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94-456: Musicology is traditionally divided into three branches: music history , systematic musicology , and ethnomusicology . Historical musicologists study the history of musical traditions, the origins of works, and the biographies of composers. Ethnomusicologists draw from anthropology (particularly field research ) to understand how and why people make music. Systematic musicology includes music theory , aesthetics , pedagogy , musical acoustics ,

188-426: A BMus or a BA in music (or a related field such as history) and in many cases an MA in musicology. Some individuals apply directly from a bachelor's degree to a PhD, and in these cases, they may not receive an MA. In the 2010s, given the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of university graduate programs, some applicants for musicology PhD programs may have academic training both in music and outside of music (e.g.,

282-473: A different kind of music...'classical music'...and they generally find popular music lacking" He cites three main aspects of this problem (p. 104–6). 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 musicology's typical corpus"; yet he points out that there

376-510: A graduate school , supervising MA and PhD students, giving them guidance on the preparation of their theses and dissertations. Some musicology professors may take on senior administrative positions in their institution, such as Dean or Chair of the School of Music. The vast majority of major musicologists and music historians from past generations have been men, as in the 19th century and early 20th century; women's involvement in teaching music

470-434: A PhD from Harvard University . One of her best known works is Feminine 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. Other notable women scholars include: A list of open-access European journals in the domains of music theory and/or analysis

564-535: A Solitude, for that was the first instance where a woman told her life story, not as finding "beauty even in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but acknowledging what had previously been forbidden to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open admission of the desire for power and control over one's life." In recent years, multimedia biography has become more popular than traditional literary forms. Along with documentary biographical films , Hollywood produced numerous commercial films based on

658-565: A bestseller in London ), philosophers, such as John Stuart Mill , churchmen – John Henry Newman – and entertainers – P. T. Barnum . The sciences of psychology and sociology were ascendant at the turn of the 20th century and would heavily influence the new century's biographies. The demise of the "great man" theory of history was indicative of the emerging mindset. Human behavior would be explained through Darwinian theories. "Sociological" biographies conceived of their subjects' actions as

752-480: A biography from this period is the life of Charlemagne by his courtier Einhard . In Medieval Western India , there was a Sanskrit Jain literary genre of writing semi-historical biographical narratives about the lives of famous persons called Prabandhas . Prabandhas were written primarily by Jain scholars from the 13th century onwards and were written in colloquial Sanskrit (as opposed to Classical Sanskrit ). The earliest collection explicitly titled Prabandha-

846-413: A close focus, as in the case of scholars who examine the relationship between words and music for a given composer's art songs . On the other hand, some scholars take a broader view and assess the place of a given type of music, such as the symphony in society using techniques drawn from other fields, such as economics, sociology or philosophy. New musicology is a term applied since the late 1980s to

940-569: A composer for whom archival materials can be examined online is the Arnold Schoenberg Center. Performance practice draws 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. Although performance practice

1034-641: 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 as significant journals sprang up throughout the West, especially America. 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

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1128-532: A historical instrument is usually part of conservatory or other performance training. However, many top researchers in performance practice are also excellent musicians. Music performance research (or music performance science) is strongly associated with music psychology. It aims to document and explain the psychological, physiological, sociological and cultural details of how music is actually performed (rather than how it should be performed). The approach to research tends to be systematic and empirical and to involve

1222-420: A historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history of Nigerian music or the history of rock ); in practice, these research topics are often categorized as part of ethnomusicology or cultural studies , whether or not they are ethnographically based. The terms "music history" and "historical musicology" usually refer to

1316-882: 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) According to Richard 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 1990—that 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) musicologists who are "both contemptuous and condescending are looking for types of production, musical form, and listening which they associate with

1410-405: A large segment of the population than other works of that period. The earliest biographical dictionaries initially focused on the lives of the prophets of Islam and their companions , with one of these early examples being The Book of The Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi . And then began the documentation of the lives of many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who lived in

1504-667: A rapid growth, thanks to an expanding reading public. This revolution in publishing made books available to a larger audience of readers. In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were published for the first time. Periodicals began publishing a sequence of biographical sketches. Autobiographies became more popular, as with the rise of education and cheap printing, modern concepts of fame and celebrity began to develop. Autobiographies were written by authors, such as Charles Dickens (who incorporated autobiographical elements in his novels) and Anthony Trollope (his Autobiography appeared posthumously, quickly becoming

1598-488: 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. The act of establishing factual data can never be fully separate from

1692-731: A strong record of publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Some PhD-holding musicologists are only able to find insecure positions as sessional lecturers . The job tasks of a musicologist are the same as those of a professor in any other humanities discipline: teaching undergraduate and/or graduate classes in their area of specialization and, in many cases some general courses (such as Music Appreciation or Introduction to Music History); conducting research in their area of expertise, publishing articles about their research in peer-reviewed journals, authors book chapters, books or textbooks; traveling to conferences to give talks on their research and learn about research in their field; and, if their program includes

1786-442: A student may apply with a BMus and an MA in psychology). In music education, individuals may hold an M.Ed and an Ed.D . Most musicologists work as instructors, lecturers or professors in colleges, [universities or conservatories. The job market for tenure track professor positions is very competitive. Entry-level applicants must hold a completed PhD or the equivalent degree and applicants to more senior professor positions must have

1880-469: A subject's heirs. An unauthorized biography is one written without such permission or participation. An autobiography is written by the person themselves, sometimes with the assistance of a collaborator or ghostwriter . At first, biographical writings were regarded merely as a subsection of history with a focus on a particular individual of historical importance. The independent genre of biography as distinct from general history writing, began to emerge in

1974-684: A substantial, intensive fieldwork component, often involving long-term residence within the community studied. Closely related to ethnomusicology is the emerging branch of sociomusicology . For instance, Ko (2011) proposed the hypothesis of "Biliterate and Trimusical" in Hong Kong sociomusicology. Popular music studies, known, "misleadingly", as popular musicology , emerged in the 1980s as an increasing number of musicologists, ethnomusicologists and other varieties of historians of American and European culture began to write about popular music past and present. The first journal focusing on popular music studies

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2068-466: A two volume history of sacred music titled De cantu de musica sacra in 1774. Gerbert followed this work with a three volume work Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra containing significant writings on sacred music from the 3rd century onwards in 1784. In the 20th century, the work of Johannes Wolf and others developed studies in Medieval music and early Renaissance music . Wolf's writings on

2162-421: A whole. Researchers emphasizing the social importance of music (including classical music) are sometimes called New musicologists . They may examine the intersection of music and music-making with issues such as race, class, gender, sexuality (e.g. LGBTQ ), and disability, among other approaches. Semiotic studies are most conventionally the province of music analysts rather than historians. However, crucial to

2256-529: A wide body of work emphasizing cultural study, analysis and criticism of music. Such work may be based on feminist , gender studies , queer theory or postcolonial theory, or the work of Theodor W. Adorno . Although New Musicology emerged from within historical musicology, the emphasis on cultural study within the Western art music tradition places New Musicology at the junction between historical, ethnological and sociological research in music. New musicology

2350-432: A work that exerted considerable influence on the evolution of the genre, was James Boswell 's The Life of Samuel Johnson , a biography of lexicographer and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson published in 1791. While Boswell's personal acquaintance with his subject only began in 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered the entirety of Johnson's life by means of additional research. Itself an important stage in

2444-511: Is Jinabhadra 's Prabandhavali (1234 CE). In Medieval Islamic Civilization ( c.  AD 750 to 1258), similar traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad and other important figures in the early history of Islam began to be written, beginning the Prophetic biography tradition. Early biographical dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities from the 9th century onwards. They contained more social data for

2538-436: Is Robert Remini whose books on Andrew Jackson idolize its hero and fends off criticisms. The study of decision-making in politics is important for scholarly political biographers, who can take different approaches such as focusing on psychology/personality, bureaucracy/interests, fundamental ideas, or societal forces. However, most documentation favors the first approach, which emphasizes personalities. Biographers often neglect

2632-459: 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

2726-401: Is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae ( résumé ), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of

2820-424: Is a field of study that describes the elements of music and includes the development and application of methods for composing and for analyzing music through both notation and, on occasion, musical sound itself. Broadly, theory may include any statement, belief or conception of or about music ( Boretz , 1995). A person who studies or practices music theory is a music theorist. Some music theorists attempt to explain

2914-601: Is available on the website of the European Network for Theory & Analysis of Music . A more complete list of open-access journals in theory and analysis can be found on the website of the Société Belge d'Analyse Musicale (in French). Music history Music history , sometimes called historical musicology , is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from

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3008-499: Is concerned with the composition, performance, reception and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (such as baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people, (such as court music), or modes of performance at a particular place and time (such as Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig). Like

3102-511: Is defined by Miller as a research method that collects and analyses a person's whole life, or portion of a life, through the in-depth and unstructured interview, or sometimes reinforced by semi-structured interview or personal documents. It is a way of viewing social life in procedural terms, rather than static terms. The information can come from "oral history, personal narrative, biography and autobiography" or "diaries, letters, memoranda and other materials". The central aim of biographical research

3196-426: 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 of music theory . Some of the intellectual products of music historians include peer-reviewed articles in journals, university press-published music history books, university textbooks , new editions of musical works , biographies of composers and other musicians, studies of

3290-470: 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 of music theory. Music historians create a number of written products, ranging from journal articles describing their current research, new editions of musical works, biographies of composers and other musicians, book-length studies or university textbook chapters or entire textbooks. Music historians may examine issues in

3384-403: Is seen through a perspective that is the product of one's contemporary society and as a result, biographical truths are constantly shifting. So, the history biographers write about will not be the way that it happened; it will be the way they remembered it. Debates have also arisen concerning the importance of space in life-writing. Daniel R. Meister in 2017 argued that: Biographical research

3478-490: Is sometimes considered more closely affiliated with health fields, and other times regarded as part of musicology proper. The 19th-century philosophical trends that led to the re-establishment of formal musicology education in German and Austrian universities had combined methods of systematization with evolution. These models were established not only in the field of physical anthropology , but also cultural anthropology . This

3572-411: Is to produce rich descriptions of persons or "conceptualise structural types of actions", which means to "understand the action logics or how persons and structures are interlinked". This method can be used to understand an individual's life within its social context or understand the cultural phenomena. There are many largely unacknowledged pitfalls to writing good biographies, and these largely concern

3666-499: Is typically assumed to imply Western Art music of the European tradition. The methods of historical musicology include source studies (especially manuscript studies), palaeography , philology (especially textual criticism ), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method ), musical analysis (analysis of music to find "inner coherence") and iconography . The application of musical analysis to further these goals

3760-564: The Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in the vernacular. Giorgio Vasari 's Lives of the Artists (1550) was the landmark biography focusing on secular lives. Vasari made celebrities of his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". Two other developments are noteworthy: the development of the printing press in

3854-460: The Victorian era for future generations to read. Up until this point, as Strachey remarked in the preface, Victorian biographies had been "as familiar as the cortège of the undertaker", and wore the same air of "slow, funereal barbarism." Strachey defied the tradition of "two fat volumes   ... of undigested masses of material" and took aim at the four iconic figures. His narrative demolished

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3948-688: The late Baroque or classical eras and might omit music after WWII while courses for music majors traditionally span the period from the Middle Ages to the current era), and depth. Both types of courseoach 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 during World War I ," " Medieval and Renaissance instrumental music," "Music and politics," " Mozart's Don Giovanni , or Women and music ." The methods and tools of music history are nearly as many as its subjects and therefore make

4042-495: The "notation-centric training" of Western music schools "induces particular forms of listening , and these then tend to be applied to all sorts of music, appropriately or not". As a result, Western music students trained in historical musicology may listen to a funk or Latin song 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:

4136-658: The 15th century and the gradual increase in literacy . Biographies in the English language began appearing during the reign of Henry VIII . John Foxe 's Actes and Monuments (1563), better known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs , was essentially the first dictionary of the biography in Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller 's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with a distinct focus on public life. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General History of

4230-443: The 18th century and reached its contemporary form at the turn of the 20th century. Biography is the earliest literary genre in history. According to Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim , writing took its first steps toward literature in the context of the private tomb funerary inscriptions. These were commemorative biographical texts recounting the careers of deceased high royal officials. The earliest biographical texts are from

4324-422: The 19th century – in many cases there was a reversal to the more familiar hagiographical method of eulogizing the dead, similar to the biographies of saints produced in Medieval times. A distinction between mass biography and literary biography began to form by the middle of the century, reflecting a breach between high culture and middle-class culture. However, the number of biographies in print experienced

4418-485: The 26th century BC. In the 21st century BC, another famous biography was composed in Mesopotamia about Gilgamesh . One of the five versions could be historical. From the same region a couple of centuries later, according to another famous biography , departed Abraham . He and his 3 descendants became subjects of ancient Hebrew biographies whether fictional or historical. One of the earliest Roman biographers

4512-483: The German artist Ralph Ueltzhoeffer . Media scholar Lev Manovich says that such archives exemplify the database form, allowing users to navigate the materials in many ways. General "life writing" techniques are a subject of scholarly study. In recent years, debates have arisen as to whether all biographies are fiction, especially when authors are writing about figures from the past. President of Wolfson College at Oxford University, Hermione Lee argues that all history

4606-542: The Pyrates (1724), by Charles Johnson, is the prime source for the biographies of many well-known pirates. A notable early collection of biographies of eminent men and women in the United Kingdom was Biographia Britannica (1747–1766) edited by William Oldys . The American biography followed the English model, incorporating Thomas Carlyle 's view that biography was a part of history. Carlyle asserted that

4700-423: The act of interpretation. Archival work may be conducted to find connections to music or musicians in a collection of documents of broader interests (e.g., Vatican pay 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, archival work can be done online. One example of

4794-464: The characteristics of notation," 'notational centricity' (Tagg 1979, p. 28–32). 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

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4888-475: 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. Sociological studies focus on the function of music in society as well as its meaning for individuals and society as

4982-570: The collection and analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of music performance research can often be applied in music education. Musicologists in tenure track professor positions typically hold a PhD in musicology. In the 1960s and 1970s, some musicologists obtained professor positions with an MA as their highest degree, but in the 2010s, the PhD is the standard minimum credential for tenure track professor positions. As part of their initial training, musicologists typically complete

5076-505: The comparable field of art history , different branches and schools of historical musicology emphasize different types of musical works and approaches to music. There are also national differences in various definitions of historical musicology. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music, such as the music of India or rock music . In practice, these research topics are more often considered within ethnomusicology and "historical musicology"

5170-418: The creation of melody . Music psychology applies the content and methods of psychology to understand how music is created, perceived, responded to, and incorporated into individuals' and societies' daily lives. Its primary branches include cognitive musicology , which emphasizes the use of computational models for human musical abilities and cognition, and the cognitive neuroscience of music , which studies

5264-547: The development of the modern genre of biography, it has been claimed to be the greatest biography written in the English language . Boswell's work was unique in its level of research, which involved archival study, eye-witness accounts and interviews, its robust and attractive narrative, and its honest depiction of all aspects of Johnson's life and character – a formula which serves as the basis of biographical literature to this day. Biographical writing generally stagnated during

5358-508: The history of musical notation are considered to be particularly notable by musicologists. Historical musicology has played a critical role in renewed interest in Baroque music as well as medieval and Renaissance music. In particular, the authentic performance movement owes much to historical musicological scholarship. Towards the middle of the 20th century, musicology (and its largest subfield of historical musicology) expanded significantly as

5452-467: 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. manuscript studies), paleography , philology (especially textual criticism ), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method ), musical analysis , and iconography . The application of musical analysis to further these goals

5546-484: 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 ever having to change – or even examine – its ways." Furthermore, in their discussion on musicology and rock music, Susan McClary and Robert Walser also address

5640-529: The lives of famous people. The popularity of these forms of biography have led to the proliferation of TV channels dedicated to biography, including A&E , The Biography Channel , and The History Channel . CD-ROM and online biographies have also appeared. Unlike books and films, they often do not tell a chronological narrative: instead they are archives of many discrete media elements related to an individual person, including video clips, photographs, and text articles. Biography-Portraits were created in 2001, by

5734-425: The lives of great human beings were essential to understanding society and its institutions. While the historical impulse would remain a strong element in early American biography, American writers carved out a distinct approach. What emerged was a rather didactic form of biography, which sought to shape the individual character of a reader in the process of defining national character. The first modern biography, and

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5828-478: The medieval Islamic world. By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Europe as biographies of kings , knights , and tyrants began to appear. The most famous of such biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory . The book was an account of the life of the fabled King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table . Following Malory, the new emphasis on humanism during

5922-454: The mid-1920s. Allan Nevins was a major contributor in the 1930s to the multivolume Dictionary of American Biography . Nevins also sponsored a series of long political biographies. Later biographers sought to show how political figures balanced power and responsibility. However, many biographers found that their subjects were not as morally pure as they originally thought, and young historians after 1960 tended to be more critical. The exception

6016-464: 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 to Susan 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

6110-462: The musical practice of 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 cannot understand popular music, or that students of popular music should abandon musicology." (Middleton, p. 104). Biographies A biography , or simply bio ,

6204-713: The myths that had built up around these cherished national heroes, whom he regarded as no better than a "set of mouth bungled hypocrites". The book achieved worldwide fame due to its irreverent and witty style, its concise and factually accurate nature, and its artistic prose. In the 1920s and 1930s, biographical writers sought to capitalize on Strachey's popularity by imitating his style. This new school featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers and included Gamaliel Bradford , André Maurois , and Emil Ludwig , among others. Robert Graves ( I, Claudius , 1934) stood out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." The trend in literary biography

6298-531: 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 computer sciences , empirical sociology and aesthetics ) as well as musical practice. The musicological sub-disciplines of music theory and music analysis have likewise historically been rather uneasily separated from

6392-533: The only repositories of knowledge and records of the early history in Europe were those of the Roman Catholic Church . Hermits , monks , and priests used this historic period to write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the church fathers , martyrs , popes , and saints . Their works were meant to be inspirational to the people and vehicles for conversion to Christianity (see Hagiography ). One significant secular example of

6486-636: The post-secondary ( college or university) level. 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 of Music certification at the Grade 9 level and higher. Most medium and large institutions will offer music appreciation courses for non-music majors and music history courses for music majors. 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

6580-556: The practice of musical semiotics – the interpretation of meaning in a work or style – is its situation in a historical context. The interpretative work of scholars such as Kofi Agawu and Lawrence Kramer fall between the analytic and the music historical. The first studies of Western musical history date back to the middle of the 18th century. G.B. Martini published a three volume history titled Storia della musica ( History of Music ) between 1757 and 1781. Martin Gerbert published

6674-402: The relation between firstly the individual and the context, and, secondly, the private and public. Paul James writes: The problems with such conventional biographies are manifold. Biographies usually treat the public as a reflection of the private, with the private realm being assumed to be foundational. This is strange given that biographies are most often written about public people who project

6768-425: The relationship between words and music, and reflections upon the role of music in society. Although most performers of classical and traditional instruments receive some instruction in music history, whether this is the history of art music , pop , or rock and roll, etc. These from their music teachers throughout their lessons and high school classes, the majority of formal music history courses are offered at

6862-403: The result of the environment, and tended to downplay individuality. The development of psychoanalysis led to a more penetrating and comprehensive understanding of the biographical subject, and induced biographers to give more emphasis to childhood and adolescence . Clearly these psychological ideas were changing the way biographies were written, as a culture of autobiography developed, in which

6956-416: The scholarly concerns once associated with new musicology already were mainstream in musicology, so that the term "new" no longer applies. Ethnomusicology , formerly comparative musicology, is the study of music in its cultural context. It is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music. Jeff Todd Titon has called it the study of "people making music". Although it is most often concerned with

7050-434: The science and technology of musical instruments , and the musical implications of physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy and computing. Cognitive musicology is the set of phenomena surrounding the cognitive modeling of music. When musicologists carry out research using computers, their research often falls under the field of computational musicology . Music therapy is a specialized form of applied musicology which

7144-496: 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

7238-407: The second wave of feminist activism. She cited Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda , as the "beginning of a new period of women's biography, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read not that Zelda had destroyed Fitzgerald , but Fitzgerald her: he had usurped her narrative." Heilbrun named 1973 as the turning point in women's autobiography, with the publication of May Sarton's Journal of

7332-413: The structural relationships in the (nearly always notated) music. Composers study music theory to understand how to produce effects and structure their own works. Composers may study music theory to guide their precompositional and compositional decisions. Broadly speaking, music theory in the Western tradition focuses on harmony and counterpoint , and then uses these to explain large scale structure and

7426-518: The study of non-Western music, it also includes the study of Western music from an anthropological or sociological perspective, cultural studies and sociology as well as other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Some ethnomusicologists primarily conduct historical studies, but the majority are involved in long-term participant observation or combine ethnographic, musicological, and historical approaches in their fieldwork. Therefore, ethnomusicological scholarship can be characterized as featuring

7520-403: The subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction , but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or

7614-648: The techniques composers use by establishing rules and patterns. Others model the experience of listening to or performing music. Though extremely diverse in their interests and commitments, many Western music theorists are united in their belief that the acts of composing, performing and listening to music may be explicated to a high degree of detail (this, as opposed to a conception of musical expression as fundamentally ineffable except in musical sounds). Generally, works of music theory are both descriptive and prescriptive, attempting both to define practice and to influence later practice. Musicians study music theory to understand

7708-518: The telling of one's own story became a form of therapy. The conventional concept of heroes and narratives of success disappeared in the obsession with psychological explorations of personality. British critic Lytton Strachey revolutionized the art of biographical writing with his 1918 work Eminent Victorians , consisting of biographies of four leading figures from the Victorian era : Cardinal Manning , Florence Nightingale , Thomas Arnold , and General Gordon . Strachey set out to breathe life into

7802-501: The theory, analysis and composition of music. The disciplinary neighbors of musicology address other forms of art, performance, ritual, and communication, including the history and theory of the visual and plastic arts and architecture; linguistics , literature and theater ; religion and theology ; and sport. Musical knowledge is applied within medicine, education and music therapy—which, effectively, are parent disciplines of applied musicology. Music history or historical musicology

7896-541: The voting blocs and legislative positions of politicians and the organizational structures of bureaucracies. A more promising approach is to locate a person's ideas through intellectual history, but this has become more difficult with the philosophical shallowness of political figures in recent times. Political biography can be frustrating and challenging to integrate with other fields of political history. The feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun observed that women's biographies and autobiographies began to change character during

7990-432: The way that music perception and production manifests in the brain using the methodologies of cognitive neuroscience . While aspects of the field can be highly theoretical, much of modern music psychology seeks to optimize the practices and professions of music performance, composition, education and therapy. Performance practice draws on many of the tools of historical musicology to answer the specific question of how music

8084-530: The work survive. Another well-known collection of ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ("On the Lives of the Caesars") by Suetonius , written about AD 121 in the time of the emperor Hadrian . Meanwhile, in the eastern imperial periphery, Gospel described the life of Jesus . In the early Middle Ages (AD 400 to 1450), there was a decline in awareness of the classical culture in Europe. During this time,

8178-550: Was Cornelius Nepos , who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of outstanding generals") in 44 BC. Longer and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Plutarch , in his Parallel Lives , published about 80 A.D. In this work famous Greeks are paired with famous Romans, for example, the orators Demosthenes and Cicero , or the generals Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar ; some fifty biographies from

8272-572: Was Popular Music which began publication in 1981. The same year an academic society solely devoted to the topic was formed, the International Association for the Study of Popular Music . The association's founding was partly motivated by the interdisciplinary agenda of popular musicology though the group has been characterized by a polarized 'musicological' and 'sociological' approach also typical of popular musicology. Music theory

8366-537: Was a reaction against traditional historical musicology, which according to Susan McClary , "fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship." Charles Rosen , however, retorts that McClary, "sets up, like so many of the 'new musicologists', a straw man to knock down, the dogma that music has no meaning, and no political or social significance." Today, many musicologists no longer distinguish between musicology and new musicology since it has been recognized that many of

8460-612: Was accompanied in popular biography by a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades of the century. This latter form's appeal to readers was based on curiosity more than morality or patriotism. By World War I , cheap hard-cover reprints had become popular. The decades of the 1920s witnessed a biographical "boom." American professional historiography gives a limited role to biography, preferring instead to emphasize deeper social and cultural influences. Political biographers historically incorporated moralizing judgments into their work, with scholarly biography being an uncommon genre before

8554-593: Was influenced by Hegel 's ideas on ordering "phenomena" which can be understood & distinguished from simple to complex stages of evolution. They are further classified into primitive & developed sections; whereas the particular stages of history are understood & distinguished as ancient to modern . Comparative methods became more widespread in musicology beginning around 1880. The parent disciplines of musicology include: Musicology also has two central, practically oriented sub-disciplines with no parent discipline: performance practice and research, and

8648-576: Was mainly in elementary and secondary music teaching . Nevertheless, some women musicologists have reached the top ranks of the profession. Carolyn Abbate (born 1956) is an American musicologist who did her PhD at Princeton University . She has been described by the Harvard Gazette as "one of the world's most accomplished and admired music historians". Susan McClary (born 1946) is a musicologist associated with new musicology who incorporates feminist music criticism in her work. McClary holds

8742-571: Was performed in various places at various times in the past. Although previously confined to early music, recent research in performance practice has embraced questions such as how the early history of recording affected the use of vibrato in classical music or instruments in Klezmer . Within the rubric of musicology, performance practice tends to emphasize the collection and synthesis of evidence about how music should be performed. The important other side, learning how to sing authentically or perform

8836-413: Was 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 Klezmer music. Biographical studies of composers can give us a better sense of

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