Five Musicological Fields:
The study of music also known as musicology encompasses five distinct fields. These include the study of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, philosophy of music, psychology of music and acoustics (Nation-master, 2013). The first major field, historical musicology, is the study of musical origins including subjects such as composers, genres and musical notation. Ethnomusicology is the second major field of musicology and is based around the field studies on music in diverse cultures. Thirdly, the philosophy of music is concerned with the central question of ‘what is music’. Another major field is Psychology of music which relates to the effect music has on human beings. The last musicological field of acoustics is the study of the science of sound (Nation-master, 2013). These five fields make up the fundamentals of musicology and will be explored within this report.

Historical musicology focuses on the progression of music over time. This field studies the progressive styles of compositions, performances, receptions and criticisms of music (Nation-master, 2013). The methods of studying historical musicology also include source studies, manuscript studies, textual criticism, style criticism, the choice of historical method, musical analysis, and the application of musical analysis (Nation-master, 2013). This field of study also examines the lives and work of composers and performers (Queensland Studies Authority 2008). Influences and impacts on historical events in society are also explored in this field of study. Historical musicology was first studied in the middle of the 1700s but was only recognised as field of study in the 1800s (Nation-master, 2013). In the 20th century historical musicology firstly focused on the roles of earlier composers and assisted in the restoration of interest for medieval music and music from the renaissance period. This delivered the opportunity for composers to recreate works from these eras in an authentic way (Nation-master, 2013). Some examples might be "Music during World War I," "Medieval and Renaissance instrumental music," "Music and Process," "Mozart's Don Giovanni." Historical musicology is studied to expose the progression of compositions, performances and criticisms over time.

Ethnomusicology is the study of the relationship between music and culture in global and local communities (Queensland Studies Authority 2008). Ethnomusicology is interdisciplinary by nature and so ethnomusicologists may also be trained as anthropologists, musicologists, folklorists, performers, composers, cultural analysts and cognitive psychologists (Applied Ethnomusicology Network 2005) as the study involves people who make music, instruments used and the behaviours and ideas involved in the production of music. The ubiquity of music is also a result of its great adaptability. Music is an unusually compatible art. It lends itself to presentation in the context of other arts, such as dance, film, theatre, and opera, and it is an accompaniment to a vast array of human endeavours and rituals, including religious activities, sporting events, and momentous personal and social occasions such as first dates, weddings, and funerals (Applied Ethnomusicology Network 2005). Music, then, has many uses, as it is allied with the myriad institutions and practices of society. This assists in the recognition and knowledge of community’s musical and cultural heritage. Ethnomusicologists view the study from various perspectives. Although it had antecedents in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the field expanded with the development of recording technologies in the late 19th century (Society of Ethnomusicology 2009). The term ethnomusicology was introduced about 1950, and the field subsequently became standard in academic institutions. Since then works such as “the occlusion of race in music studies “ by Ronald Ronaldo and Philip V. Bohlman (University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2001) have been influential in the understanding of this particular field. Although ethnomusicology covers a varied range of topics it is predominantly focused on the relationship between music and culture within society.

Philosophy of Music is the third major musicological field of study. It focuses on the essential questions that music raises. Philosophy of music is the study of fundamental questions about the nature of music and our emotional experience. Most recent writings about the philosophy of music have taken an analytic or linguistic approach, focussing on terms such as meaning, metaphor, emotions and expression, invariably from the perspective of the individual listener or composer (Questia.com 2013). Contemporary philosophical discussions of music can be thought in a general way to address these features of music. Music has been discussed by philosophers since the recorded beginnings of Western philosophy, with the nature of music playing an important role in the thought of Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 490 BCE) and then Plato (429–347 BCE) (Sacred-texts, 2009). Pythagoreanism and Platonism further demonstrate the philosophy of music. Philosophy of music has been and remains a much broader field than philosophical music aesthetics. For example, Pythagoreanism investigated music as part of the quadrivium of four mathematical sciences, while Plato emphasized music’s effects on the health of the soul (Sacred-texts, 2009). Lewis Rowell, music philosopher from the University of Massachusetts Press, 1984 also expresses in his work, Thinking about Music: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music; "Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answer to its questions, since no one definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves" (Questia, 2013). These philosophers focus on the fundamental questions music arises. Philosophy of music currently reflects the recent, general division of philosophy into the analytic and continental approaches, with relatively little exchange between the two approaches. This field explores fundamental questions about the nature of music.

Music psychology explores the effect music has on a person’s state of being. This field studies various aspects of music, like rhythm or tonality, could reveal principles of the functioning of the human mind (Epress.anu, 2007). Psychology of music was largely integrated in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries investigating the origins and development of music and universal musical principles (Epress.anu, 2007). Carl Stumpf’s “Tonpsychologie” (1883 and 1890) was particularly influential in the recognition of music psychology, developing a theory of tone sensation based on individual cognition: for instance, examining the perception of similarity and difference in tonal stimuli, which led to a major focus on tonal distance and scale formation (Epress.anu, 2007). His works eventually became the starting point for development of a unique form of evolutionary theory focusing on music and, in particular, on pitch and intervallic organization (Epress.anu, 2007). Music psychology may be regarded as scientific research about human culture. The results of this research have, and will continue to have, direct implications for matters of general concern: human values, human identity, human nature, human evolution, expansion of consciousness.

Music acoustics is the last field of musicology that is concerned with researching and describing the physics of music – how sounds employed as music work. The field explores the function of musical instruments, the human voice, the physics of speech and singing, computer analysis of melody, and in the clinical use of music in music therapy (Nation-Master, 2013). According to known musicologist F.V. Hunt’s Origins in Acoustics "... acoustics is characterized by its reliance on combinations of physical principles drawn from other sources; and that the primary task of modern physical acoustics is to effect a fusion of the principles normally adhering to other sciences into a coherent basis for understanding, measuring, controlling, and using the whole gamut of vibrational phenomena in any material medium." (Origins in Acoustics. F.V. Hunt. Yale University Press, 1978). Music acoustics was first discovered in the Greek and Roman cultures between the 6th century BCE and 1st century BCE. This musicological field advanced rapidly during and after the Scientific Revolution due to philosophers such as Galileo (1564-1642) and Mersenne (1588-1648) who autonomously discovered the complete laws of vibrating strings (Nation-Master, 2013). Galileo stated "Waves are produced by the vibrations of a sonorous body, which spread through the air, bringing to the tympanum of the ear a stimulus which the mind interprets as sound", this statement points to the beginnings of physiological and psychological acoustics (Nation-Master, 2013). Music acoustics is considered as scientific field of research about the laws and movement of music. This field of musicology is concerned with investigating and describing the physics of music and how sounds are employed for music to work.

Musicology essentially encompasses five distinct fields of music. Historical musicology, ethnomusicology, philosophy of music, psychology of music and acoustics are studied in order to possess a better understanding of the fundamentals of music (Nation-master, 2013). The field of historical musicology is the study of musical origins including subjects such as composers, genres and musical notation. The second major field, ethnomusicology is based around the field studies on music in diverse cultures. The third field expressed in this report is philosophy of music which is concerned with the central question of ‘what is music’. The second last field is Psychology of music which relates to the effect music has on human beings. Lastly, musical acoustics, the study of the science of sound and what physical aspects are involved in the creation of sound (Nation-master, 2013). These fields together make up the fundamental aspects of musicology.