The subject (more precisely: Systematic Musicology, SMW) is the subject of ongoing discussion with regard to its definition, conceptualisation and historical development (Parncutt, 2007). SMW draws central research questions from musical practice as well as from philosophical-aesthetic, culture-specific and intercultural reflections on this practice. The majority of authors agree that it is an interdisciplinary field.

The SMW combines approaches to music from the natural sciences and the humanities on an equal footing. Musical-productive and -receptive processes as well as their effects on other areas of human life and actions take centre stage. The methodological spectrum of SMW includes physical (e.g. room and instrument acoustics), biological (e.g. physiology of hearing), psychological (e.g. psychoacoustics, cognitive psychology) and sociological approaches as well as information and neuroscientific approaches. Methods of empirical social research and experimental psychology are therefore fundamental to the understanding and further development of the subject.

Literature

Parncutt, R. (2007). Systematic Musicology and the history and future of Western musical scholarship. Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, 1, 1-32.