When we hear the word "music", we immediately switch to thinking about the artistic or entertainment value of music, often we also think about the cultural context. This in itself is a fairly wide range of definitions of music, but even it does not cover the actual scope that the concept of "music" covers.
In fact, music is a broad area of scientific knowledge that is reflected in history, philosophy, and even mathematics.
In addition, music has sociological roots. Every culture that has ever existed on Earth has and has its own musical style. As we study culture from the standpoint of economic, historical and social development, we will certainly come across certain musical styles that are completely original or have grown under the influence of other styles belonging to other cultures.
Music as art
The definition of music as an art form is not strict, because music really cannot have a single and unshakable definition, since it itself changes, expands and enriches.
Despite its complexity, numerous descriptions and attempts to define music as an art agree on one thing: music is the art of sounds. It is a complex sequence of sounds, organized harmoniously to convey specific emotions and thoughts.
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Philosophical definitions of music
It should be noted that at the dawn of the formation of sciences, music was taught on a par with arithmetic, geometry and astronomy. The very word music originates from the Greek "Muse", which is very symbolic.
Famous thinkers, philosophers, scientists and musicians have repeatedly tried to express in words their own understanding of music and the role it plays in individual, social and cultural development.
According to Pythagoras, music is the consonance of several sounds that are in harmony with each other.
J.-J. Rousseau defined music as the art of making sounds pleasing to the ear, and Kant argued that music is a way of expressing feelings through sounds.
Music study
Studying music, at least that part of it that does not include playing a musical instrument, is practically no different from studying other disciplines.
We usually study a phenomenon by asking basic questions such as "what?", "How?", "When?" and why?". Music research starts with these very questions. The approach concerns both the phenomenon as a whole and its individual components, such as genres, individual works or musical instruments.
There are two main academic disciplines that study music - musicology and ethnomusicology.
Musicology
Musicology is a field of art history and is the study of music and its academic analysis as a special form of artistic perception and reflection of the world. Musicology studies music in the context of its development in general, as well as in certain socio-historical moments.
The relationship between music and other forms of art and how the culture of society as a whole influences its development and is reflected in it is of great importance for the field of musicology.
Historical musicology
Traditionally, historical musicology (what is commonly referred to as "music history") has been the most prominent branch of general science. At the beginning of the 21st century, historical musicology itself began to be divided into several component parts.
For example, ethnomusicology is limited to the study of music in a cultural context, while systematic musicology includes the study of musical acoustics, the technical part of acoustic musical instruments, and the influence of music on physiology, psychology, sociology, philosophy, and even computer science.
Links between history and musicology
History as a science helps us to study and understand humanity from the moment of its inception to the present day. This knowledge is extremely important for many other fields, as well as for musicology.
History is indispensable not only for historical musicology, but also for the modern study of music, because the field of science and art, which has no knowledge of its own past, cannot achieve a successful future.
Coverage of musicology
The concept of musicology is so broad that it is difficult to define it without risking significantly limiting it.
All information about music is under the jurisdiction of musicology. How exactly the art of music appeared and its evolution, as well as the diverse approaches of people to this art, are the main areas of study in musicology, regardless of genre and era.
Study of Musicology
Although many musicologists are also musicians who are trained to play instruments and composers who write their own musical works, musicology can be studied by people who are not musicians.
Rather than creating and performing music directly, musicology focuses on its history and cultural contexts.
Musicology is a very open and pervasive field of academic analysis. It focuses more on how music relates to the world around it, rather than how to properly read and play notes from the staff.
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the study of music in the cultural and social contexts of the lives of the people who create it. Ethnomusicology has its own theoretical and methodological approaches to research, which emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other aspects and contexts of musical behavior.
During its early development, ethnomusicology branched off from comparative musicology (around the middle of the 20th century). Initially, it was focused on the study of non-Western and non-modern music, but over time it began to include any musical works and genres (including Western classical and popular music), considering them from anthropological, sociological and intercultural points of view.
Hope Chikanchi