Search results
The name change signaled another shift in the field: ethnomusicology moved away from studying the origins, evolution, and comparison of musical practices, and toward thinking of music as one of many human activities, like religion, language, and food. In short, the field became more anthropological.
Thus, ethnomusicology contrasted the field of conventional musicology where the primary focus was on Western art music. Early in its existence, ethnomusicology was known as "comparative musicology," which established Western musical traditions as the standard to which all other kinds of music were compared.
It was known as comparative musicology until about 1950, when the term ethnomusicology was introduced simultaneously by the Dutch scholar of Indonesian music Jaap Kunst and by several American scholars, including Richard Waterman and Alan Merriam. In the period after 1950, ethnomusicology burgeoned at academic institutions.
In 1956 the hyphen was removed with ideological intent to signify the discipline's validity and independence from the fields of musicology and anthropology. These changes to the field's name paralleled its internal shifts in ideological and intellectual emphasis.
People also ask
Why did ethnomusicology change its name?
What is ethnomusicology anthropology?
How do ethnomusicologists understand music?
Who invented ethnomusicology?
Musical Instruments in Prehistory. The field of ethnomusicology focuses on all aspects of music, including its genre, its message, the artist (s) who created it, and the instruments they used to do so. Have you ever considered why a particular musical instrument was created? Who made it? Why did they make it? What did they want it to do?
Someone who studies music from a global perspective, as a social practice, and through ethnographic field work is called an ethnomusicologist. The Society for Ethnomusicology defines ethnomusicology as “the study of music in its social and cultural contexts” (n.d.).
Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its social and cultural contexts. Ethnomusicologists examine music as a social process in order to understand what music is and what it means to its practitioners and audiences. Ethnomusicology is highly interdisciplinary. Individuals working in the field may have training in music, sound studies ...
