Ethnomusicologist

ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST

Ethno, the prefix of the word Ethnomusicology, comes from the Greek word Ethnos, or nation, and refers to ethnicity or ethnocentric. Musicology is the study of music as anacademic subject, as opposed to training in music performance or composition. Put them together and you’ve got Ethnomusicology, the study of the music of different cultures.

An Ethnomusicologist is aresearcher who studies music, musicians, instruments, and the ideas, behaviors and processes used to produce music.

Ethnomusicologists study all aspects of music and music-making in the context of theculture that created it. For example, an Ethnomusicologist might travel to Nigeria or China to live with a little-known tribe or family of musicians who originated a certain form, or genre, of musicor a traditional instrument. They try to become a part of the culture, or at least learn enough about the traditions, beliefs and customs to really understand the role of music in the family or tribeslives (i.e. music as entertainment, as art, as part of religious ceremonies or prayer, or as a way passing along the tribe or family’s history).

In addition to the time spent observing, listeningto and learning about the music and the people making it, Ethnomusicologists ask people questions, help individuals and communities document and promote their musical practices, and sometimes learn toperform the music themselves. In this way Ethnomusicologists are a lot like cultural anthropologists.

Ethnomusicologists are also very similar to other researchers in that they may also conductresearch using archives, libraries, and museums for documentation on musical sounds, practices, instruments, and the musicians and artisans who created them.

Ethnomusicologists are different frommany other types of researchers in that their work is almost exclusively in the field, versus in a lab or classroom. For this reason, Ethnomusicologists must have excellent research skills. They must...