The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology

1. The Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology Promoting unity in diversity Richard Parncutt Department of Musicology, University of Graz Approaches to Music Research: between Practice and Epistemology Department of Musicology, University of Ljubljana, 8-9 May 2008

2. 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

3. 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.

4. Past and future CIMs Themes bottom-up unification of musicology

5. Why CIM? • Fragmentation of musicology • Starkly contrasting epistemologies • Institutional separation of subdisciplines • Counterproductive power structures

6. Fragmentation of musicologya „semiquantitative“ history of music research: historical systematic ethnological 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000

7. Contrasting epistemologies Source: Jonathan Stock, Current Musicology, 1998

8. Institutional separation of musicological subdisciplines out-group(Others) • music acoustics • music psychology • music physiology • music computing in-group (“the” musicology) • music history • music theory/analysis • cultural studies intermediate • ethnomusicology • pop/jazz research • music sociology • music philosophy • performance research

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. Some definitions “Discipline” “Interdisciplinarity” “Musicology” “Musicologist”

14. “Discipline”: Definition • Content • theme • methods • Experts • qualifications • success indicators • Infrastructure • conferences • societies • journals • quality control Size • expertise takes 10 years or 10 000 hours (Ericsson) Category boundaries • fuzzy • top-down vs bottom-up Interrelationships • hierarchies • networks

15. “Discipline”: Implications • Musicology comprises several disciplines • Their names and boundaries are in flux • No individual can cover all musicology • Collaboration is necessary

16. “Interdisciplinarity”: Definition • continuous parameter • matter of expert opinion • distance ~ difficulty • epistemology • methodology

17. “Interdisciplinarity”: Implications • ID must be directly promoted • ID infrastructures are necessary

18. “Musicology”: Definition All study of all music

19. “Musicology”: Questions Which music? • aesthetically superior? • easily studiable? • own culture? Which study? • music as behavior? experience? • observables? instructions (scores)? • historical development? cultural element?

20. “Musicologist” • specialisation in one subdiscipline • acquaintance with all subdisciplines • interdisciplinary collaboration Ethnomusicologist: both ethnologist and musicologist Music acoustician: both musicologist and acoustician

21. Role of internal quality control Europeans can’t evaluate Ghanaian music Psychologists 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”

22. Problems of CIM • definition and use of „musicology“ • acceptance by different disciplines • relationship aims ↔ procedures • balance humanities, sciences, practice