Música

This article is about the academic field of music history. For an overview of music, see history of music. For the album, see Musical History.


A famous Tang Dynasty guqin "Jiu Xiao Huan Pei". The guqin has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favored by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement.
Music history, sometimes called historicalmusicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition. 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, these research topics are nearly always categorized as part of ethnomusicology or cultural studies, whether or notthey are ethnographically based.
The methods of music history include source studies (esp. manuscript studies), paleography, philology (especially textual criticism), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method), musical analysis, and iconography. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the developmentof new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. (For a more detailed discussion of the methods see the section on "Research in Music History" below) Some of the intellectual products of music historians include editions of musical works, biography of composers and other musicians, studies of the relationship between words and music, and the reflections uponthe place of music in society.
Contents [hide]
1 Pedagogy
2 History
2.1 Before 1800
2.2 1800-1950
3 Critiques
3.1 Exclusion of disciplines and musics
3.2 Exclusion of popular music
4 Notes
5 References
[edit]Pedagogy

Although most performers of classical and traditional instruments receive some instruction in music, art pop, or rock and roll history from teachers throughout theirtraining, the majority of formal music history courses are offered at the college level. In Canada, some music students receive training prior to undergraduate studies because examinations in music history (as well as music theory) are required to complete Royal Conservatory certification at the Grade 9 level and higher. Particularly in the United States and Canada, university courses tend to bedivided 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 span 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 analysisof 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 duringWorld War I," "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.
The methods and tools of music history are nearly as numerous as its subjects and therefore make a...