I am a musicologist and lecturer, currently working as a senior postdoc in the field of music and media culture at the Centre for Gender Studies and Diversity / University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.

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Lecture

"Scoring Africa: Film expedition, Ethnographic Recordings and the Challenges of Research with Sound Archives".

"12th Iberian Congress of African Studies (CIEA)", University of Barcelona.

Januar 2025
University of Barcelona

Links
CIEA

Guest lecture

"(Colonial) Sound Heritage in Audiovisual Media".

"Soundtracks of Power: the Nexus of Film Music, Political Narratives and Moving Images", international conference, Universitatea Națională de Muzică din București.

November 2024
National University of Music Bucharest

Links
University of Music Bucharest

Guest lecture

"Creating Unheard Music of Heimat".

"Transatlantic Mountain Cinema", international conference, Department of American Studies, University of Innsbruck.

November 2024
University of Innsbruck

Links
Decolating Mountains

This project aims to contribute to the emergence and development of the sonic imaginaries of cinematic Africa. From the beginnings of cinematography, Africa is an important production site for commercial films from the global North. Since sounds as a sensual dimension of the everyday form an elementary component of discourses and ideas about the African continent, this project aims to examine the sound of Africa in more detail, both historically and structurally. The processes and conditions of film music production will also be analysed through extensive empirical archive work.

This project aims to contribute to the clarification of the concept of 'home' by showing how it is created in relation to media and pop music
and how it influences a sense of collective identity and social belonging. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the medium of film has proved to be an essential constructive element of 'home' in the German-speaking world. In the research literature on 'homeland' films and mountain films of Austrian/German film production, the important role of music in these films has so far been given little attention.

This book examines the musical performance practice of silent film in Germany in the 1920s and sheds light on the early attempts at a theory and aesthetics of film music. The starting point for the study is the "Allgemeine Handbuch der Film-Musik" from 1927. Thereby, the genesis of film music conventions will be explored as well as the intermedial relationship between silent film music and music-aesthetic traditions.

"Maria Fuchs taucht in ihrem Buch 'Stummfilmmusik' tief in die musikalische Praxis der 1920er Jahre ein. Sie analysiert, wie Musik zur Illustration von Filmen benutzt wurde."

(Stefan Keim, WDR 3 Magazin Tonart, 21.9.2017)

"In her book 'Silent Film Music' Maria Fuchs delves deeply into the musical practice of the 1920s. She analyses how music was used to illustrate films."

(Stefan Keim, WDR 3 Magazin Tonart, 21.9.2017)

"Für die Beschäftigung mit Stummfilmmusik ist das Buch unabdingbar."

(Hans Helmut Prinzler, 13. Oktober 2017)

"For the study of silent film music, the book is essential."

(Hans Helmut Prinzler, 13. Oktober 2017)

Maria Fuchs
Musicologist