Drawing on the notion that remembering is a process of representation, in which memories are encoded in different cultural forms, this project explores contemporary musical memorializations (i.e. music and musical performances) of resistance and persecution during the Nazi regime as they are encoded in different media forms and explores how medialization works as a powerful arena for musical memory agents. It considers selected examples that crosscut genre boundaries (e.g. popular music, art music, as well as musical theater) and originate from different locations in Germany, focusing on post-1989 media representations. The project examines memorializing musical practices through the lens of three representational frames:

•  Commemorative events and performances, encompassing those connected to different lieux de mémoire, such as sites of memory or commemoration days as well as other events, concerts and festivals serving memorial purposes.
• “Traditional” media, such as CDs, vinyl records, DVDs, radio and TV broadcasts, films and literature in the form of (auto-)biographies.
•  “New” media in the form of interactive online platforms, which build on the creation and distribution of content by users as well as on interaction and networking.

This tripartite approach facilitates the exploration of remediation, that is, the appropriation, re-creation and recontextualization of musical memorializations through different media and across time. In doing so, the scenario highlights how music and musical performances become lived cultural forms in media contexts and how performances themselves are crucially informed by mediated (musical) memories (e.g. via sampling, citations, references).

On a meta-level, the research looks at the interrelations of media and memory culture. It sets out to explore how changes in media technologies affect the memory of persecution by and resistance to the Nazi regime as encoded in music. It looks at different agents of musical memorialization and examines changing power relations in the representation of the past. It furthermore reflects on how new media challenge established concepts in memory studies.