and methodologies, and spark a renaissance for the classical concert.

Ludger Brümmer, head of the ZKM | Hertz-Lab, describes the innovative future of sound reception and reproduction in the chapter »Space-Sound-Instruments«. In his contribution »Cinema for the Ears: Technical Developments in Acoustics and Loudspeaker Systems« he explains the motives behind the development of the newer space sound systems and sheds light on the potentials of these systems for listening. It is true that some concert halls equipped with a sound dome or wave field system already exist. However, the future audience and especially the artists have to learn to use the parameter space as efficiently as other parameters. There is still a lot of potential for innovation here.