ABSTRACT
ETHNOMUSICOLOGY has traditionally been classified within the systematic branch of musicology rather than the historical, but historical interests and orientations have always played a considerable part in it; indeed, they have at times been the predominant motivating forces in investigation. However, the preference for synchronic and descriptive approaches has evidently caused the historical aspects of ethnomusicology to be left in a methodologically disorganized array. It is the purpose of this paper to work toward a systematization of the various historical aspects; it will utilize approaches followed in the past as well as other theoretical possibilities. Systematizations of this sort have already been attempted in ways which range from early music-historical points of view such as Lach’s (1924) through later ones which emerged under the increasing influence of anthropology (Kunst 1955:43–46; Nettl1955a). The subject matter under consideration has also varied greatly. Beginning with historical speculation in Oriental music (with which we are concerned here only in a secondary sense because of the existence of at least a partially written tradition and a professionalized musical culture) and the role of folk music in the history of European cultivated music, the interests began to follow the trends of anthropological thinking, have occasionally gone their own way, and have sometimes been influenced by other disciplines such as biology and psychology.
