edited publications

Sound Studies and Sonic Arts Reader, eds. Julia H. Schröder and Volker Straebel, Hofheim: Wolke Verlag 2022. ISBN 9783955931360

Aesthetic Radicalism, Future and Past, guest-eds. Volker Straebel and Martin Supper, thematic issue Organised Sound 20:3 (April 2015), Cambridge University Press.

Cage & Consequences, eds. Julia H. Schröder and Volker Straebel, Hofheim: Wolke Verlag 2012. ISBN 9783936000795

Morton Feldman: Solo Piano Works 1950-1964, ed. Volker Straebel. New York: C.F. Peters 2000.



book chapters

“John Cage’s Variations III and Its Premiere,” in: CAGE111. A 2012 John Cage Symposium, ed. Jerzy Kutnik. Vienna: Invisible Starfall Books, 2023.

“On the Early History and Typology of Sound Installation Art” [Zur frühen Geschichte und Typologie der Klanginstallation, 2008], trans. Chelsea Leventhal, in: Sound Studies and Sonic Arts Reader, eds. Julia H. Schröder and Volker Straebel. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2022. ISBN 9783955931360

On Alvin Lucier’s chamber music:
Musikalische Repräsentation geometrischer Objekte in Alvin Luciers Kammermusik,” in: Alvin Lucier, ed. Ulrich Tadday [=Musik-Konzepte 180/81]. München: Edition Text + Kritik 2018. ISBN 9783869166506

On media-specific music:
Medienmusik,” in: Akustische Grundlagen von Musik, ed. Stefan Weinzierl. Handbuch der systematischen Musikwissenschaft, vol. 5. Laaber: Laaber Verlag 2014. ISBN 9783890076997

The Studio as a Venue of Production and Performance: Cage’s Early Tape Music,” in: Cage & Consequences, eds. Julia H. Schröder and Volker Straebel. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag 2012. ISBN 9783936000795

On the sonification metaphor in instrumental music:
Anmerkungen zur Sonifikationsmetapher in der Instrumentalmusik,” in: Das geschulte Ohr. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Sonifikation, eds. Andi Schoon and Axel Volmar. Bielefeld: Transkript 2012. ISBN 9783837620498; also paper at symposium Zur Kulturgeschichte der Sonifikation, University of the Arts Bern, 2010.

The concept of sound art in musicology and art history:
Vom Verschwinden der Klangkunst. Der Begriff der Klangkunst als wissenschaftsgeschicht­liches Konstrukt,” in: Klangräume der Kunst, ed. Peter Kiefer. Heidelberg: Kehrer 2010. ISBN 9783936636802

On the early history and typology of sound installation art:
Zur frühen Geschichte und Typologie der Klanginstallation,” in: Klangkunst, ed. Ulrich Tadday [=Musik-Konzepte, special issue]. München: Edition Text + Kritik 2008. ISBN 9783883779539

On understanding intermedia art as derived from music (Fluxus and George Brecht):
“Die Geburt des Intermedia aus dem Geist der Musik,” in: KünstlerKritiker. Zum Verhältnis von Produktion und Kritik in Bildender Kunst und Musik, eds. Michael Custodis and Friedrich Geiger. Saarbrücken: Pfau Verlag 2006. ISBN 9783897273290



articles and lectures (peer reviewed)

“Louis and Bebe Barron’s ‘Electronic Sound Images’ for the Science-Fiction Movie ‘Forbidden Planet’ (1955/56)”, Paper at EMS2014, conference of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network, University of Arts Berlin, 2014.

Volker Straebel and Wilm Thoben: “Alvin Lucier’s ‘Music for Solo Performer‘ – Experimental Music Beyond Sonification,” in: Organised Sound 19:1 (April 2014). DOI 10.1017/S135577181300037X

On inter-disciplinary approaches to Lucier’s “Music for Solo Performer”:
“Paragone der Disziplinen. Alvin Lucier‘s “Music for Solo Performer” als Gegenstand der Klang-affinen Wissenschaften.” Paper at the first meeting of Auditive Kultur und Sound Studies, study group of Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, University Bonn, 2014.

“Interdependence of composition and technology in Earle Brown’s tape compositions Octet I/II (1953/54).” Paper at Beyond Notation: An Earle Brown Symposium, Northeastern University, Boston, 2013.

“Conceptions of Space, Time, and Density in the Early Tape Pieces by Earle Brown and Morton Feldman (1953).” Paper at EMS2011, conference of the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network and the Electronic Music Foundation, New York University, 2011.

The sonification metaphor in instrumental music and sonification’s romantic implications.” Paper at ICAD 2010, 16th Conference of the International Community of Auditory Display, George Washington University, Washington, DC 2010; also lecture at ARTS Lab, University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, NM.

“Unique or reproducible: the performative aspects of media-specific artist records.” Paper at Music and Media (MaM), International Musicological Society (IMS) study group, Humboldt University, Berlin, 2010.

“Project for Magnetic Tape (1952/53): Challenging the Idea of a Critical Edition of Historic Music for Recording Media.” Paper at Music: Notation and Sound. Joint conference of the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML) and the International Musicological Society (IMS), Amsterdam, 2009.

From Reproduction to Performance: Media-Specific Music for Compact Disc,” in: Leonardo Music Journal 19 (2009). DOI 10.1162/lmj.2009.19.23

“‘As unified, bi-sensorially, as the sound film can be:’ Composed interdependence of abstract moving image and synthesized sound in John and James Whitney’s Five Film Exercises (1943/44).” Paper at Music & The Moving Image, conference at New York University, 2009.

Technological implications of Phill Niblock’s drone music, derived from analytical obser­vations of selected works for cello and string quartet on tape,” in: Organised Sound 13:3 (Dec. 2008). DOI 10.1017/S1355771808000320; reprinted in German translation: “Akustische Geographie. Komposition und Technologie in Phill Niblocks Drone-Musik,” in: MusikTexte 132 (2012); also lecture at the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA), University of California San Diego, 2008.

“‘The composer becomes part of a creative circuit.’ – Vladimir Ussachevsky’s early aesthetic judgement regarding the new medium of tape music.” Paper at National Conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 2008.



selected other publications and lectures

“The work concept in the performance art of Terry Fox.” Keynote lecture at Symposium Hugging the Walls. A Tribute to Terry Fox, Academy of the Arts, Berlin, 2015.

“Why there are no electronic music instruments, and yet why there are so many.” Lecture at 3DMIN meeting (research group “Design, Development and Dissemination of New Musical Instruments” of Technical University Berlin and University of the Arts, Berlin), 2015.

Media-specific artist records between performance and listener participation“, in: Seminário Música Ciência Tecnologia, 4 (2012); also paper at 4th Seminar: Music Science Technology, University of São Paulo, Brazil 2012.

“John Cage’s Variations III and its first performance.” Paper at international symposium Cage 100, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin, Poland 2012; also paper at symposium John Cage @ 100, Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, 15th International Conference, University Göttingen, Germany 2012; also presented at University of Maryland, Baltimore County and University of California San Diego, 2012.

On reading Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings as performance art:
Werkbegriff und Partitur-Metapher in Sol LeWitts wall drawings.” Paper at Sol LeWitt_Symposium, Art Laboratory Berlin, 2011.

“Abstract Film as Total Theater: Performative aspects in László Moholy-Nagy’s kinetic sculp­ture Licht-Raum-Modulator (Lichtrequesit) and his film Lichtspiel Schwarz-Weiß-Grau.” Lecture at the Art Institute of California – Hollywood / Echo Park Film Centre, Los Angeles, 2011.

Aspects of Conceptual Composing,” in: Open Space Magazine 10 (2008)

On preserving and critical editing of electro-acoustic music:
Das Altern der Elektroakustischen Musik. Anmerkungen aus archivarischer Sicht,” in: Forum Musikbibliothek 29:4 (Dez. 2008); also paper at Association Internationale des Bibliothèques, Archives et Centres de Documentation Musicaux (AIBM), annual meeting of the German chapter, Bremen, 2008.

On Dieter Schnebel’s instrumental theater (music and performance art):
‘Musik gibt es nicht. Musik soll entstehen im Kopf des Zuschauers/Zuhörers.’ Dieter Schnebels Instrumentales Theater,” in: Asja Jarzina: Gestische Musik und musikalische Gesten. Dieter Schnebels “visible music.” Körper, Zeichen, Kultur, vol. 14. Berlin: Weidler 2005.

Perception, imagination and experience in conceptual music:
“Wahrnehmung, Vorstellung und Erfahrung. Phänomenologische Betrachtungen zur Musik jenseits des Konzertstücks,” in: Program book Donaueschinger Musiktage, 2003; reprinted in Die Innovation bleibt immer auf einem Fleck. Die Donaueschinger Musiktage und ihr Metier, eds. Armin Köhler and Rolf Stoll. Mainz: Schott, 2011. ISBN 9783795707903

On sound artist Rolf Julius:
Bilder von Klängen / Pictures of Sounds,” in: Rolf Julius: rot – oder wie laut ist schwarz? Exhibition catalog. Musik im Fridericianum, vol. 5. Kassel: Kunsthalle Fridericianum 2001. ISBN 3927015261

On the use of solar cells in music and sound art:
Klang aus Licht. Eine kleine Geschichte der Photozelle in Musik und Klangkunst,” in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 158:5 (1997); reprinted in Czech translation: “Jak se světlo mění ve zvuk.Malý příběh foto­buňky v hudbě a zvukovém umění,” in: His Voice. Časopis o jiné hubdĕ 4 (2005).

Space and sound transmission in sound art:
“Klangraum und Klanginstallation,” in: Klangkunst, exhibition catalog Sonambiente. Festival für Hören und Sehen, ed. Helga de la Motte-Haber. München: Prestel 1996.

On the early history of performance art:
“‘…that the Europeans will become more American.’ Gegenseitige Einflüsse von Europa und Nordamerika in der Geschichte der Musikperformance,” in: Musik, Labyrinth, Kontext: Musikperformance, eds. Thomas Dészy and Christian Utz. Linz: Offenes Kulturhaus des Landes OÖ 1995.