this article is about the academic field of music history

8/12/2019 This Article is About the Academic Field of Music History

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This article is about the academic field of music history. For an overview of music, see history of music.

For the album, seeMusical History.

A famousTang Dynastyguqin "Jiu Xiao Huan Pei". Theguqinhas been played since ancient times, and has traditionally

been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement.

Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader

discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical viewpoint. In theory, "music history" could

refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history ofIndian musicor the

history ofrock). In practice, these research topics are often categorized as part

ofethnomusicologyorcultural studies,whether or not they areethnographically based.The terms "music

history" and "historical musicology" usually refer to the history of the notated music of Western elites,

sometimes called "art music" (by analogy to art history, which tends to focus on elite art).

The methods of music history include source studies

(esp.manuscriptstudies),paleography,philology(especiallytextual criticism), style criticism,

historiography (the choice ofhistorical method),musical analysis,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 ofmusic theory.(For a

more detailed discussion of the methods see the section on "Research in Music History" below) Some of

the intellectual products of music historians include editions of musical works,biographyof composers

and other musicians, studies of the relationship betweenwordsand music, and the reflections upon the

place of music insociety.

Contents

[hide]

1 Pedagogy

2 History

o 2.1 Before 1800

o 2.2 18001950

3 Critiques

o 3.1 Exclusion of disciplines and musics

o 3.2 Exclusion of popular music

4 Notes

5 References

Pedagogy[edit]
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nographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_analysishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_methodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textual_criticismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuscripthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_studieshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnomusicologyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_musichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guqinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynastyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_Historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music


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Although most performers of classical and traditional instruments receive some instruction in music, art

pop, or rock and roll history from teachers throughout their training, the majority of formal music history

courses are offered at thecollegelevel. In Canada, some music students receive training prior to

undergraduate studies because examinations in music history (as well as music theory) are required to

complete Royal Conservatory certification at the Grade 9 level and higher

Most medium and large institutions will offer both types of courses. The two types of courses will usually

differ in length (one to two semesters vs. two to four), breadth (many music appreciation courses begin at

thelate Baroqueorclassicaleras and might omit music afterWWIIwhile courses for majors traditionally

span the period from theMiddle Agesto recent times), and depth. Both types of courses tend to

emphasize a balance among the acquisition of musical repertory(often emphasized through listening

examinations), study and analysis of these works, biographical and cultural details of music and

musicians, and writing about music, perhaps throughmusic criticism.

More specialized seminars in music history tend to use a similar approach on a narrower subject while

introducing more of the tools of research in music history.The range of possible topics is virtually limitless.

Some examples might be "Music duringWorld War I," "Medieval and Renaissanceinstrumentalmusic,"

"Music and Process," "Mozart'sDon Giovanni."

The methods and tools of music history are nearly as many as its subjects and therefore make a strict

categorization impossible. However, a few trends and approaches can be outlined here. Like in any other

historical discipline, most research in music history can be roughly divided into two categories: the

establishing of factual and correct data and the interpretation of data. Most historical research does not

fall into one category solely, but rather employs a combination of methods from both categories. It should

also be noted that the act of establishing factual data can never be fully separate from the act of

interpretation.

Archival workmay be conducted to find connections to music or musicians in a collection of documents

of broader interests (e.g.,Vaticanpay records, letters to a patroness of the arts) or to more systematically

study a collection of documents related to a musician. In some cases, where records, scores, and letters

have been digitized,archivalwork can be done online. One example of a composer for whom archival

materials can be examined online is theArnold SchoenbergCenter.[1]

Performance practicedraws 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. Scholars investigate questions such as which instruments or

voices were used to perform a given work, what tempos (or tempo changes) were used, and how (or if)

ornaments were used. Althoughperformance practicewas previously confined to early music from the

Baroque era, since the 1990s, research in performance practice has examined other historical eras, such

as how early Classical era piano concerti were performed, how the early history of recording affected the

use of vibrato in classical music, or which instruments were used in Klezmermusic.

Biographical studiesof composers can give a better sense of the chronology of compositions,

influences on style and works, and provide important background to the interpretation (by performers or

listeners) of works. Thus biography can form one part of the larger study of the cultural significance,

underlying program, or agenda of a work; a study which gained increasing importance in the 1980s and

early 1990s.
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Sociological studiesfocus on the function of music in society as well as its meaning for individuals and

society as a whole. Researchers emphasizing the social importance of music (including classical music)

are sometimes calledNew musicologists.

Semiotic studiesare most conventionally the province of music analysts rather than historians.

However, crucial to the practice of musical semiotics the interpretation of meaning in a work or style is

its situation in an historical context. The interpretative work of scholars such asKofi AgawuandLawrence

Kramerfall between the analytic and the music historical.

History[edit]

Before 1800[edit]

The first studies of Western musical history date back to the middle of the 18th century. G.B.

Martinipublished a three volume history titled Storia della musica(History of Music) between 1757 and

1781.Martin Gerbertpublished a two volume history of sacred music titled De cantu de musica sacrain

1774. Gerbert followed this work with a three volume work Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica

sacracontaining significant writings on sacred music from the 3rd century onwards in 1784.

18001950[edit]

Ludwig van Beethoven's manuscript sketch forPiano Sonata No. 28,Movement IV, Geschwind, doch nicht zu sehr und mit

Entschlossenheit(Allegro), in his own handwriting. The piece was completed in 1816.

In the 20th century, the work ofJohannes Wolfand others developed studies inMedieval musicand

earlyRenaissance music.Wolf's writings on the history of musical notation are considered to be
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particularly notable by musicologists. Historical musicology has played a critical role in renewed interest

inBaroque musicas well as medieval and Renaissance music. In particular, the authentic

performancemovement owes much to historical musicological scholarship. Towards the middle of the

20th century, musicology (and its largest subfield of historical musicology) expanded significantly as a

field of study. Concurrently the number of musicological and music journals increased to create further

outlets for the publication of research. The domination of German language scholarship ebbed assignificant journals sprang up throughout the West, especially America.

Critiques[edit]

Exclusion of disciplines and musics[edit]

In its most narrow definition, historical musicology is the music history of Western culture. Such a

definition arbitrarily excludes disciplines other than history, cultures other than Western, and forms of

music other than "classical" ("art", "serious", "high culture") or notated ("artificial") implying that the

omitted disciplines, cultures, and musical styles/genres are somehow inferior. A somewhat broader

definition incorporating all musical humanities is still problematic, because it arbitrarily excludes the

relevant (natural) sciences (acoustics, psychology, physiology, neurosciences, information and computersciences, empirical sociology and aesthetics) as well as musical practice. The musicological sub-

disciplines ofmusic theoryand music analysis have likewise historically been rather uneasily separated

from the most narrow definition of historical musicology.

Within historical musicology, scholars have been reluctant to adopt postmodern and critical approaches

that are common elsewhere in the humanities. According toSusan McClary(2000, p. 1285) the discipline

of "music lags behind the other arts; it picks up ideas from other media just when they have become

outmoded." Only in the 1990s did historical musicologists, preceded by feminist musicologists in the late

1980s, begin to address issues such as gender, sexualities, bodies, emotions, and subjectivities which

dominated the humanities for twenty years before (ibid, p. 10). In McClary's words (1991, p. 5), "It almost

seems that musicology managed miraculously to pass directly from pre- to postfeminism without everhaving to change or even examine its ways." Furthermore, in their discussion on musicology and rock

music, Susan McClary and Robert Walser also address a key struggle within the discipline: how

musicology has often "dismisse[d] questions of socio-musical interaction out of hand, that part of classical

music's greatness is ascribed to its autonomy from society." (1988, p. 283)

Exclusion of popular music[edit]

According toRichard Middleton,the strongest criticism of (historical) musicology has been that it

generally ignores popular music. Though musicological study of popular music has vastly increased in

quantity recently, Middleton's assertion in 1990that most major "works of musicology, theoretical or

historical, act as though popular music did not exist"holds true. Academic and conservatory training

typically only peripherally addresses this broad spectrum of musics, and many (historical) musicologistswho are "both contemptuous and condescending are looking for types of production, musical form, and

listening which they associate with a differentkind of music...'classical music'...and they generally find

popular music lacking"

He cites three main aspects of this problem (p. 1046). The terminology of historical musicology is

"slanted by the needs and history of a particular music ('classical music')." He acknowledges that "there is

a rich vocabulary for certain areas [harmony, tonality, certain part-writing and forms], important in
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musicology's typical corpus"; yet he points out that there is "an impoverished vocabulary for other areas

[rhythm, pitch nuance and gradation, and timbre], which are less well developed" in Classical music.

Middleton argues that a number of "terms are ideologically loaded" in that "they always involve selective,

and often unconsciously formulated, conceptions of what music is."

As well, he claims that historical musicology uses "a methodology slanted by the characteristics of

notation," 'notational centricity' (Tagg 1979, p. 2832). As a result "musicological methods tend to

foreground those musical parameters which can be easily notated" such as pitch relationships or the

relationship between words and music. On the other hand, historical musicology tends to "neglect or have

difficulty with parameters which are not easily notated", such as tone colour or non-Western rhythms. In

addition, he claims that the "notation-centric training" of Western music schools "induces particular forms

of listening, and these then tend to be applied to allsorts of music, appropriately or not". As a result,

Western music students trained in historical musicology may listen to afunkorLatinsong that is very

rhythmically complex, but then dismiss it as a low-level musical work because it has a very simple melody

and only uses two or five chords.

Notational centricity also encourages "reification: the score comes to be seen as 'the music', or perhaps

the music in an ideal form." As such, music that does not use a written score, such as jazz, blues, or folk,

can become demoted to a lower level of status. As well, historical musicology has "an ideology slanted by

the origins and development of a particular body of music and its aesthetic...It arose at a specific moment,

in a specific context nineteenth-century Europe, especially Germany and in close association with that

movement in the musicalpracticeof the period which was codifying the very repertory then taken by

musicology as the centre of its attention." These terminological, methodological, and ideological problems

affect even works sympathetic to popular music. However, it is not "that musicology cannotunderstand

popular music, or that students of popular music should abandon musicology." (p. 104).

Notes[edit]
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this article is about the academic field of music history

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