Musicology

It is the study of music via academic analysis and investigation, which is called musicology (from Greek mousik "music" and - logia, "area of study"). Although some music study has a scientific bent, musicology departments have historically been part of the humanities (psychological, sociological, acoustical, neurological, computational). A number of geographers, anthropologists, and other social scientists take an interest in musicology. A musicologist is a researcher who does research in the field of music.

There are three basic divisions of musicology: historical, systematic, and ethnomusicological. Historical musicologists focus on the history of Western classical music, although music history is not restricted to this. Researchers in ethnomusicology use ethnography and fieldwork to better understand how and why people generate music. Systematic musicology encompasses all of these areas, as well as music education, music acoustics, musical instrument science and technology and the consequences of these fields on music. Cognitive musicology is the study of how music is modelled in the minds of its listeners. Computational musicology is a subfield of musicology in which musicologists use computers to do research. It is debatable whether or not music therapy should be considered a subset of musicology, or whether it should be considered a distinct discipline unto itself.