Ethnomusicologie

Ethnomusicology, also written ethnomusicologie in Francophone scholarship, is the interdisciplinary study of music within its social and cultural contexts. It integrates methods from musicology, anthropology, linguistics, sociology, and related disciplines to understand how music is produced, performed, transmitted, valued, and lived in everyday life.

The field emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from comparative musicology and expanded through fieldwork and ethnography. Prominent contributors include Bruno Nettl, Alan Lomax, and Steven Feld, among others, with distinct traditions in Anglophone and Francophone scholarship.

Methods center on fieldwork and collaboration with communities. Researchers use participant observation, interviews, and audio or video recording, then transcribe and analyze musical materials within their social contexts. Ethical considerations, consent, and reflexivity are integral to contemporary practice.

Topics range from ritual, religion, and identity to globalization, diaspora, gender, and politics of representation. Ethnomusicology often engages with issues of language, memory, and repertoire, as well as efforts to document, preserve, or revitalize endangered musics.

Today the field embraces digital media, collaborative research, and community-based curation, seeking to balance scholarly interpretation with respect for the communities studied and their rights over cultural expressions.