5 MUSICOLOGICAL FIELDS

The study of music also known as musicology encompasses five distinct fields. These include the study of historical musicology, ethnomusicology, philosophy of music, psychology of music and acoustics (Nation-master, 2013). The first major field, historical musicology, is the study of musical origins including subjects such as composers, genres, and musical notation. Ethnomusicology is the second major field of musicology and is based around the field studies on music in diverse cultures. Thirdly, the philosophy of music is concerned with the central question of ‘what is music’. Another major field is Psychology of music which relates to the effect music has on human beings. The last musicological field of acoustics is the study of the science of sound (Nation-master, 2019). These five fields make up the fundamentals of musicology and will be explored within this report.

Historical musicology focuses on the progression of music over time. This field studies the progressive styles of compositions, performances, receptions and criticisms of music (Nation-master, 2019). The methods of studying historical musicology also include source studies, manuscript studies, textual criticism, style criticism, the choice of historical method, musical analysis, and the application of musical analysis (Nation-master, 2019). This field of study also examines the lives and work of composers and