Musicology is traditionally divided into three branches:music history,systematic musicology, andethnomusicology. Historical musicologists study the history of musical traditions, the origins of works, and the biographies of composers. Ethnomusicologists draw from anthropology (particularlyfield research) to understand how and why people make music. Systematic musicology includesmusic theory,aesthetics,pedagogy, musicalacoustics, the science and technology ofmusical instruments, and the musical implications of physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and computing.Cognitive musicology is the set of phenomena surrounding thecognitive modeling of music. When musicologists carry out research using computers, their research often falls under the field ofcomputational musicology.Music therapy is a specialized form of applied musicology which is sometimes considered more closely affiliated with health fields, and other times regarded as part of musicology proper.
The wordmusicology comes fromGreekμουσικήmousikē 'music' and-λογια-logia, 'domain of study'.
The 19th-century philosophical trends that led to the re-establishment of formal musicology education in German and Austrian universities had combined methods of systematization with evolution. These models were established not only in the field ofphysical anthropology, but alsocultural anthropology. This was influenced byHegel's ideas on ordering "phenomena" which can be understood & distinguished fromsimple tocomplex stages of evolution. They are further classified intoprimitive &developed sections; whereas the particular stages of history are understood & distinguished asancient tomodern. Comparative methods became more widespread in musicology beginning around 1880.[2]
Musicology also has two central, practically oriented sub-disciplines with no parent discipline:performance practice and research, and the theory,analysis and composition of music. The disciplinary neighbors of musicology address other forms of art, performance, ritual, and communication, including the history and theory of the visual and plastic arts and architecture;linguistics,literature andtheater; religion andtheology; and sport. Musical knowledge is applied within medicine, education andmusic therapy—which, effectively, are parent disciplines of applied musicology.
Music history or historical musicology is concerned with the composition, performance, reception and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (such as baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people, (such as court music), or modes of performance at a particular place and time (such as Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig). Like the comparable field ofart history, different branches and schools of historical musicology emphasize different types of musical works and approaches to music. There are also national differences in various definitions of historical musicology. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music, such as themusic of India orrock music. In practice, these research topics are more often considered withinethnomusicology and "historical musicology" is typically assumed to imply Western Art music of the European tradition.
The methods of historical musicology include source studies (especiallymanuscript studies),palaeography,philology (especiallytextual criticism), style criticism, historiography (the choice ofhistorical method), musical analysis (analysis of music to find "inner coherence")[3] andiconography. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. Music historians create a number of written products, ranging from journal articles describing their current research, new editions of musical works,biographies of composers and other musicians, book-length studies or university textbook chapters or entire textbooks. Music historians may examine issues in a close focus, as in the case of scholars who examine the relationship between words and music for a given composer'sart songs. On the other hand, some scholars take a broader view and assess the place of a given type of music, such as thesymphony in society using techniques drawn from other fields, such as economics, sociology or philosophy.
New musicology is a term applied since the late 1980s to a wide body of work emphasizing cultural study, analysis and criticism of music. Such work may be based onfeminist,gender studies,queer theory orpostcolonial theory, or the work ofTheodor W. Adorno.[citation needed] Although New Musicology emerged from within historical musicology, the emphasis on cultural study within the Western art music tradition places New Musicology at the junction between historical, ethnological and sociological research in music.
New musicology was a reaction against traditional historical musicology, which according toSusan McClary, "fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship."[4]Charles Rosen, however, retorts that McClary, "sets up, like so many of the 'new musicologists', a straw man to knock down, the dogma that music has no meaning, and no political or social significance."[5] Today, many musicologists no longer distinguish between musicology and new musicology since it has been recognized that many of the scholarly concerns once associated with new musicology already were mainstream in musicology, so that the term "new" no longer applies.
Ethnomusicology, formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context. It is often considered the anthropology orethnography of music.Jeff Todd Titon has called it the study of "people making music".[6] Although it is most often concerned with the study of non-Western music, it also includes the study of Western music from an anthropological or sociological perspective, cultural studies and sociology as well as other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Some ethnomusicologists primarily conduct historical studies,[7] but the majority are involved in long-term participant observation or combine ethnographic, musicological, and historical approaches in their fieldwork. Therefore, ethnomusicological scholarship can be characterized as featuring a substantial, intensive fieldwork component, often involving long-term residence within the community studied. Closely related to ethnomusicology is the emerging branch ofsociomusicology. For instance, Ko (2011) proposed the hypothesis of "Biliterate and Trimusical" in Hong Kong sociomusicology.[8]
Popular music studies, known, "misleadingly",[9] aspopular musicology, emerged in the 1980s as an increasing number of musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other varieties of historians of American and European culture began to write about popular music past and present. The first journal focusing on popular music studies wasPopular Music which began publication in 1981.[10] The same year an academic society solely devoted to the topic was formed, theInternational Association for the Study of Popular Music. The association's founding was partly motivated by the interdisciplinary agenda of popular musicology though the group has been characterized by a polarized 'musicological' and 'sociological' approach also typical of popular musicology.[11]
Music theory is a field of study that describes the elements of music and includes the development and application of methods for composing and for analyzing music through bothnotation and, on occasion, musical sound itself. Broadly, theory may include any statement, belief or conception of or about music (Boretz, 1995).[incomplete short citation] A person who studies or practices music theory is a music theorist.
Some music theorists attempt to explain the techniques composers use by establishing rules and patterns. Others model the experience of listening to or performing music. Though extremely diverse in their interests and commitments, many Western music theorists are united in their belief that the acts of composing, performing and listening to music may be explicated to a high degree of detail (this, as opposed to a conception of musical expression as fundamentally ineffable except in musical sounds). Generally, works of music theory are both descriptive and prescriptive, attempting both to define practice and to influence later practice.
Musicians study music theory to understand the structural relationships in the (nearly always notated) music. Composers study music theory to understand how to produce effects and structure their own works. Composers may study music theory to guide theirprecompositional and compositional decisions. Broadly speaking, music theory in the Western tradition focuses onharmony andcounterpoint, and then uses these to explain large scale structure and the creation ofmelody.
Music psychology applies the content and methods of psychology to understand how music is created, perceived, responded to, and incorporated into individuals' and societies' daily lives.[12] Its primary branches includecognitive musicology, which emphasizes the use of computational models for human musical abilities and cognition, and the cognitiveneuroscience of music, which studies the way that music perception and production manifests in the brain using the methodologies ofcognitive neuroscience. While aspects of the field can be highly theoretical, much of modern music psychology seeks to optimize the practices and professions of music performance, composition, education and therapy.[13]
Performance practice draws on many of the tools of historical musicology to answer the specific question of how music was performed in various places at various times in the past. Although previously confined to early music, recent research inperformance practice has embraced questions such as how the early history of recording affected the use ofvibrato in classical music or instruments inKlezmer.
Within the rubric of musicology, performance practice tends to emphasize the collection and synthesis of evidence about how music should be performed. The important other side, learning how to sing authentically or perform a historical instrument is usually part ofconservatory or other performance training. However, many top researchers in performance practice are also excellent musicians.
Music performance research (or music performance science) is strongly associated with music psychology. It aims to document and explain the psychological, physiological, sociological and cultural details of how music is actually performed (rather than how it should be performed). The approach to research tends to be systematic and empirical and to involve the collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of music performance research can often be applied in music education.
Music historian Jack Stewart lectures at a conference.
Musicologists in tenure track professor positions typically hold aPhD in musicology. In the 1960s and 1970s, some musicologists obtained professor positions with anMA as their highest degree, but in the 2010s, the PhD is the standard minimum credential for tenure track professor positions. As part of their initial training, musicologists typically complete aBMus or aBA in music (or a related field such as history) and in many cases an MA in musicology. Some individuals apply directly from a bachelor's degree to a PhD, and in these cases, they may not receive an MA. In the 2010s, given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of university graduate programs, some applicants for musicology PhD programs may have academic training both in music and outside of music (e.g., a student may apply with a BMus and an MA in psychology). In music education, individuals may hold anM.Ed and anEd.D.
Most musicologists work as instructors, lecturers or professors in colleges, universities or conservatories. The job market for tenure track professor positions is very competitive. Entry-level applicants must hold a completed PhD or the equivalent degree and applicants to more senior professor positions must have a strong record of publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Some PhD-holding musicologists are only able to find insecure positions assessional lecturers. The job tasks of a musicologist are the same as those of a professor in any other humanities discipline: teaching undergraduate and/or graduate classes in their area of specialization and, in many cases some general courses (such asMusic Appreciation or Introduction to Music History); conducting research in their area of expertise, publishing articles about their research in peer-reviewed journals, authors book chapters, books or textbooks; traveling to conferences to give talks on their research and learn about research in their field; and, if their program includes agraduate school, supervising MA and PhD students, giving them guidance on the preparation of their theses and dissertations. Some musicology professors may take on senior administrative positions in their institution, such asDean orChair of the School of Music.
Rosetta Reitz (1924–2008) was an Americanjazz historian who established a record label producing 18 albums of the music of the early women of jazz and the blues.[14]
The vast majority of major musicologists and music historians from past generations have been men, as in the 19th century and early 20th century; women's involvement in teaching music was mainly inelementary and secondary music teaching.[15] Nevertheless, some women musicologists have reached the top ranks of the profession.Carolyn Abbate (born 1956) is an American musicologist who did her PhD atPrinceton University. She has been described by theHarvard Gazette as "one of the world's most accomplished and admired music historians".[16]
Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated withnew musicology who incorporates feminist music criticism in her work. McClary holds a PhD fromHarvard University. One of her best known works isFeminine Endings (1991), which covers musical constructions of gender and sexuality, gendered aspects of traditional music theory, gendered sexuality in musical narrative, music as a gendered discourse and issues affecting women musicians.[17]
^Beard, David; Gloag, Kenneth (2005).Musicology: The Key Concepts. Routledge.ISBN978-0-415-31692-7.
^McClary, Susan (1991).Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. p. 4.
^Rosen, Charles (2001). "The New Musicology".Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New. Harvard University Press. p. 264.ISBN978-0-674-00684-3.I doubt that anyone, except perhaps the nineteenth-century criticHanslick, has ever really believed that, although some musicians have been goaded into proclaiming it by the sillier interpretations of music with which we are often assailed.
^Moore, Allan, ed. (2003).Analyzing Popular Music. Cambridge University Press. p. 2.ISBN978-0-521-77120-7.'Popular musicology' should be read as the musicological investigation of popular music, rather than the accessible investigation of music!
^Tan, Siu-Lan; Pfordresher, Peter; Harré, Rom (2010).Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance. New York: Psychology Press. p. 2.ISBN978-1-84169-868-7.
^Ockelford, Adam (2009). "Beyond music psychology". In Hallam, Susan; Cross, Ian; Thaut, Michael (eds.).The Oxford Handbook of Music Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 539.ISBN978-0-19-929845-7.
^Wieland Howe, Sandra (2015). "Women Music Educators in the United States: A History".GEMS (Gender, Education, Music, and Society).8 (4).[When looking beyond bandleaders and top leaders, women had many music education roles in the] home, community, churches, public schools, and teacher-training institutions [and] as writers, patrons, and through their volunteer work in organizations.
Allen, Warren Dwight (1962).Philosophies of Music History: a Study of General Histories of Music, 1600–1960. New ... ed. New York: Dover Publications.N.B.: First published in 1939; expanded and updated for republication in 1962.
Babich, Babette (2003) "Postmodern Musicology" in Victor E. Taylor and Charles Winquist, eds.,Routledge Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, London: Routledge, 2003. pp. 153–159.ISBN978-0-415-30886-1.
Brackett, David (1995).Interpreting Popular Music.ISBN0-520-22541-4.
Pruett, James W., and Thomas P. Slavens (1985).Research Guide to Musicology. Chicago: American Library Association.ISBN0-8389-0331-2.
Randel, Don Michael, ed. (4th edition, 2003).Harvard Dictionary of Music, pp. 452–454. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.ISBN0-674-01163-5.
Sorce Keller, Marcello. "The Emperor's New Clothes: Why Musicologies Do Not Always Wish to Know All They Could Know", in Victoria Lindsay Levine and Philip V. Bohlman.This Thing Called Music. Essays in Honor of Bruno Nettl. Lanham, MD / Boulder, CO / New York City / London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, pp. 366–377.
Tagg, Philip (1979, ed. 2000).Kojak – 50 Seconds of Television Music: Toward the Analysis of Affect in Popular Music, pp. 38–45. The Mass Media Music Scholar's Press.ISBN0-9701684-0-3.
Tagg, Philip (1982). "Analysing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice",Popular Music, vol. 2, Theory and Method, pp. 37–67.
