Musicology Explained: 3 Main Branches of Musicology

Musicology is a form of music analysis that emphasizes culture, sociology, and music history. When musicologists study music, they go beyond the notes on a page. Among other things, they track the history of music, the evolution of musical instruments, cultural contexts of various genres, and performance practices associated with certain types of musical ensembles.

While musicology is an academic subject, it often steers its focus toward popular music. Musicology professors and theorists examine how music impacts culture and vice versa. This may be more easily revealed by popular music than obscure music that only lightly impacted a culture at a given time. Nonetheless, musicologists examine all corners of music, including the art music that may reach smaller audiences but nonetheless prove historically significant.

The academic field of musicology has three principal concentrations.

1. 1. Systematic musicology: This branch of musicology has the most overlap with a music conservatory education. It includes music theory, acoustics, and sound studies of musical instruments.
2. 2. Ethnomusicology: This discipline connects the art music and popular music of specific cultures to their overall societal histories. Ethnomusicology often incorporates cognitive musicology, which examines the link between music and cognitive science.
3. 3. Historical musicology: Historical musicology programs track the history of music. A great number of them specifically trace the history of Western music (namely European and American music). In recent decades, university faculty members have increasingly turned their focus to other regions like Latin America, Africa, and various regions in Asia.

An overwhelming number of working musicologists are affiliated with higher education.

• University musicologists: Many universities employ musicology faculty members—usually in a humanities department rather than a school of music. These can be full professors, associate professors, assistant professors, or lecturers. These universities often offer a bachelor's degree in musicology, with coursework that spans music theory, history, sociology, anthropology, and cognitive science. These schools may also feature graduate programs, and a good number of musicology graduate students pursue lifelong work in academia.
• Musicology societies: The musicology community is united by a number of trade societies, including the American Musicological Society (AMS) and the Society for Ethnomusicology. These groups host conferences and seminars, which frequently focus on specific topics like early music, Medieval music, twentieth-century music, or specific composers. Many society members work as university faculty or are pursuing graduate studies in the topic.
• Librarians: Music libraries typically employ one or more musicologists to help curate their collections. Many of these libraries are affiliated with universities and music conservatories.
• Books on musicology: Some musicologists find success as published authors. Musicology books may cover art music topics like Beijing opera in the nineteenth century, or they may cover popular music topics like American rock 'n' roll. Some musicology books are published by academic presses, while others come from mainstream publishing houses.

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