Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T07:57:27.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Pluralism provides the best chance for addressing big questions about music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2021

Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis*
Affiliation:
Woolworth Center for Musical Studies, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ08544, USA. [email protected]; www.elizabethmargulis.com

Abstract

Studying a complex cultural phenomenon like music requires many kinds of expertise. Savage et al. adopt a pluralistic approach, considering multiple forms of evidence and perspectives from multiple fields. This commentary argues that a similar scholarly ecumenicism should be embraced by more studies of music and other cultural phenomena.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Cross, I. (2003). Music and biocultural evolution. In Clayton, M., Herbert, T. & Middleton, R. (Eds.), The cultural study of music: A critical introduction (pp. 1727). Routledge.Google Scholar
Devaney, J. (2019). Eugenics and musical talent: Exploring Carl Seashore's work on talent testing and performance. American Music Review, 48(2), 16.Google Scholar
Gabrielsson, A. (2011). Strong experiences with music: Music is much more than just music (R. Bradbury, Trans.). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
González-Espinoza, A., Martínez-Mekler, G., & Lacasa, L. (2020). Arrow of time across five centuries of classical music. Physical Review Research, 2(3), 033166. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.033166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacoby, N., Margulis, E. H., Clayton, M., Hannon, E., Honing, H., Iversen, J., … Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2020). Cross-cultural work in music cognition: Challenges, insights and recommendations. Music Perception, 37, 185195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. (2013). A cross-cultural perspective on the significance of music and dance to culture and society. In Arbib, M. A. (Ed.), Language, music, and the brain: A mysterious relationship (pp. 4566). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262018104.003.0002.Google Scholar
McDermott, J., Schultz, A., Undurraga, E., & Godoy, R. A. (2016). Indifference to dissonance in native Amazonians reveals cultural variation in music perception. Nature 535, 547550. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18635.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ochoa Gautier, A. M. (2014). Aurality: Listening and knowledge in nineteenth-century Colombia. Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Neill, C. (2016). Weapons of math destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy. Penguin.Google Scholar
Piilonen, M. (2019). Resonating subjects: Music and emotion in Victorian evolutionary thought. (Publication No. 22587186). [Doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.Google Scholar
Turino, T. (2008). Music as social life: The politics of participation. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Zon, B. (2017). Evolution and Victorian musical culture. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar