Research

What it means

Music research (German Musikforschung) is the scholarly occupation with music in all its manifestations. It is traditionally divided into three large areas: historical musicology, which investigates sources, works, and their contexts; systematic musicology, which deals with acoustics, perception, theory, and aesthetics; and comparative or ethnological musicology, which studies the music cultures of the world.

Musical use

For music-makers, three results of this work are above all directly useful. First, the editions: Urtext editions and complete editions rest on the comparison of all accessible sources, and the accompanying critical report discloses which reading comes from where and where doubts exist. Second, performance practice: what is known about scorings, pitch standards, ornamentation, articulation, and conception of tempo comes from the evaluation of historical textbooks, instruments, and documents. Third, the study of notation, without which older sources would not be legible.

Part of the work is dealing with uncertainty. Much is secure, other things are reasonably inferred, some remain open — the interpretation of the chiavette, the reach of musica ficta, the execution of dotted rhythms in the Baroque are among the questions in which different views stand side by side. A good edition says where it has decided instead of hiding the decision.

Research is to be distinguished from music criticism, which evaluates performances and works, and from the work introduction in the programme booklet, which mediates but does not itself investigate.

Musicology is traditionally divided into historical and systematic musicology as well as ethnomusicology. To the first belong study of sources, editing, and history of style, to the second acoustics, music psychology, and sociology of music. For performance practice, source research and historically informed performance research are especially important.

Performance practice

With a new piece, read the preface and the critical report of your edition, at least on the passages where you are unsure — there it often says why a passage looks the way it does. With disputed passages, compare two editions. And, when informing yourself, separate reliable accounts from anecdotes; what is secure is marked as such in scholarly literature.