Musicology
Definition
Musicology is the academic study of music. Musicologists may study quite a wide range of subjects. Some, for instance, may specialise in English Tudor church music, others in the history of musical notation and others in the development of the flute. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicology [Jun 2004]
The aesthetics of music
[T]he mid-18th century controversy on the sources of beauty in music, for example, opposed composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, who argued that music is beautiful because its rules of harmony and melody reflect mathematical properties of sound, to philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who argued that music is beautiful because sounds mirror humanity's primitive passions (see Ollivier 1987). Moving away from both of these positions, Immanuel Kant's groundbreaking Kritik der Urteilskraftwork [Critique of Judgement], published in 1790, maintained that taste is an autonomous realm independent from external influences, be they rationality or passions, as well as from considerations of utility, morality, or economy. This position paved the way for theories of art for art's sake, according to which art reflects the genius of the artist and should be allowed to develop unfettered by social and economic constraints. Michèle Ollivier and Viviana Fridman in http://falcon.jmu.edu/~brysonbp/symbound/papers2001/Olivier.htmlEthnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its cultural context. It can be considered the anthropology of music. Jeff Todd Titon has called it the study of "people making music". It is often thought of as a study of non-Western musics, but may include the study of Western music from an anthropological perspective. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicology [Jun 2004]The New Musicology
The New Musicology is a term applied to a wide body of work produced by many musicologists who consider themselves neither new or New. Often based on the work of Theodor Adorno and feminist, gender studies, or postcolonial hypotheses, the New Musicology is the cultural study, analaysis, and criticism of music. As Susan McClary says, "musicology fastidiously declares issues of musical signification off-limits to those engaged in legitimate scholarship." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicology [Jun 2004]Musical theory [...]
Music theory is a set of systems for classifying the elements of music. Narrowly it may be defined as knowledge about music, as opposed to experience of music. The academic study of music is called musicology. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_theory
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