Richard Parncutt, Uni Graz BIEN Congress, Ottobrunn/Munich, 14 September 2012
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The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology
Promoting unity in diversity
Richard ParncuttDepartment of Musicology, University of Graz
Approaches to Music Research: between Practice and EpistemologyDepartment of Musicology, University of Ljubljana, 8-9 May 2008
The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology
CIM is a forum for constructive interaction among all subdisciplines or paradigms of musicology:
analytical, applied, comparative, cultural, empirical, ethnological, historical, popular, scientific, systematic, theoretic
...and all musically relevant disciplines:
acoustics, aesthetics, anthropology, archeology, art history and theory, biology, composition, computing, cultural studies, economics, education, ethnology, gender studies, history, linguistics, literary studies, mathematics, medicine, music theory and analysis, neurosciences, perception, performance, philosophy, physiology, prehistory, psychoacoustics, psychology, religious studies, semiotics, sociology, statistics, therapy
The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology
CIM promotes interdisciplinary collaboration within musicology.
All contributions have at least two authors. They represent at least two of the following three groups: humanities, sciences, practically oriented disciplines.
CIM focuses on quality rather than quantity.
Academic standards are promoted by anonymous peer review of submitted abstracts by independent international experts in relevant (sub-) disciplines. The review procedure is transparent, and the reviews are impersonal and constructive.
CIM promotes musicology's unity in diversity.
CIM promotes all interdisciplinary music research and treats all musically relevant disciplines and musicological subdisciplines equally.
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 TheatreRoss
2008 structureThessa-
lonikiAristotle
University of ThessalonikiCambou-ropoulos
2009instru-ments
FranceUniversité
Pierre et Marie CurieCastellengo
2010 culture Sheffield University of Sheffield Dibben
Themes bottom-up unification of musicology
Why CIM?
• Fragmentation of musicology
• Starkly contrasting epistemologies
• Institutional separation of subdisciplines
• Counterproductive power structures
Fragmentation of musicology
a „semiquantitative“ history of music research:
0
20
40
60
80
100
année
pro
po
rtio
n
1600 1700 1800 1900 2000
systematic
ethnological
historical
Contrasting epistemologies(historical)
“Musicology”Ethnomusicology
“music” score part of culture
readership “musicologists” interdisciplinary
repertory lost disappearing
focus composer, score performance
concepts
individual, idiosyncratic
history, development
musical autonomy
formal unity
culture, typical
tradition, change
social function
cultural uniqueness
authority scholar informants
Source: Jonathan Stock, Current Musicology, 1998
Institutional separation of musicological subdisciplines
out-group (Others)• music acoustics• music psychology• music physiology • music computing
intermediate• ethnomusicology• pop/jazz research• music sociology• music philosophy• performance research
in-group (“the” musicology)• music history• music theory/analysis• cultural studies
Power structures in musicology
Ambiguous use of “musicology”• broad definition = all study of all music
– entries in Grove, MGG…
• narrow = music history of western cultural elites– names of conferences journals, societies
Academic status of humanities • in universities: too little power
– culture is underrated
• in musicology: too much power– sciences are underrated
CIM’s solution: Integration
• multidisciplinary balance– promotion of minority disciplines– democracy, balance of power
• gender/culture balance – women researchers– non-western researchers
• collaboration– teamwork and collegiality– intra- and interdisciplinary quality control
Aims of CIM’s integration policies
• Productivity of musicology– quality– quantity
• Relevance of musicology – social, cultural– academic
• Musicology’s unity in diversity– completeness through inclusion
• musics• disciplines• researchers
Collegiality in interdisciplinary research teams
– common goals• research question• excellence
– democracy• equal value and rights of team members• mutual respect
– transparency• clear statement of aims• openness to evaluation
– quality control• evaluation within disciplines• realistic appraisal of strengths, weaknesses• mutual constructive criticism
“Discipline”: Definition
Size• expertise takes 10 years or
10 000 hours (Ericsson)
Category boundaries• fuzzy• top-down vs bottom-up
Interrelationships• hierarchies• networks
• Content– theme– methods
• Experts– qualifications– success indicators
• Infrastructure– conferences– societies– journals– quality control
“Discipline”: Implications
Musicology comprises several disciplines
Their names and boundaries are in flux
No individual can cover all musicology
Collaboration is necessary
“Interdisciplinarity”: Definition
• continuous parameter• matter of expert opinion• distance ~ difficulty
– epistemology– methodology
“Musicology”: Questions
Which music?– aesthetically superior?– easily studiable?– own culture?
Which study?– music as behavior? experience? – observables? instructions (scores)? – historical development? cultural element?
“Musicologist”
• specialisation in one subdiscipline
• acquaintance with all subdisciplines
• interdisciplinary collaboration
Ethnomusicologist: both ethnologist and musicologist
Music acoustician: both musicologist and acoustician
Role of internal quality control
Europeans can’t evaluate Ghanaian musicPsychologists can’t evaluate historical research
Musical subculture: – internal aesthetic norms– procedures to promote “good” music
Academic subdiscipline: – internal epistemological/methodological norms– procedures to promote “good” research
Definitions of “music”, its “study”, “musicology”