Methods in Ethnomusicology and Folk Music Research
(Fieldwork, Transcription and Analysis)

Marko Kölbl

Since its founding, discussions on methods and their further development are of central relevance to the department. Neatly interlinked with the teaching at the department, we engage with the debate and the theories on ethnomusicological fieldwork. Spcific topics of our department are fieldwork in folk music research in Austria, fieldwork in ethnomusicological minority studies as well as participatory fieldworj and diaological knowledge production. Technical and practical skills, the significance of direct contact to field partners and research ethics constitute important topics.

Ethnomusicological transcription and analysis is a significant field of expertise of the department – not least due to the strong connection to the artistic education at mdw and the musical and music-theoretical expertise of staff members. Central subject areas are style-specific parameters for musical transcription and analysis, a critical reconsideration with established and innovative systems of notations as well as a critique on Eurocentric paradigms of notation in ethnographic disciplines.

In contrast with tendencies in international, mainly Anglophone ethnomusicology, the IVE  regards transcription and analysiss as important tools in interpreting musical phenomena that centers the musical aspect of our research. Simultaneously we integrate a postcolonial critique of notating and writing oral cultures into the discourses on transcription and analysis.