Research areas
The Origins: Musical Folklore research
• Theories of singing practices
• Folk Song research and research on singing practices
• Musical interactions – basic elements of an analytical theory of elementary rational musical acting
From Musical Folklore Studies towards European Ethnomusicology
• Jazz of the Sinti (primarily in Germany)
• Popular Music in Belarus
• Progressive Rock
• Music, staging practices and competitions
• Music festivals
• Music of the German minority in Poland
Amateur music practices
• Conditions and practices of amateur music in the contemporary world
• Amateur music practices in Northrhine-Westphalia
• Conditions and practices of amateur music in Cologne
• Street music practices
• Conditions and practices of amateur music in village settings
Folk Culture and Politics
• Musical Folklore/Popular Music in both dictatorships in Germany in the 20th century
• Oppositional Song in the period of national socialism
• Music in national socialist concentration camps
• The influence of the national socialist race ideology on folk song research
• Ideological instrumentalization of childrens' songs and childrens' musical performances in national socialism
• The role of the new children song in the religious education of the catholic church in the GDR
• Musical youth work and opposition within the frame of the "Neue Geistliche Jugendsingen" in the evangelical-Lutheran church in the GDR
Multiculturalism
• Musical and cultural activities of migrants and minorities in Germany
• Musical folk culture as a social challenge – amateur practices and singing traditions as a socially integrative field
Regional Research
• Folk song in lower Rhine villages
• Vernacular songs in contemporary contexts
Continuities and change in the repertoires of musical folk culture
• Work songs
• Song preferences of 10- to 14-year old children
• Conditions for singing practices in Germany
• Reception research of popular song and singing practices
• Electronic media and musical amateur practices
• Folkloristic Music
• Stilistic Internationalism within musical amateur practices
• Popular music within musical amateur practices
Specific fields of song research
• The secular song
• Sociology of congregational singing
• New secular song
• Children's songs and children's singing practices
• Song monography
• Song, music and dance within customs
Dance in folk culture
• Historical dance forms
• Contemporary dance forms
Folk music instruments
Musical folklore
• The folk movement in the FRG
European ethnomusicology and music education
The 20th century as depicted in song
Biographical research