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Interdisciplinarity in JIMS*
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- JIMS regards interdisciplinarity as
synergetic generation of new knowledge - as opposed to
multidisciplinarity, the accumulation of knowledge from different
disciplines. Interdisciplinarity may be regarded as a temporary state,
since interdisciplinary research areas (such as for example music
history and computing, music analysis and cultural studies, or
musicology and psychology) tend to transform gradually into new
disciplines or paradigms (such as computing in musicology, semiotics, or
music psychology).
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- The journal promotes interdisciplinarity
between epistemologically distant disciplines and in particular among
humanities, sciences and practically oriented disciplines. While JIMS
considers these three broad categories to be equally important, they can
difficult to define, and their boundaries can be hard to locate.
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- Defining "humanities"
and "sciences"
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- There is no clear consensus about the
definition and boundaries of humanities and sciences. JIMS is reluctant
to offer a general definition, but prefers to consider their
relationship in individual submissions. The following attempt at a
definition may be useful as a basis for discussion.
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- There is stronger consensus about the
meaning of "humanities" than "sciences". Most agree that humanities
include arts, cultural studies, history, languages, literature,
philosophy and religion. JIMS uses "sciences" in the modern English
sense of natural and social sciences, which excludes humanities and
practically oriented disciplines, and not in the original Latin sense of
any knowledge, skill or scholarship.
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- Although the original sense of scientia
appears to include humanities and practically oriented disciplines, the
scientia of philosophers such as Aristotle and Boethius was (from a
modern viewpoint) positivistic, emphasizing logic, first principles and
demonstration. The ambiguity of the word "science" is less pronounced in
other languages such as German, in which "humanities" translates to
Geisteswissenschaften and "sciences" (in the sense used here) to
Naturwissenschaften (or Natur- und Sozialwissenschaften).
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- The following broad generalisations
distinguish modern humanities from modern sciences. Of course there are
plenty of exceptions to every rule.
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- Music research in the humanities tends
in the following directions:
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- • The object of research is individual
manifestations of music (performances, works, pieces, songs, styles,
genres, traditions, cultures).
- • Knowledge is acquired by personal
experience, intuition and introspection.
- • Research methods are qualitative
(based on text and language) and include analytic, critical, and
speculative approaches.
- • Different researchers are expected to
come to different conclusions.
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- Music research in the sciences tends in
the following directions:
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- • Questions are posed about music in
general.
- • Knowledge is acquired by observation
and comparing hypotheses with evidence.
- • Research methods are quantitative
(based on measurement, data, computation, statistics) and empirical.
- • Different researchers are expected to
come to similar conclusions.
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- Practically oriented disciplines can be
defined as those disciplines whose primary aim is the application of
research findings. They include performance, composition, education,
therapy and medicine.
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- Historical context
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- The distinction between humanities and
sciences in music research is best understood in its historical context.
JIMS tentatively interprets that history as follows.
- Since the 19th Century, the study of
music has traditionally been situated in three main areas:
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- • the humanities, which focus on
historical or critical methods;
- • the social sciences, whose methods
include ethnography and mixed (quantitative and qualitative) methods;
and
- • musical practice, such as composition,
performance, and education.
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- But scientific research on music (as
defined above) has also flourished since the 19th Century in areas such
as acoustics, psychology and neuroscience, and much of the scholarship
that led to or began ethnomusicology was carried out by people grounded
in the natural sciences such as Ellis, Stumpf, Hornbostel and Abraham.
Moreover, scientific approaches to music can be traced back to ancient
philosophy and medieval music theory. Recent advances in production,
computer and measurement technologies, and corresponding developments in
areas such as cognition and neuropsychology, have expanded the range of
music research. At the same time, traditional musicology has grown and
diversified.
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- Implications for JIMS
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- JIMS promotes all internationally
established, academically recognized approaches to music research. JIMS
regards humanities, sciences and practically oriented disciplines as
fundamentally equal in importance. We believe that a thorough
understanding of music can only be gained by bringing together and
balancing these three contrasting epistomologies.
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- Consistent with this belief, JIMS aims
for a balance among articles that primarily address specific musical
pieces, styles, traditions or cultures (which is typical of the musical
humanities), articles that primarily address more general musical
questions about music (typical of the musical sciences), and articles
that primarily address issues of performance, composition or
improvisation. We also encourage authors to aim for a balance between at
least two of these three aspects within individual submissions, and to
bridge those aspects both epistemologically and methodologically (e.g.
by qualitative research methods).
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- The unclear boundary between humanities
and sciences does not mean that expertise is transferable from one side
to the other. In recent decades, the research literature in most
disciplines has steadily expanded and become more specialised, and there
has been a similar development in practically oriented disciplines,
including musical performance. Today, it takes many years of careful
work to acquire expertise at the highest international level in a given
discipline. It is no longer possible for individual music researchers to
attain international recognition as experts in more than one of the
humanities, sciences and practically oriented disciplines. JIMS
explicitly promotes interdisciplinary collaboration, because it has
become a prerequisite for interdisciplinary scholarship at the highest
level.
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- Acknowledgment.
- We thank David Fallows, Susan McClary,
Raymond McDonald, Bruno Nettl and Eleanor Selfridge-Field for their
valuable comments and support and welcome further suggestions.
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- * This text was written by Richard
Parncutt.
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