Musicology between Science and Art

Abstract

A reconsideration of the fundamental issues in musicological scholarship currently proceeds from the awareness that as a science about art musicology, despite all the refinement of its instruments and methodology, today has no longer any connection with art, and as a science about art it is infrequently fighting with its systemic aspects and has difficulties in verifying its scholarly status. The analysis of its position between science and art, and the exposition of its subject (the phenomenon of music), lead to the conclusion that the scholarly and the artistic cognition will have to lead to uniformity at a higher level if they are to "catch " the phenomenon of music. On the way towards this goal the author proposes a methodologically substantiated interaction among various disciplines and approaches and assumes the current methodological ramification of the scientific field to be humus on which individual phenomenological inquisitiveness could flourish, one which does not "appropriate" but rather "permits" things. It trusts the methods only as far as it can have insight into instuments. She proposes a sceptical attitude towards firmly implanted concepts with intransgressive limits as such do not correspond to the nature of music. Because of the essence of musico-creative work which the musical scholar in his thoughts and emotions seeks to comprehend, capture, and put into words, the precondition for his work is his own creative imagination and creativeness. The composer and the musical scholar namely neither in the method nor in the mastering of skills needed for musical portrayal or for musicological interpretation respectively go separate ways. The awareness of that is the real prospect for musicology, which should be art in order that it might be purposeful as science.