Women in musicology describes the role ofwomen professors, scholars and researchers inpostsecondary educationmusicology departments atpostsecondary education institutions, includinguniversities,colleges andmusic conservatories. Traditionally, the vast majority of majormusicologists and music historians have been men. 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".[2]
Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated with the "New Musicology" who incorporatesfeminist 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. In the book, McClary suggests that thesonata form (used in symphonies and string quartets) may be asexist ormisogynistic procedure that constructs ofgender and sexual identity. McClary'sConventional Wisdom (2000) argues that the traditional musicological assumption of the existence of "purely musical" elements, divorced from culture and meaning, the social and the body, is a conceit used to veil the social and political imperatives of the worldview that produces theclassical canon most prized by supposedly objective musicologists.
American musicologistMarcia Citron has asked "[w]hy is music composed by women so marginal to the standard 'classical' repertoire?"[3] Citron "examines the practices and attitudes that have led to the exclusion of women composers from the received 'canon' of performed musical works." She argues that in the 1800s, women composers typically wroteart songs for performance in small recitals rather thansymphonies intended for performance with an orchestra in a large hall, with the latter works being seen as the most important genre for composers; since women composers did not write many symphonies, they were deemed to be not notable as composers.[3]
Other notable women scholars include:
Ethnomusicologists study the many musics around the world that emphasize their cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dimensions or contexts instead of or in addition to its isolated sound component or any particular repertoire.Ethnomusicology – a term coined byJaap Kunst from theGreek words ἔθνος (ethnos, "nation") and μουσική (mousike, "music") – is often described as theanthropology orethnography of music. Initially, ethnomusicology was almost exclusively oriented toward non-Western music, but now includes the study of Western music from anthropological, sociological and intercultural perspectives.
Notable ethnomusicologists include: