First published in 2011. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Although all research makes use of specific research methods, much music scholarship is being published without any reference to, or reflection on, the premises of the methods employed. In other words, published articles and books are often lacking a discussion of the scope and limitations of the research methods. Furthermore, music theory, musicology, ethnomusicology, music psychology, etc., are not independent disciplines, nor is research in those areas an activity to be defined once and for all. These areas have strong methodological relationships to each other as well as to areas outside the field of music. This book discusses some of the methodological premises, on which music research in the areas of music theory, (ethno-) musicology, and music psychology is based, and focuses on selected interdisciplinary approaches. It also discusses teaching approaches to music theory.

This volume explores the possibilities of cognate music theory, a concept introduced by musicologist John Walter Hill to describe culturally and historically situated music theory. Cognate music theories offer a new way of thinking about music theory, music history, and the relationship between insider and outsider perspectives when researchers mediate between their own historical and cultural position, and that of the originators of the music they are studying. With contributions from noted scholars of musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, this volume develops a variety of approaches using the cognate music theory framework and shows how this concept enables more nuanced and critical analyses of music in historical context. Addressing topics in music from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, this volume will be relevant to musicologists, music theorists, and all researchers interested in reflecting critically on what it means to construct a theory of music. Chapter 9 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Heinrich Schenker's theoretical and analytical works claim to resubstantiate the unique artistic presence of the canonic work, and thus reject those musical disciplines such as psychoacoustics and systematic musicology which derive from the natural sciences. In this respect his writing reflects the counter-positivism endemic to the German academic discourse of the first decades of the twentieth century. The rhetoric of this stance, however, conceals a sophisticated programme wherein Schenker situates his project in relation to these sciences, arguing his reading of the musical text as a synthesis of a descriptive psychology and an explanatory historiography (which itself embeds both paleographic and philological assumptions). This book rereads Schenker's project as an attempt to reconstruct music theory as a discipline against the background of the empirical musical sciences of the later nineteenth century.

Music Theory has a lot of ground to cover. Especially in introductory classes a whole range of fundamental concepts are introduced at fast pace that can never be explored in depth or detail, as other new topics become more pressing. The short time we spend with them in the classroom belies the complexity (and, in many cases, the contradictions) underlying these concepts. This book takes the time to tarry over these complexities, probe the philosophical assumptions on which these concepts rest, and shine a light on all their iridescent facets. This book presents music-theoretical concepts as a register of key terms progressing outwards from smallest detail to discussions of the music-theoretical project on the largest scale. The approaches individual authors take range from philosophical, historical, or analytical to systematic, cognitive, and critical-theorical-covering the whole diverse spectrum of contemporary music theory. In some cases authors explore concepts that have not yet been widely added to the theorist's toolkit but deserve to be included; in other cases concepts are expanded beyond their core repertory of application. This collection does not shy away from controversy. Taken in their entirety, the essays underline that music theory is on the move, exploring new questions, new repertories, and new approaches. This collection is an invitation to take stock of music theory in the early twenty-first century, to look back and to encourage discussion about its future directions. Its chapters open up a panoramic view of the contemporary music-theoretical landscape with its expanding repertories and changing guiding questions, and offers suggestions as to where music theory is headed in years to come.

"Music theory's presence in ethnomusicology comes from the socialization and theorizing of participants in the world's musical practices and of ethnomusicologists themselves. Results of processes of theorizing focused on musical activity differ greatly in scope, make-up, and uses. During the 1960s and 70s ethnomusicologists who formed relationships with music-makers and ritual specialists attempted to interpret their understandings of musical actions. Subsequently ethnomusicologists have studied roles of explicit and implicit theory in communication of musical knowledge, with attention to aural learning and relevant techniques of the body. They have observed the production of music theory in institutions of modern nation-states and have sought out groups and individuals whose theorizing is not constrained by projects of existing institutions. They are assessing the ways in which musical terminologies in diverse languages can be related to general concepts without imposing assumptions of one approach to music theory on all others. That exercise is increasingly recognized as a necessary effort of decolonization: the heritage of ethnomusicology encompasses all the world's music-theoretical practices, and no formulation of Western music theory should be used as a standard against which to judge other ways of theorizing and making use of the results. The best future for ethnomusicological engagement with music theory would expand the situations and media of communication along with the topics and viewpoints in play. This book reviews existing work on music theory by ethnomusicologists and others, highlighting potentially productive insights that could inspire and guide future work"--

After a century of trial-and-error in the task of defining itself, the discipline of musicology had gradually gained a hard-won place on American university campuses. Now the musicological curriculum is being challenged by such phenomena as political correctness, questioning the canon, and ethnomusicological expansions or contractions of the traditional boundaries of historical musicology. These challenges are caused, says the author of this book, by the most powerful social force of our time-namely, the ambition to foster or restore individual cultural, ethnic, and political identities. Step by step, Professor Helm has shown the importance of upgrading undergraduate music programs. Graduate training in musicology would make a quantum leap ahead if `undergraduate' curricula in music were properly overhauled to make room for that rare undergraduate who is gifted as both musician and scholar.... If the current E-mail of American musicologists is any indication, the topic of the musical canon is hotter than ever.

This book, first published in 2002, gathers some of America's top subject expert librarians to determine the most influential journals in their respective fields. 32 contributing authors reviewed journals from over twenty countries that have successfully shaped the evolution of their individual specialties worldwide. Their choices reflect the history of each discipline or profession, taking into account rivalries between universities, professional societies, for-profit and not-for-profit publishers, and even nation-states and international ideologies, in each journal's quest for reputational dominance. Each journal was judged using criteria such as longevity of publication, foresight in carving out its niche, ability to attract & sustain professional or academic affiliations, opinion leadership or agenda-setting power, and ongoing criticality to the study or practice of their field. The book presents wholly independent reviewers; none are in the employ of any publisher, but each is fully credentialed and well published, and many are award-winners. The authors guide college and professional school librarians on limited budgets via an exposition of their analytical and critical winnowing process in determining the classic resources for their faculty, students, and working professional clientele.

The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches widens the scope of analytical approaches for popular music by incorporating methods developed for analyzing contemporary art music. This study endeavors to create a new analytical paradigm for examining popular music from the perspective of developments in contemporary art music. "Expanded approaches" for popular music analysis is broadly defined as as exploring the pitch-class structures, form, timbre, rhythm, or aesthetics of various forms of popular music in a conceptual space not limited to the domain of common practice tonality but broadened to include any applicable compositional, analytical, or theoretical concept that illuminates the music. The essays in this collection investigate a variety of analytical, theoretical, historical, and aesthetic commonalities popular music shares with 20th and 21st century art music. From rock and pop to hip hop and rap, dance and electronica, from the 1930s to present day, this companion explores these connections in five parts: Establishing and Expanding Analytical Frameworks Technology and Timbre Rhythm, Pitch, and Harmony Form and Structure Critical Frameworks: Analytical, Formal, Structural, and Political With contributions by established scholars and promising emerging scholars in music theory and historical musicology from North America, Europe, and Australia, The Routledge Companion to Popular Music Analysis: Expanding Approaches offers nuanced and detailed perspectives that address the relationships between concert and popular music.

The first music-driven analysis of electronic dance music.