What does an ethnomusicologist do?
ethnomusicological studies and analyzes music in specific cultural contexts. Ethnomusicology is an interdisciplinary field and combines methods and approaches from several different disciplines in the humanities, although the study of music and anthropology is often central for this work, and this discipline usually includes a mixture and publication in field. Many ethnomusicologists are associated with higher education institutions, but some also work in the music and cultural industries.
field work is the core of most of the work in this area. The ethnomusicologist will try to observe the musical traditions that are in their original and typical cultural contexts. During this observation, the ethnomusicologist will pay special attention to both the music structure and the meanings that are attached to music, how they are carried out, listened and experienced.
In many cases, the ethnomusikologist will approach work as observer participation and become a participant in the music culture that is subject to study. One of the most importantIt is to refrain from shifting the meaning of cultural experience more than necessary. All observations cause some change in the studied system, but the ethical ethnomusicologist is trying to have the least impact.
Information collected during field work provides a raw material that an ethnomusicologist uses to create a scientific analysis of a specific musical tradition or community. Members of this discipline often draw on the theoretical tools of several different areas, such as a strong description used to mediate the meaning of some anthropologists or careful attention to the details of class and condition, wealth and power that some sociologists use. The cultural theory of the weir of the circumstances is also commonly used to contextualization and explanation of the role of music.
The ethnomusicologist will most often do his job while being associated with a university or university. This means a certain amount of teaching. Postgraduate students in the field will usually serve as teachers' assistants and provide classification services and other support for multiple ethnomusicologists. The professors of ethnomusicology tend to teach a combination of graduates and university classes, and they are often expected to directly oversee postgraduate students and take over further managerial duties in their departments.
Many practicing ethnomusicologists are employed in the academic community, but some positions in the field exist outside the ivory tower. Ethnomusicologists can work for the music industry and use their skills to find new artists suitable for wider promotion. They can also find work as music critics or independent scientists.