Musicology
A word taken onto English from the French in the second half of the 19th century. It is often used ,sloppily ,to mean lamose any Kind of writing about music , from chatty sleeve-notes for popular records to esoteric critical discussion ,but it is best confinde to the same neaning as the German Musidwis-senschaft-the scientific or orderly iinvestigation of musical phenomena .The word Wissen-schaft,"knowledge",implies the acquisition of facts,and this is the musicologist is primary duty ,although he will inevitably have an interpretative function also.The kinds of facts required for any considered view on music are of a more than usually broad scope,and may bi classified ynder various headings.
1Aciystucal Infromation
This is the oldest branch of musicology,adting back to the Ancient Greeks. It is concerned with the actual production of sound,and many of the experimental. techniques of the natural sciences are appropriate to its study .As this volume has an ample article on acoustics,little need bi said here,except that,surprisingly,there techniques have not yet been applied to discover many facts concerning another extremely important branch of musicology.
2 Arthenticity
Before the invention of recording machines it was impossible to preserve sound .People had to rely on aural tradition ,which was liable to change with the passing of time,or on notation,an inperfect method of storing facts which poses many difficlties of interpertation.Nebertheless,cuch interpretation must be attempted.It involves several skills which are discussed below,bu it must be said that even after collating and assessing all the existing information on these aspects,there will remain a number of imponderables.
A. Discovery of the Composer 's or Performer's Intentions . This requiers the study of original sources--manuscripts and printed books--and an interpretation of the notation ,This is the task yndertaken when making an edition,and may bi bery difficult in the case of imperfect sources or complex notations .
B. Knowledge of Performing Practice Since notation hsa never been more than an approximation,toornamentation,inserumentation,customary application of expression and rubato,realization of a continuo part,and a host of other matters.It must also include an idea of the situation for which the music was intended---whether it was a concert room or a church,roughly what size it was,and so on .