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Guido Adler Devides the Discipline
Historical musicology vs. Systematic musicology Systematic musicology included vergleichende Musikwissenschaft (comparative musicology), which eventually became known as ethnomusicology. -
Alexander Ellis Creates the Cent
Developed the "cent," a universal system for measuring intervals. From "On the Musical Scales of Various Nations": Analyzing the scales (tone systems) of various non-European musical traditions, Ellis showed that the diversity of tone systems cannot be explained by a single physical law, as had been argued by earlier scholars. -
Carl Stumpf Defines "Heterophony"
Founds the Berliner-Phonogramm Archiv to study pitches for comparative musicology.
Studies of common features in non-Western music
Identifies a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line.
Examples: Japanese Gagaku, the gamelan music of Indonesia, kulintang ensembles of the Philippines and the traditional music of Thailand. -
Ethnomusicology: 1900s
Folk Music as Worthy of Study
Going to the field v. armchair ethnography -
Erich von Hornbostel Enters the Field
Hired as the 1st director of the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv by Stumpf
Developed the Hornbostel-Sachs system of instrument classification
Saw the musical tunings used by various cultural groups as an essential element in determining the character of their music
Argued for a more anthopological approach to comp. musicology -
Bartok and Kodaly Collect Folk Music
Traveled to the countryside to collect and research old Magyar folk melodies. -
Curt Sachs Founds Organology
Publishes "Real-Lexicon der Musikinstrumente', the most extensive catalog of instruments around the world seen at that point
Becomes one of the first modern organologists
Creates the Hornbostel-Sachs system in 1914 -
Hornbostel-Sachs System
System for classifying instruments, divided into 4 categories:
Idiophones
Chordophones
Membranophones
Aerophones -
Frances Densmore Researches for the BAE
BAE - the Bureau of American Ethnology
Records traditional songs of the Blackfoot Mountain tribe -
Cecil J. Sharp Collects Folk Songs in Appalachia
With his assistant, Maud Karpeles -
George Herzog
established a consistent methodology for comparative musicological study and archival work -
Ethnomusicology: 1920s
Still Struggling to Separate from Musicology -
International Council for Traditional Music Founded
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Jaap Kunst Coins "Ethnomusicology"
Replaces "comparative musicology" on the grounds that the field is not particularly comparative relative to other fields
Strengthens his own work with Javanese gamelan music -
Ethnomusicology: 1950s
The struggle to define the field
Encouraging field research
Connections with linguistics -
Charles Seeger "Studies in Musicology"
Interested in vernacular musics and linguistics
Helped tie musicology to other disciplines and domains of culture. -
Society for Ethnomusicology Founded
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Alan Lomax Proposes Cantometrics
The sampling and statistical analysis of folk music -
Mantle Hood Proposes Bi-Musicality
Novel idea that people should learn to play the music they study
Musical approach to the field, as opposed to Merriam -
Ethnomusicology: 1960s
Anthropology v Music -
Alan Merriam Publishes "The Anthropology of Music"
Proposed a tripartite model for the study of ethnomusicology
Three analytic levels: conceptualization about music; behavior in relation to music; and the sound of music.
Later amended his original concept of "music in culture" to "music as culture."
Anthropological approach to music, as opposed to Mantle Hood -
Ethnomusicology: 1970s
Emic v. etic
Restudy
Interest in universals -
John Blacking "How Musical is Man"
Music as humanly organized sound
Not value-free -
Ethnomusicology: 1980s
Objective v. Interpretive
Data v. Theory
Shift from examining music as product to music as process -
Bruno Nettl Publishes 29 Issues and Concepts
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Blacking Publishes "Music, Culture and Experience"
Theory over data, contrasts with List
Thick description
Biogrammar
"Intention" contributes to musical meaning -
George List "A Secular Sermon"
Data over theory, contrasting Blacking
Empirical, measurable explinations always exist for observed phenomena -
Ethnomusicology: 1990s
Concern w/ ethics, obligations of researcher
Study of musical change
Study of popular music, urban music, mass media
Historical ethnomusicology
Restudy, indigenous scholars
Abandonment of "authenticity" doctrines
