Die Materialität des Klangs und die Medienpraxis der Musikkultur: Ein verspäteter Gegenstand der Musikwissenschaft?

With the notation on phonographic disk or tape we have sound literally at hand, just before it is vanishing in the digital resolution of bits and bytes. Musique concrète, hiphop, dub, soundscapes and sonic art are only some keywords that follow the media change from traditional notation of music to the notation of sound itself. An important step for the understanding of new strategies of composing, producing and performing music could be to consider the new materialization of sound not only as a technical process but also as the formation of musical material. In musicology the view of media as 'neutral' technical means of transmission is not very helpful to reflect this topic and has to be combined with a humanities orientated media research and reflection. Labels like "Sound Studies", "Sound Culture", "Auditory Culture" etc. are indicating the demand for transgressing the borders of academic disciplines and a new position between musicology and mediaculture that should be discussed.