Ethnomusicology
Study of the cultural aspects of music / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Ethnomusicology (from Greek ἔθνος ethnos ‘nation’ and μουσική mousike ‘music’) is the multidisciplinary study of music in its cultural context, investigating social, cognitive, biological, comparative, and other dimensions involved other than sound. Ethnomusicologists study music as a reflection of culture and investigate the act of musicking through various immersive, observational, and analytical approaches drawn from other disciplines such as anthropology to understand a culture’s music. This discipline emerged from comparative musicology, initially focusing on non-Western music, but later expanded to embrace the study of any and all different kinds of music of the world.
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Stated broadly, ethnomusicology may be described as a holistic investigation of music in its cultural contexts.[1] The term ethnomusicology itself can be broken down as such: 'ethno' = people, and 'musicology' = the study of music. Thus, in the process of developing the study of music and people, the field of ethnomusicology combines perspectives from a wide variety of disciplines such as folklore, psychology, cultural anthropology, linguistics, comparative musicology, music theory, and history.[2][3] This disciplinary variety has resulted in several distinct definitions of ethnomusicology. As follows, there has not often been a unified definition of ethnomusicology within the field itself. Attitudes and foci of ethnomusicologists have evolved since initial studies in the area of comparative musicology in the early 1900s. For example, in 1956, Willard Rhodes provided his perspective on the definition of ethnomusicology, stating that it is a theoretical and empirical study amalgamating both musicology and anthropology.[4] Then, in 1983, Bruno Nettl characterized ethnomusicology as a product of Western thinking, proclaiming that "ethnomusicology as western culture knows it is actually a western phenomenon."[5] Later, in 1992, Jeff Todd Titon simply described ethnomusicology as the study of "people making music".[6]
While there still is not a unified, authoritative definition for ethnomusicology, a number of constants appear in the definitions frequently adopted by leading scholars in the field. It is agreed upon that ethnomusicologists look at music from beyond a purely theoretical, sonic, or historical perspective. Instead, these scholars look at music within culture, music as culture, and music as a reflection of culture.[7][8] In other words, ethnomusicology was developed as the study of all music as a human social and cultural phenomenon.
Rhodes,[9] in 1956, had described ethnomusicology as a fusion between musicology and cultural anthropology. He focused on the scientific study of music and the interpretation of the cultural phenomena within. However, he called for a broader view that emphasizes "music as an emotional expression." This notion is highly similar to that of Merriam's [10] 1960 extension of ethnomusicology, which views it as "the study of music in culture," that emphasized its pivotal role in human nature and the fact that musicology is primarily a human centric endeavour. Merriam's 1964 work [11] redefined ethnomusicology and highlighted its importance in cultural anthropology in understanding music within different socio-cultural communities. He distinguished and showcased its distinct nature from that of comparative musicology by emphasizing the influence of social and cultural factors on music and how human centric it is. Hood's 1971 perspective, [12] emphasized the significance of direct engagement and performance of the intended music to be studied as a means of ethnomusicological research, having the realization that studying it academically was necessary but so was the direct act of performance. This came into direct opposition to some of his peers of the past. Hood addressed this by stressing the need to unlearn Western musical conventions when studying non-Western traditions showcasing the inevitable arguments that may arise in the future on the nature of ethnomusicological research.
In addition, many ethnomusicological studies share common methodological approaches encapsulated in ethnographic fieldwork. Scholars of ethnomusicology often conduct their primary fieldwork among those who make the music, learning languages and the music itself. Ethnomusicologists also take on the role of a participant observer in learning to perform in a musical tradition, a practice Mantle Hood termed "bi-musicality".[13] Musical fieldworkers also collect recordings and contextual information about the music of interest.[7] Thus, ethnomusicological studies do not rely on printed or manuscript sources as the primary source of epistemic authority, but rather, the focus is on qualitative practice-based research methods.
When the field first came into existence in Western cultures, it was mostly limited to the study of non-Western music. Notably, the field failed to include European music in the global landscape. Thus, ethnomusicology contrasted the field of conventional musicology where the primary focus was on Western art music. Early in its existence, ethnomusicology was known as "comparative musicology," which established Western musical traditions as the standard to which all other kinds of music were compared. Comparative musicology, the primary precursor to ethnomusicology, emerged in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Eventually, this term fell out of use in the 1950s as critics for the practices associated with the field became more vocal about ethnomusicology's distinction from musicology.[14] The term “ethnomusicology” replaced “comparative musicology” to better capture the field's emphasis on description over comparison. Over time, the definition broadened to include the study of both Western and non-Western music of the world according to certain approaches and ethnographic standpoints.[15][16]
Folklorists, who began preserving and studying folklore music in Europe and the US in the 19th century, are considered the precursors of the field prior to the Second World War. Oskar Kolberg is regarded as one of the earliest European ethnomusicologists as he first began collecting Polish folk songs in 1839 (Nettl 2010, 33). The International Musical Society in Berlin in 1899 acted as one of the first centers for ethnomusicology.[17]