Heft 01 / Januar 2019

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Summary:

Music Historiography with Luhmann: Problems and Possibilities of a (Meta-)Systems-Theoretical Perspective 
Addressing musical historiography from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory would not initially seem an especially promising approach. One can, however, credit systems theory with a certain competency when it comes to some current challenges faced by historical musicology, such as the problem of defining its object and the epistemological uncertainties in the course of historical analysis. Following on from this observation, the present text presents an approach that describes music as a metasystem based on the structural coupling of biological, psychic and social systems. The article connects this to musical historiography in several respects: in addition to Luhmann’s reflections on theories of evolution and history, it asks how far the connection to biological, psychic and social system references is of historical relevance for the practice of musical historiography.

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