Post on 19-Dec-2015
Remapping musicology Thoughts of a disciplinary Other
Richard ParncuttCentre for Systematic Musicology
University of Graz, Austria
Musicology (Re-)MappedEuropean “Science” FoundationWarsaw 18-21 November 2009SysMus Graz
Musicology in AustriaCity No. of profs1
Uni + ArtUniQuality of research
Epistemological diversity of
BachelorWien 4+6? med2 medGraz 2+7? med2 high3
Salzburg 2+4? med2 medInnsbruck 1 med2 med
Austrian Society for Musicology• progressive: interesting historical projects and meetings• conservative: historically dominated
1PhD + international search 2little research evaluation 3collaboration Uni-ArtUni
A previous attempt
Parncutt, R. (2002)Interdisciplinary balance, international
collaboration, and the future of (German) (historical) musicology.
In A. Edler und S. Meine (Eds.), Musik, Wissenschaft und Ihre Vermittlung: Bericht zur Jahrestagung der
Gesellschaft für Musikforschung
Main points in Parncutt (2002)• Diversity and balance
– history, elites, Western culture, humanities?
• Professorial selection procedures– expertise in specific area; transparency
• Teaching– balance of subdisciplines; interdisciplinarity
• Research– peer review (books, articles, confs); English
Further points
• Ambiguity and power• Alterity in academe• Epistemological diversity• Things to do• New conferences and journal
Maintaining power with ambiguity
science= natural,
social, formal
humanities= lettres,
Geisteswiss. science = all academic research and scholarship
Which “science” are you talking
about?
musicology
ethnomusicology
systematic musicology
musicology systematic musicology
musicology = all research about all music
What do you mean by
“musicology”?
Alterity in academe
out-group: humanities• literature• history• art and music
intermediate• social sciences• legal studies• economics
in-group: sciences• physical sciences• life sciences
out-group (Others)• acoustics• psychology• physiology • computing
intermediate• ethnomusicology• pop/jazz research• sociology• philosophy• performance research
in-group (“musicology”)• history• theory/analysis• cultural studies
Alterity in musicology
Size matters
Humanities ≈ Sciences– amount of research– number of students– social relevance
Ethnomusicology ≈ Historical ≈ Systematic– IMS (“musicology”): 900 participants, mainly historical– ICMPC (music psychology): 400 – only part of SysMus– many ethnomusicological societies and confs!
Inherent epistemological diversity of musicology
1. definitions of music2. representations of music3. music versus its contexts
Inherent epistemological diversity of musicology1. Any attempt to define music involves several disciplines
(a) an acoustic signal that
(b) evokes recognizable patterns of sound,
(c) implies physical movement,
(d) is meaningful,(e) is intentional wrt (b), (c) or (d),
(f) is accepted by a cultural group and
(g) is not lexical (i.e. is not “language”)
Inherent epistemological diversity of musicology2. Representations of music subdisciplines of musicology
The “three worlds” (“Popperian cosmology”)
• World 1 physical: music as signal, ear, brain– acoustics, physiology, psychology
• World 2 subjective: music as experience– sociology, cultural studies, phenomenology, psychology
• World 3 abstract: music as info, knowledge– music theory, computing, psychology
…and why not also World 4 agents: listeners, performers, composers, stakeholders– sociology, cultural studies, psychology
Inherent epistemological diversity of musicology3. Different disciplines address “music itself” and its contexts
Scientific musicology• music’s representations
– as physics, experience, information, agency
• high separation researcher ↔object
Two nominally equal approaches:
Cultural musicology• music’s contexts
• historical, social, political, cultural
• low separation researcher ↔ object
Why be interdisciplinary?Combine different sources of evidence
Sources of evidence DisciplinesLogical argument philosophyPersonal experience and (inter-) subjectivity
humanities, cultural studies
Informants ethnomusicology, sociology
Historical documents historyScore analysis music theory and analysisEmpirical data psychology, sociology,
acoustics, physiologyComputational simulation information sciences
What else?
• Visibility• Quality control• Interdisciplinary collaboration• Language• Globalisation• Transferable skills• Relevance of musicology
Visibility• Research in the internet
– articles (permission of publisher)– books (out of print)– English abstracts
• Applications– popular writing– education, therapy, medicine– performances (e.g. rare or lost music)– CDs, instruments– projects
Quality control
• More and better peer-review procedures• More promotion of good researchers• Better interdisciplinary comparison• More articles, fewer books
Interdisciplinary collaboration
Increasingly necessary due to:• expansion of literature
– no-one can represent all of musicology
• peer-review culture– satisfy specialist reviewers
Needs explicit promotion!• funding• prizes
Language
• Quality control in international language– Why? Largest pool of possible reviewers– What? Best journals, all PhDs
• Promote local languages– multilingual abstracts of journal articles– extended local-language summary of PhDs– funds for translation of best articles
Relevance of musicology
Music• money (economy, GNP)• life (activity, identity, happiness)
Humanities• reflexion, wisdom, humanity
Musicology• dynamic, sensitive to social needs?• model of interdisciplinary collaboration?
The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology
CIM promotes interdisciplinary collaborationEach abstract has two authors representing two of humanities, sciences, practically oriented disciplines
CIM focuses on quality rather than quantity• anonymous peer review of abstracts• independent international experts• same disciplines as authors • procedure is transparent• reviews are impersonal and constructive
CIM promotes musicology's unity in diversity• all interdisciplinary music research• all musically relevant disciplines
Past and future CIMsYear Theme City Host Director
2004 - Graz University of Graz Parncutt
2005 timbre MontréalObservatoire
internationale de la création musicale
Traube
2007 singing TallinnEstonian Academy of
Music and Theatre Ross
2008 structureThessa-
lonikiAristotle University of
ThessalonikiCambou-ropoulos
2009instru-ments France
Université Pierre et Marie Curie Castellengo
2010nature / culture Sheffield University of Sheffield Dibben
Different themes bottom-up unification of musicology