Musicology of the Future

The AHRC ICT Methods Network is a new
initiative which provides a national forum for the exchange and dissemination of expertise in the use of ICT (Information Communication Technology) for Arts and Humanities research. The aim of the poster is to show the Methods Network’s contribution to the promotion and development of advanced use of ICT in musicology.
“We stand at the moment of opportunity”; Nick Cook’s opening statement at this year’s International Society
for Music Information Retrieval conference (ISMIR)
highlights the sense of optimism that surrounds
collaborations between musicology and computer
science. If we look at some of the areas being
developed within computer science research centres, it is clear that this is a key topic. To name only a few;
these include the research into being undertaken into intelligent sound and computing systems at the
Centre for Cognition and Computing (Goldsmith’s
College University of London), the music and audio
technology projects at the Centre for Digital Music (Queen Mary’s, University of London), and the research into audio-visual media at the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts (Lancaster University). Furthermore,
this area of research is by no means confined to the
United Kingdom; the Integrated Media Systems Centre
at the University of Southern California and the
German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence
(among others) are examining the study of musical
performance, whilst the Music Technology Centre at
McGill University (Canada) are looking into music classification software, and the Institute of Information Science in Taiwan (China) have been concerned with
retrieving audio material through audio queries, to name only a few.
However, despite the fact that the tools that are being
developed by such computing specialists are innovative
and in many cases, highly sophisticated, they have
received little response from musicologists. That is not to say that advancements have not been made within
the musicological community, far from it. Many
musicologists use such electronic resources on a frequent
basis for their research, and the development of
resources such as Centre for the History and Analysis
of Recorded Music (a major online discographic
project), the Digital Archive of Medieval Music (an
online resource for the study of fragments and complete manuscripts of European Medieval Polyphonic Music), and the Online Chopin Variorum Edition (online primary resource materials of Chopin’s editions) show attempts
at engaging with computing as part of musicological
research. How musicologists use this technology within their research has yet to be seen. In general, it appears that despite the keenness of many computer scientists to advance the topic of music information retrieval, the musicological community as a whole is unsure how to take up the technological opportunities being offered and apply them to their own research.
One aspect of the AHRC ICT Methods Network’s
activities is to bring together these two disciplines
to discuss how computer scientists can best serve
musicologists, and promote and develop the use of
advanced ICT methods throughout the musicological community. Whilst it is funded by a UK funding agency
to promote ICT methods in the UK, the Methods
Network also has an international remit and is keen to foster international partnerships and promote advanced ICT methods that are being developed outside of the UK.
The Methods Network’s first major activity concerned with music is an Expert Seminar entitled “Modern Methods for Musicology: Prospects, Proposals and Realities”. The aim is to bring together leading academics in music information retrieval and musicology to assess the current engagement
of musicologists with information technology, consider
the implications of music-computational tools for
musicologists, and see what tools information scientists might offer musicologists in the future and whether these need to be adapted for use by non-technical musicians.
This will be the first step to enable the Methods Network to identify current and future needs of this community, and identify strategic issues which can be addressed in
follow-up workshops or other activities (which the Methods Network will support). Future directions (and activities) which arise from this event in the coming months will be included in the poster.
In summary, this poster reveals the framework for
the promotion of advanced ICT research methods in music (which is one aspect of the Methods Network’s activities). In doing so, it shows the importance of the Network in facilitating discussions between disciplines and in promoting collaboration, as well as the need for activities (such as seminars and training) in order to advance the use of ICT within the arts and humanities. Cook stated; “All the potential for a major disciplinary advance in musicology is there, but we’ve got to put
in place the conditions to make it actually happen.
Otherwise we could be standing at this moment of
opportunity for a long time to come.” The role of the Methods Network is to “make it happen” and in doing so, lay the foundations for the future musicologists.
References
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