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The Institute of European Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne –
its history, research fields and projects
In Germany there exist a few institutes, which are concerned in researching
German popular music cultures of the past and the presence: The central
institution is the German Archive of Folk Song (Deutsches Volksliedarchiv,
DVA) in Freiburg/ Breisgau, a city in Baden-Württemberg, which is located in
the extreme south-west of Germany. It was founded in 1914 by the folklorist and
philologist John Meier (1864-1953). Since 1953 it is a research institution of the
federal state of Baden-Württemberg.
Another institute of region transcending importance is the Institut für
Musikalische Volkskunde1 at the University of Cologne, which since 2010 is
called Institut für Europäische Musikethnologie (Institute for European
Ethnomusicology). This institute was based on the Niederrheinisches
Volksliedarchiv (Folkloric Song Archive of the Lower Rhine), which the
musicologist, composer, music pedagogue and folklorist Ernst Klusen (19091988) founded in 1938 in Viersen, a town in North Rhine-Westphalia not far
from the frontier to the Netherlands. This small regional archive developed in
close contact with the central German Archive of Folk Song in Freiburg/
Breisgau and its director John Meier. At the beginning its stock consisted of
Klusen’s private collection of about three hundred folk songs as well as
transcriptions of dances and marches from farmer bands of the Lower Rhine,
which Klusen had collected in this region. It was the purpose of the institute not
only to collect, but also to study and to edit traditional folk music of the Lower
Rhine region.
In 1961 Klusen was appointed as a professor for musical education to the
Pädagogische Hochschule (University of Education) in Neuss, a town near
Düsseldorf. In 1964 he founded there the Institut für Musikalische Volkskunde,
which he led till 1977, one year after his retirement. The basic stock was his
archive in Viersen, which at that time among other things enclosed about 3000
folk songs, about two hundred tape recordings of folk songs, almost five
hundred dances and marches and some handwritten songbooks from the Lower
Rhine; moreover collections of music from churches, monasteries and music
associations, a library of approx. 400 volumes and about 200 song sheets. Since
then the stock has grown enormously: Meanwhile the library contains about
30.000 books, and the number of sound recordings (CDs, records, tape recorders
and cassettes) amouts to about 10.000.
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It is not possible to translate the name of the institute, because Musikalische Volkskunde
means a specific German discipline, which emphasized the contrast to ethnomusicology, Vice
versa German ethnomusicologists, who for a long period focused on non-European areas, did
not want to have anything in common with their colleagues, who dealt with domestic musical
cultures.
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The affiliation to a university increased the reputation of the institute as well as
the chances to realize its scientific aims. The connection with a teacher-training
institution allowed an intensive cooperation between ethnomusicological studies
and pedagogy of music, which was reflected in numerous research projects and
publications. In 1971 the first volume of the institute’s publication series
Musikalische Volkskunde – Materialien und Analysen (Musical Folklore –
Materials and Analyses) appeared: Bevorzugte Liedtypen Zehn- bis
Vierzehnjähriger (Preferential song types of 10 to 14 year-old teenagers).
Another study examines the [Zur] Situation des Singens in der Bundesrepublik
Deutschland (The situation of singing in the Federal Republic of Germany; 2
volumes, 1974 and 1975).
In 1965 the first number of the institute’s newsletter ad marginem –
Randbemerkungen zur Musikalischen Volkskunde (ad marginem – notes on the
musical folklore) appeared. This newsletter, whose 82nd number is published in
2011, is sent to experts and departments in Germany and abroad once or twice a
year. The newsletter appears in an edition of 700 copies and is sent free of
charge.
In 1986 after the closure of the universities of education in North RhineWestphalia the institute moved to Cologne. There it became a part of the faculty
of education of the University of Cologne, and after further restructuring
processes within the university it was integrated into the faculty of human
sciences.
After Klusens’s retirement in 1977 the heads of the institute were: from 19771992 Prof. Dr. Günther Noll; from 1992-1999 Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schepping.
At the moment the staff of the institute consists of:
Prof. Dr. Reinhard Schneider, since 1999 director of the institute
Prof. Dr. Klaus Näumann, assistant professor
Dr. Astrid Reimers, research assistant (part-time job)
Christiane Burmeister, administrative employee (part-time job)
3 students (part-time jobs)
This staff is occasionally supported by three volunteers: Prof. em. Dr. Günther
Noll; Prof. em. Wilhelm Schepping; Dr. Gisela Probst-Effah, research assistant
(retired 2010).
At the time, when Ernst Klusen began his work, most researchers in Germany
had a restrospective perception of folk songs and folk music. Many of them
were convinced, that the “true”, “authentic” folk music survived only in the
memory of a few old villagers. Since the philosopher, theologian, poet and
writer of Weimar Classicism Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) began to
collect folk music and created the term Volkslied (folk song), this was
considered as a treasure of the past, which was almost lost and which survived
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only in fragments; as something, which had nothing in common with the popular
music of the present time. Herder condemned the popular music of his presence
as “dirt” and “trash”, and for a long period this contempt influenced many of his
successors.
In contrast to this pessimistic look on the actual musical culture Klusen
postulated to broaden the definition of folk music to the whole song repertory of
the present musical practice – independent from the preferences and quality
standards of the collectors and researchers of such music. This open and
generous definition of the research object at that time and still later on was rare
among musicologists.
In 1969 Klusen published his monograph Volkslied – Fund und Erfindung (Folk
song – finding and invention), which put the current understanding of folk song
into question. He pointed out, that since Herder and the romantics a selection of
songs was idealized and was increasingly influenced by ideology, so that folk
song had become a symbol of quality. Klusen confronts this exclusive
understanding with the broad and manifold actually existing repertory of popular
songs. He postulated to take notice of it without nostalgia, prejudice and
preconceived ideas. This and others of Klusen’s publications transmitted
important impulses to reconsider established positions and to revise previous
convictions relating to the research objects, the methods and the terminology.
Among colleagues this provoked partly violent reactions.
From the beginning it was the task of the archive not only to collect and to study
folk music, but in addition to make it available for the public. It was Klusen’s
aim to stimulate the musical practice. He wanted the traditional songs and
instrumental pieces not only to survive in archive boxes and printed song
collections, but to bring them to sound. Therefore song sheets and songbooks
were published and distributed among interested parties as for example adult
education centres, associations and ecclesiastical institutions. Klusen had a
creative contact with historical findings. In some cases he completed historical
fragments: For example if he found only a traditional text without any melody,
he added to it a suitable melody, which he reconstructed from different oral and
written sources. His aim was to reactivate songs and to make them accessible to
the singing practice.
That is why he used and supported the activity of electronic media. As he
demonstrated in 1980 in his publication Elektronische Medien und musikalische
Laienaktivität (Electronic media and the activity of amateur musicians) he did
not condemn electronic media as a potential enemy and destroyer of traditional
culture, but he appreciated their potential to inspire and to activate people to
make music. This distinguished him from many of his colleagues at that time.
Furthermore the connection with a teacher-training institution gave an important
impulse to deal with the music practice of the present time and to influence it.
For this reason there was no restriction to traditional regional songs, but an
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opening to newer, more actual manifestations and forms of popular music: such
as hit songs, entertainment music, folklore, pop music, or jazz.
From the beginning of his research activities Klusen left the purely philologicalhistorical approach to the music culture in favour of a social-scientific
perspective. So the publications of the institute focus not only the songs as
objects, but above all their social relations and political contexts. This special
main interest led to projects as the political implications of folk music. There
was for example a focus on the function of songs in the national socialist era: the
songs of resistance during this period; music in the concentration camps; the
influence of the racial ideology during the Nazi time on the research of folk
music.
With the political and social changes of the last decades in Germany and
worldwide a new main subject moved into the focus of interest: the multicultural
aspects of music. Because of migration and globalization processes during the
second half of the 20th century many borders disappeared. Different musical
cultures influenced each other, they merged together, and so-called “regional” or
“national” cultures lost their former homogeneity.
This was one reason, why on the 1st of October 2010 the institute was renamed
to Institut für Europäische Musikethnologie (Institute for European
Ethnomusicology).
On the one hand the renaming should mark a new beginning: It meant a clear
rejection of the traditional geographical limitation of the research field to
German popular/ folk music and it was an approach to the German
ethnomusicology, which for a long period ignored the domestic culture and
focused mainly and almost exclusively on non-European music.
On the other hand, nevertheless, the renaming was not at all a break with the
tradition of the institute, but a logical result of its activities. Klusen had already
overcome the barriers of the traditional discipline, and his successors expanded
the areas of research increasingly to supra-regional and European-wide musical
cultures.
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Bibliography
Näumann, Klaus (2011): Zur Umbenennung des Instituts für Musikalische
Volkskunde an der Universität zu Köln in Institut für Europäische
Musikethnologie (The renaming of the Institute for Musical Folklore into
Institute for European Ethnomusicology). In: ad marginem 82 (2011). 3-20.
Noll, Günther, Gisela Probst-Effah, Astrid Reimers, Wilhelm Schepping (2004):
40 Jahre Institut für Musikalische Volkskunde 1964 – 2004 (40 Years Institut für
Musikalische Volkskunde 1964-2004). Köln: Universität zu Köln.
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Probst-Effah, Gisela (2010): Ernst Klusen (1909-1988). In: DGV-Informationen.
1/2010. 15-18. Tübingen.
Probst-Effah, Gisela (2010): Prof. Dr. Ernst Klusen (1909-1988). In: Jahrbuch
des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes (Yearbook of the Austrian Folk Song
Society). Vol. 59 (2010). 343-346.
Schepping, Wilhelm (1988): Volkslied als Auftrag (Folk song as mission). In:
Musikalische Volkskultur in der Stadt der Gegenwart (Musical folk culture in
the town of the present). Ed. Günther Noll and Wilhelm Schepping. 209-219.