The second Czech university was founded in Brno under Law No. 50 of 28 January 1919, under the name Masaryk University (in 1960 the name was changed to University of Jan Evangelista Purkyně; the university resumed its former name immediately after the fall of the communist regime).
Otakar Zich, a student of Otakar Hostinský, was a professor of aesthetics and musicologist in Brno. One of Zich’s (and Hostinský’s) students was Vladimír Helfert, who became an assistant (1926) and full professor (1931), and founded a musicology seminar at the Faculty of Arts. After the death of Vladimír Helfert in 1945, Jan Racek (named full professor in 1948) took over the musicology seminar. The seminar attracted a group of academics from Helfert’s original group: Bohumír Štědroň, who like Racek studied music history; composer and theoretician Zdeněk Blažek; for a short time Josef Burjanek, who dealt with music aesthetics; Karel Vetterl who lectured on traditional folk music; and Theodora Straková, music archivist. Gradually Racek’s school attracted other musicologists and educators: Vincenc Straka in 1946-1949, Přemysl Novák in 1949 – 1959, and Rudolf Pečman in 1955. The music seminar naturally strove to maintain continuity with the Helfert era. At the same time new concentrations were developed, along with a deepening of perspectives on contemporary music, and heavily influenced by Brno ethnography and folklore. Young musicologists were inspired by the seminar on aesthetics conducted by Mirko Novák, who as a student of Nejedlý (and to a lesser extent Adler), succeeded in somewhat compensating for the one-sided historicism of the period, and the contribution to education of aesthetician Oleg Sus.
The most significant changes in the profile of the Brno school began in the early 1960’s when Jiří Vysloužil and Jiří Fukač joined the department. Along with Rudolf Pečman, these students of Racek and Štědroň preserved the continuity of the institution when Racek, Štědroň, and Blažek went into retirement. Vysloužil became head of the department in 1962. In 1972 Miloš Štědroň, nephew of Bohumír Štědroň, joined the department.
The Cabinet of Music Lexicography, founded by Vysloužil in 1966, is also a part of the Faculty of Arts in Brno. Since 1966 the department has been the main organizer of international musicology colloquies at the Moravian Music Festival Brno. In the mid-1970s a team of Janáček scholars around the department began working on a Complete Critical Edition of the Works of Leoš Janáček. After the political changes in late 1989 when Jiří Fukač became director of the Department of the Arts, and after two years grouped together with the departments of theatre and history of the fine arts, the Department of Musicology became independent as the Institute of Musicology. The personnel of the institute has also changed over time. The original team consisted of Jiří Vysloužil, Rudolf Pečman, Jiří Fukač, Miloš Štědroň, and Olga Settari; the latter departed, and organologist Pavel Kurfürst was selected to fill the vacancy. The number of external instructors was significantly expanded (including Stanislav Tesař, Jiří Sehnal, Ivan Poledňák, Eva Drlíková, Vladimír Karbusický, Jan Trojan, Pavel Sýkora, and others). The change in the political system soon made it possible for teachers of musicology to receive the academic titles they had earned (Rudolf Pečman: professor 1990; Jiří Fukač: docent 1991, professor 1994; Miloš Štědroň: docent 1991, professor 1994; Pavel Kurfürst: docent 1994, professor 1999). With the advent of the new generation of young musicologists educated in the Brno milieu (Jana Perutková - Dvořáková 1996; Petr Macek: 1995; Mikuláš Bek: 1998; Lubomír Spurný: 2003), the foundation was laid for further development of university musicology in Brno. The Academy of Early Music was established in the early 1990s as part of the institute, with Andreas Kröper-Hoffmann deserving of special credit. The Seminar in Esthetics represented by Jaroslav Střítecký and Petr Osolsobě (in January 2005 this department became independent within the faculty, Jaroslav Střitecký remained at the Institute of Musicology, and Petr Osolsobě was named director of the Seminar in Esthetics. The founding of another Bachelor’s degree field of studies entitled Associated Studies in the Artsproved a strategically sound move, as it serves the needs of a large group of students seeking a broader education in arts without a narrow specialization.
The institute's teachers have frequently held higher academic functions: Rudolf Pečman became vice-dean for studies, Miloš Štědroňvice dean for research; Jiří Fukač chairman of the Academic Senate of the MU Faculty of Arts. In 1998 Jiří Fukač became vice-rector of Masaryk University, and was replaced by Stanislav Tesař, then a year later by Mikuláš Bek. In the autumn of 2004 Petr Macek became director, and Mikuláš Bek became Masaryk University’s vice-rector for external relations.
In December 1989 the Brno university musicology community began to work very intensively to develop contacts with foreign partners (thanks in particular to Jiří Fukač), especially with the Institute for Musicology at Vienna University (Theophil Antonicek and Leopold M. Kantner), and since 1991 a joint Czech-and-German-language Colloquium danubianum Bulletin for Cooperation in Musicology has been published. The department also works closely with the Sudeten German Institute in Regensburg (Widmar Hader), among other things on the project Lexikon zur deutschen Musikkultur.
Connected to the Institute of Musicology is the International Leoš Janáček Society; in the late 1990s the institute was the seat of the Czech section of the International Association for Research on Popular Music (IASPM), which was chaired by Jiří Fukač. The department traditionally organizes the International Musicology Colloquium at the Brno International Music Festival.
In 1994 - 1998 the Brno Institute for Musicology was a partner in a TEMPUS project entitled Music and the Media (main coordinator Mikuláš Bek), which produced a whole series of very useful special student seminars and a number of books, and helped many students and teachers to arrange studies abroad. Since 2000 the Institute of Musicology has been a part of the European Union international education program Sokrates/Erasmus; students have traveled for long-term studies at partner universities (including London, Durham, Tampere, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Paris, Freiburg, Regensburg, Vienna, Nancy, Halle, Leipzig, and Bratislava; Antalya, Turkey is in the works).
At present the Institute of Musicology offers three fields of study: Musicology in either presentation or combined form, and the Bachelor’s degree fields Associated Studies in the Arts (in presentation or combined form) and Study of Early Music Theory and Practice (combined form only). There are about 650 students studying at the Institute, 40 of those in the doctoral program. The Institute employs 15 people in all, including academic and administrative personnel. There are two full-time professors, Miloš Štědroň and Jaroslav Střítecký, and since autumn 2005 professors emeritus Jiří Vysloužil and Rudolf Pečman have taught externally Teaching and research continue to be coordinated by two docents, at present Mikuláš Bek and Lubomír Spurný, and fellows Jana Perutková, Petr Macek, Stanislav Tesař and Miloslav Študent (ASH only). Research assistants are Jana Spáčilová and Simona Sedláčková; the library is run by Blanka Mizerová. Secretaries Vlasta Taranzová and Jitka Leflíková see to the department's day to day operations. The deaths of Jiří Fukač (2002) and Pavel Kurfürstwere a severe loss for the department.
The department’s research focus at present works closely with the projects of the Cabinet of Music Lexicography at the Institute of Musicology of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Masaryk University. In 1997 after long efforts the Dictionary of Czech Musical Culture was published (Jiří Fukač, Jiří Vysloužil, Petr Macek). In 2000 a new project was started for an electronic Czech Music Dictionary of Persons and Institutions at http://www.musicologia.cz/slovnik (Jiří Fukač, Petr Macek, Mikuláš Bek). Miloš Štědroň has published his work Leoš Janáček and the Music of the 20th Century, and Pavel Kurfürst is the author of two definitive books, Organology and Musical Instruments. Jiří Vysloužil together with Jiří Sehnal wrote History of Music in Moravia; Mikuláš Bek published his sociological research in the work The Conservatory of Europe? On the Sociology of Czech Music; and Rudolf Pečman has written a book about Vladimír Helfert. Stanislav Tesař along with Miloš Štědroň are working on an extensive project Melodiarum Hymnologicum Bohemiae; Jana Perutková is working on Italian Opera in Moravia in the Early 18th Century; and Lubomír Spurný is gathering material for a project on the life and work of Alois Hába. The Institute of Musicology publishes the now-traditional Catalogue of the Work of the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University, section H, and since 2003 it has operated a web portal at http://www.musicologica.cz, where it publishes its electronic journal on musicology entitled Acta musicologica.cz. (http://acta.musicologica.cz).
On the recommendation of the Institute of Musicology, Masaryk University has granted honorary doctorates to musicologists Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht (29. 5. 1995), Theophil Antonicek (12. 6. 2000) and John Tyrrell(30. 5. 2002).
In the mid-1990's the Institute of Musicology left its long-time quarters on the second floor of main faculty building C, moved to roomier accommodations in the new faculty building E on Grohova Street. However, the move proved to be an unfortunate one for the department. In the fall of 2005 the Institute of Musicology moved into much larger spaces on Jaselská Street, where it occupies three floors.
Ever since the Helfert era, members of the department (Institute), along with other Brno musicology graduates, were labelled the Brno school of musicology. This term has caught on not only within the Czech Republic, but abroad as well. This serves to illustrate the respect that Brno musicology has earned both at home and internationally.
