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

Some definitions

“Discipline”

“Interdisciplinarity”

“Musicology”

“Musicologist”

“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

“Interdisciplinarity”: Implications

ID must be directly promoted

ID infrastructures are necessary

“Musicology”: Definition

All study of all music

“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”

Problems of CIM

• definition and use of „musicology“

• acceptance by different disciplines

• relationship aims ↔ procedures

• balance humanities, sciences, practice