New (Ethno)musicologies

Over the past twenty years, a range of radical developments has revolutionized musicology, leading certain practitioners to describe their discipline as 'New.' What has happened to ethnomusicology during this period? Have its theories, methodologies, and values remain rooted in the 1970s and 1980s or have they also transformed? What directions might or should it take in the new millennium? The New (Ethno)musicologies seeks to answer these questions by addressing and critically examining key issues in contemporary ethnomusicology. Set in two parts, the volume explores ethnomusicology's shifting relationship to other disciplines and to its own 'mythic' histories and plots a range of potential developments for its future. It attempts to address how ethnomusicology might be viewed by those working both inside and outside the discipline and what its broader contribution and relevance might be within and beyond the academy. Henry Stobart has collected essays from key figures in ethnomusicology and musicology, including Caroline Bithell, Martin Clayton, Fabian Holt, Jim Samson, and Abigail Wood, as well as Europea series editors, Martin Stokes and Philip V. Bohlman. The engaging result presents a range of perspectives, reflecting on disciplinary change, methodological developments, and the broader sphere of music scholarship in a fresh and unique way, and will be a key source for students and scholars.

The book includes something for everybody., This volume brings to the fore pivotal issues that problematize the contemporary disciplinary identity of ethnomusicology….It provides rich insights into ethnomusicological discourses and raises many unanswered questions that stimulate a re-thinking about the contemporary identity of ethnomusicology. In short, this volume will not only be an invaluable addition to university programs in ethnomusicology, but it will also be of significant interest to the wider academic community in ethnomusicology., A lively and engaging read.

Henry Stobart is Senior Lecturer in the Music Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Music and the Poetics of Production in the Bolivian Andes (2006) and is co-editor of Knowledge and Learning in the Andes (2002) and Sound (2000).