The field of music history is the subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies how music developed over time. The field is also sometimes called historical musicology. In theory "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history of Indian music or the history of rock). In practice, courses on music history in the West are nearly always studies of European classical music. (Studies of other types of music are generally conducted as part of ethnomusicology even when not culturally based).
The tools and products of music history tend to include manuscript studies, editions of composers' works (sometimes emphasizing textual criticism), biography of composers and other musicians, iconography, studies of the relationship between words and music, and the relationship between music and society. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory.
Music History as Taught Subject
Although most performers of classical instruments receive some instruction in music history from teachers throughout their training, the majority of formal music history courses are offered at the college level. Particularly in the United States and Canada, these courses tend to be divided into two groups: one type to be taken by students with little or no music theory or ability to read music (often called music appreciation) and the other for more musically literate students (often those planning on making a career in music). Most medium and large institutions will offer both types of courses. The two types of courses will usually differ in length (one to two semesters vs. two to four), breadth (many music appreciation courses begin at the late Baroque or classical eras and might omit music after WWII while courses for majors traditionally spanned the period from the Middle Ages to recent times), and depth.
Both types of courses tend to emphasize a balance among the acquisition of musical repertory (often emphasized through listening examinations), study and analysis of these works, biographical and cultural details of music and musicians, and writing about music, perhaps through music criticism.
More specialized seminars in music history tend to use a similar approach on a narrower subject while introducing more of the tools of research in music history (see below). The range of possible topics is virtually limitless. Some examples might be "Music during WWI," "Medieval and Renaissance instrumental music," "Music and Process," "Mozart's Don Giovanni." In the United States, these seminars are generally taken by advanced undergraduates and graduate students, though in European countries they often form the backbone of music history education.
Research in Music History
The tools of music history are nearly as numerous as its subjects. A desire to examine sources of music closest to the composer or period which produced it has made manuscript, archival, and source study important in almost every field of musicology. In early music in particular, manuscript study may be the only way to study an unedited work. Such study may be complicated by the need to decipher earlier forms of music notation. Manuscript study can also allow a researcher to return to a version of a work prior to the interventions of later editors, perhaps as a basis for her own edition.
Archival work may be conducted to find connections to music or musicians in a collection of documents of broader interests (e.g., Vatican pay records, letters to a patroness of the arts) or to more systematically study a collection of documents related to a musician. Rarely but increasingly, such archival work can be done virtually [1].
Performance practice draws on many of the tools of historical musicology to answer the specific question of how music was performed in various places at various times in the past. Although previously confined to early music, recent research in performance practice has embraced questions such as how the early history of recording affected the use of vibrato in classical music, or instruments in Klezmer.
Biographical studies of composers can give a better sense of the chronology of compositions, influences on style and works, and provide important background to the interpretation (by performers or listeners) of works. Thus biography can form one part of the larger study of the cultural significance, underlying program, or agenda of a work; a study which gained increasing importance in the 1980s and early 1990s. Researchers emphasizing the social importance of music (including classical music) are often called New musicologists.
Notes
- ^ Arnold Schoenberg Center [1]