The research unit “Musicology” is a research department of the ACDH-CH. The common focus of all projects is on Austrian musical tradition and history, emphasising a Central European perspective by including those cultural areas with which today's Austria has been closely connected for centuries. The spectrum of methods ranges from work-centred music and text philology and editing to innovative techniques of digital musicology (including the use of MEI and Transkribus) and inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to the history of science, music iconography and research into audiovisual media.
A process to reorganize the project portfolio has been accomplished in early 2024 in order to redesign the previous, rather small-scale structure in favour of three larger research areas – “Edition”, “Documentation & Source Studies”, and “Lexicography & Contextualization” – and thus align it with the other research units of the institute. These clusters all make an important contribution to research on cultural heritage. In this respect, the entire research portfolio of the department of Musicology contributes significantly to the institute's research focus “Cultural Heritage Austria – Research and Preservation”..