Musicology
Overview and Identification:
This project, that has been assigned by Professor Randall Cream for the course DHM 280, at West Chester University during Spring 2023, which will cover the discipline of Musicology. This group has come together to take a look at discipline of Music while connecting it to a project, scholarship, and tool. While doing this we were able to find out Music’s goals, values, and connection to geography.
What is Musicology?
Musicology is the discipline of scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology traditionally is divided in three main branches: historical musicology, systematic musicology and ethnomusicology. The historical branch will be highlighted and defined. Historical musicologists mostly study the history of the western classical music tradition, the origin of the works composed, the lives of the composers and how they relate to the music studied. This discipline directly relates to culture as music is a main form of expression for many different groups or people. Almost every type of culture has its own distinct music and ways of creating it.
The Musical Geography Project:
: Musicology
The Musical Geography Project is a digital platform that seeks to explore the connection between music and cultural geography. The project was initiated by Dr. Louis Epstein at St. Olaf College in 2015, along with undergraduate students from the University of Denver. The Musical Geography Project combines musicology, geography, and digital humanities to offer a new way of understanding the relationship between music and the world around us. The platform utilizes a digital tool called ArcGIS to allow users to analyze and visualize musical data through maps. The project offers a unique perspective on the study of music that is relevant to musicologists. It provides insights into the cultural significance of music and its role in shaping our world. It allows musicologists to understand the ways in which music expresses ideas about place, identity, and community. The goal of the Musical Geography Project is to explore the connection between space, time, and sound through map-focalized research. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the question of what insights can be gained about music history from maps.
Scholarship Music Scenes to Music Clusters: The Economic Geography of Music in the US, 1970–2000.
Where do musicians locate, and why do creative industries such as music continue to cluster? This paper analyzes the economic geography of musicians and the recording industry in the US from 1970 to 2000, to shed light on the locational dynamics of music and creative industries more broadly. We examine the role of scale and scope economies in shaping the clustering and concentration of musicians and music industry firms. We argue that these two forces are bringing about a transformation in the geography of both musicians and music industry firms, evidenced in a shift away from regionally clustered, genre-specific music scenes, such as Memphis or Detroit, toward larger regional centers such as New York City and Los Angeles, which offer large markets for music employment and concentrations of other artistic and cultural endeavors that increase demand for musicians. We use population and income to probe for scale effects and look at concentrations of other creative and artistic industries to test for scope effects, while including a range of control variables in our analysis. We use lagged variables to determine whether certain places are consistently more successful at fostering concentrations of musicians and the music industry and to test for path dependency. We find some role for scale and scope effects and that both musicians and the music industry are concentrating in a relatively small number of large regional centers.
Florida, R., Mellander, C., & Stolarick, K. (2010). Music scenes to music clusters: The economic geography of music in the US, 1970–2000. Environment and Planning A, 42(4), 785-804
Tool:
Musicology can be visualized with the tool, ArcGIS. ArcGIS is a powerful mapping and spatial analysis software that can be used to explore the connection between geography and music. This tool allows you to map and visualize musical data, such as the location of music venues, musical styles, and the distribution of musical artists, in order to gain insights into musical geography. The Musical Geography Project utilizes this tool to create interactive maps that allow users to explore musical data that can reveal historical patterns and trends.
Goals:
The goal of the Musicology aligns with one of the Digital Humanities’ goal of analyzing and interpreting cultural data because they both give a better understanding of the history of music. The goal of the Musical Geography Project is to explore the connection between space, time, and sound through map-focalized research. Specifically, the project seeks to answer the question of what insights can be gained about music history from maps. By combining the expertise of musicologists, geographers, and digital humanities scholars, the Musical Geography Project and Digital Humanities work towards a common goal of uncovering the complex relationships between technology, culture, and society through analyzation.
Values:
The discipline of Musicology holds values such as iteration, collaboration, and transparency. The value of iteration is important to musicology because when the digital humanities aspect comes into to play, we can add more research to the study. The interdisciplinary value of collaboration is an essential value for bringing together musicologist to result in more educated research and results. From a data standpoint, the value transparency connects musical research to publication. The research from musicologist is then used to show the patterns music holds through history.
Evaluation/Conclusion:
Musicology and digital humanities are linked in several key ways that can provide us with a more comprehensive understanding of how music is created, performed, and consumed. Digital humanities has provided musicologists with new tools and methods for analyzing, interpreting, and sharing musical data and resources, enabling them to approach their research in innovative and interdisciplinary ways. The Musical Geography Project is a great example of this because it uses digital mapping technologies to chart the movements and interactions of musical styles and practices across different regions and time periods. This helps us understand how music reflects and shapes culture in different parts of the world. It is clear that the relationship between musicology and digital humanities will continue to evolve and shape the field of music research as new technologies and methods emerge. Ultimately, the integration of musicology and digital humanities deepens our understanding of music’s role in human culture and society and provides new opportunities for engagement with this diverse art form.
About us:
–Alex Sandi is a student at West Chester University and is majoring in Music: Elective Studies
Roles: Describing digital project, report
–Chris Fisher is a student at West Chester University and is majoring in Accounting & Finance
Roles: Webpage, describing discipline, overview and identification, slide show
Hannah Lally is a student at West Chester University and is majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies.
Roles: Scholarship, identifying goal of project, slide show
–Jake Depietro is a student at West Chester University and is majoring in Communications
Roles: Values of discipline, slide show
–Kaitlin Wall is a student at West Chester University and is majoring in Psychology.
Roles: Digital tool, identifying goal of project, evaluation and conclusion, slide show
