ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book participates in a broad and substantive debate that now encompasses nearly all aspects of contemporary musicological practice. It argues that, both in the pursuit of new methods of musical interpretation and understanding and also in reflecting on the nature of disciplinary practice itself. Musicology has at times proved somewhat precipitous in its adoption and ready acceptance of certain ‘postmodern’ doctrines often to the detriment of other equally or potentially more productive lines of thought. The book draws on specifically philosophical arguments: is such material relevant to the study of music and, in any case, is a nominal musicologist really equipped to deal with it. It provides a critical appraisal of the so-called ‘postmodern turn’ in musicological practice and evaluates the critiques of ‘positivism’ and ‘formalism’ with which it is typically associated.
