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- The term “ethnomusicology” replaced “comparative musicology” to better capture the field's emphasis on description over comparison.
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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.
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.
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.
Comparative musicology, the primary precursor to ethnomusicology, emerged in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Eventually, this term fell out of use in the 1950s as critics for the practices associated with the field became more vocal about ethnomusicology's distinction from musicology. [14]
One theory, borrowed from German ethnologists of the period and known as “culture-circle theory,” used distribution studies to claim that the more widespread a form was, the older it was.
Ethnomusicology is interdisciplinary, with a close relation to cultural anthropology. It is sometimes described as a historical research approach to understanding the cultures of people through their music. One well-known ethnomusicologist was Frances Densmore, who focused on the study of Native American music and culture.
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.).
