Methodology of Music Research – serie

This book consists primarily of papers presented at the international symposium Approaches to Music Research: Between Practice and Epistemology, held in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in May 2008. Scholars from various music research areas offered heterogeneous views of one central issue: the relations between music-research ideals and practices. The intention was to offer a reflection concerning disciplinary intersections as ideal-typical formations in which different contemporary musicological practices meet each other, either positively or in more negative terms. The topoi of the symposium discussed elemental, difficult-to-answer questions about the position that musicology holds within the humanities and sciences. The symposium especially encouraged case studies of basic epistemological reflections with an emphasis on the practice of music research from any field.

This collection of essays explores a wide range of topics current in the field of music theory, including analytical methodologies for pretonal, tonal, and post-tonal music, assessment of notation as a vehicle for interpreting compositional strategies in different repertoires, and employment of approaches informed by cognitive, aesthetic, and ethnomusicological studies of music. Authors reflect critically on challenges within their specific areas of expertise and probe directions in which advances can be made and difficulties overcome. The results of these investigations will benefit readers, from early career researchers to experienced scholars, whose interests not only intersect with the topics presented here but which also encompass broad methodological issues affecting music theory.

The concept of «musica mathematica» seeks to accurately examine the intersection of two seemingly radically different subject areas. From the perspective of a European perception, the definition of the science of music was a result of the Pythagorean concept of universal harmony. The Pythagoreans were the first in European culture to raise the issue of uniting music and mathematics, sound and number. In the three parts of the monograph, versatile cases of the intersection of music and mathematics are displayed, moving from philosophical and aesthetic considerations about mathesis to practical studies, discussing the interaction between music and other kinds of art (architecture, painting, poetry and literature), and providing a practical research of contemporary music compositions.

This book gives a critical account of various methods used in music analysis. In the first chapter, a number of current approaches such as semiotics, musical implications, Schenkerian analysis, and generative theory are demonstrated on Mozart’s K. 331 theme. Five essays deal with important concepts in music analysis: ambiguity, formal proportions, and similarity within and between works. A further chapter provides a discussion of probability, kinship, and influence – decisive criteria when judging musical plagiarism. The last essay, studying a piece by Schubert, sifts the prospects of deciphering a composer’s sexual leanings from his music.