Musicology

Musicology is a young research discipline both from an international and a national perspective. The subject has a ca. 150-year history as a European university discipline, and a significantly shorter one in Sweden. The first professorship in musicology was not established in Sweden until 1947 at Uppsala University, followed by Gothenburg (1977) and Lund University (1986). From having analysis and history writing of western art music as the central focus of research, the subject now covers, practically speaking, all music in all cultures. The research field has also expanded towards fields such as sound studies and music psychology, and continues an on-going theoretical and methodological dialogue with fields such as cultural studies, historiography, musical and style analysis, ethnology, sociology and anthropology. Hence, the approach to research in musicology happens from a wide variety of methods. The research that is carried out in Lund is mainly focusing on contemporary music, aesthetics and history; post colonial and global music history writing; music- and sound production; sound art, electronic music and contemporary art music; jazz, popular music and progressive rock; and finally, music and sound in trans-aesthetic and -disciplinary assemblies. Analysis of the above-mentioned empirical fields is mainly carried out from aesthetic, ethnological, cultural and sociological perspectives, and within the field of sound studies. Other parts of the research related to the subject are conducted within the framework of the Sound Environment Centre at Lund University. Examples of research are here investigations of the way in which mind and cognition are affected by music and sound; of tonal and acoustic properties of music; and of sound environments’ aesthetic and socio-material appearances. Artistic research conducted at the Malmö Academy of Music, Malmö Faculty of fine and performing arts (also at Lund University) is also of relevance and connected to the subject.