The global expansion of musicology beyond Europe and North America in the latter half of the 20th century was shaped by several key factors. Alongside the structure of each country’s higher education system, its connection to the so-called West and engagement in Western-oriented modernization played a significant role. The presence of European music within a nation’s cultural landscape, as well as the distinct character and status of its own musical heritage, has further influenced developments. In this context, countries with direct historical ties to European musical and academic traditions–either through colonization or European immigration–generally aligned their approach with the European model of musicology. Conversely, former colonies without large European-descended populations primarily focused on studying their indigenous musical traditions, incorporating European influences only sparingly. This pattern was particularly evident in India and various Muslim-majority countries. In these regions, musicology evolved in response to national independence, secularization, and modernization efforts. Countries that underwent partial Western colonization but embraced cultural Westernization centered their studies on Western music while also applying musicological methods to analyze their own music traditions. The selection of musical subjects in each region reflects the enduring influence of colonial history. In Western Europe and North America, ethnomusicology continues to engage with musical traditions from across the globe. However, in other regions, research tends to prioritize indigenous musical traditions, with Western music playing a role only when it is explicitly recognized as culturally significant. In Latin America, the institutional development of musicology has followed diverse paths, with varying degrees of formalization. In its early stages, research primarily focused on indigenous musical traditions, aligning closely with ethnomusicology. It was not until the 1950s that academic musicology began to take root in universities, emerging sporadically as music history and ethnomusicology–first at the Universidad de Chile in 1952 and later at the Universidad Católica Argentina in 1959. This growth accelerated from the 1990s onward. Despite this progress, most universities typically offer only one level of an academic musicology program–either a licentiate (at conservatories) or a master’s degree (at universities). In many cases, musicological studies are embedded within interdisciplinary programs rather than established as standalone departments. Full doctoral programs in musicology remain rare, available at only a handful of institutions, such as Argentina’s Universidad Católica and Mexico’s Universidad Nacional Autónoma and Universidad de Guanajuato. Studying Indian classical music at Banaras Hindu University. In India, university arts faculties with dedicated music departments provide opportunities to study both North (Hindustani) and South (Karnatak) Indian music. While theoretical, aesthetic, and academic perspectives complement practical training, they are seldom structured as standalone degree programs, despite India’s rich tradition of music and arts scholarship spanning over two millennia. One notable institution is Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, which established its musicology institute in 1966. This institute offers a doctoral program in musicology and has produced some of India’s most distinguished musicologists. Beyond universities, several other institutions contribute to music research, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi in New Delhi, founded in 1953, and the independent ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata. The Sangeet Natak Akademi plays a crucial role not only in promoting musical practice but also in documenting, studying, and funding research on Indian music. The institutionalization of musicology in the Arab world, Turkey, and Iran remains relatively limited, with formal degree programs appearing only sporadically–primarily within Christian universities. One notable initiative is the Académie Arabe pour la Musique, founded in Amman in 1971 under the auspices of the Arab League. This institution organizes conferences, awards prizes, and actively promotes musical practice. Other music research institutes in the region tend to focus on national and regional musical traditions, serving primarily as centers for collection, documentation, and study. This according to this month’s free article titled _Musicology_ by Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann in _MGG Online_. The image at the beginning of the piece is of students visiting the Gallery of Musical Instruments at Sangeet Natak Akademi in New Delhi, India. ### Share this: * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * ### Like this: Like Loading...

From 2007 to 2017, El Sistema–Venezuela’s national music education system–experienced a remarkable rise, followed by an equally dramatic decline. While it may be tempting to dismiss this decade as an anomaly in the history of music education, it more accurately represents a significant return to a long-standing rationale for music education: social activism. By placing this brief yet impactful period of El Sistema’s influence within a broader historical context, including Venetian Ospedali, British Brass Bands, and American Settlement Music Houses, El Sistema and similar music education initiatives highlighted the potential of music education to directly address societal inequities. Cover of a DVD featuring performances of the National Children´s Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela at a European festival in 2013. Research on El Sistema-inspired (ES-i) programs has identified key program characteristics and potential outcomes for students, such as fostering student pride and persistence, creating a sense of community within ensembles, providing low-barrier access, promoting peer mentoring, offering frequent performance opportunities, and enhancing emotional regulation skills and psychosocial well-being. However, despite these positive impacts, El Sistema and its derivatives remain highly controversial. Reports of abuse within El Sistema in Venezuela have been described as an open secret, and philosophical critiques highlight issues with the model’s ties to the Venezuelan government, its failure to address deep structural problems in society, and its reliance on propaganda to exaggerate claims of social change. Jose Luis Alvaray, age 11, a Venezuelan musician in the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, performs as director during a presentation at a ceremony in Caracas on 8 June 2013. Photo: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images. In this context, post-El Sistema programs may provide an additional lens through which to view musical contexts for citizenship education. These programs must confront the challenge of redefining the El Sistema model, determining whether the program serves to normalize and reproduce social structures or to foster political participation. This according to “Ritornello: El Sistema, music education, and a centuries-long narrative of socio-musical activism” by Stephen Fairbanks (_Music education research_ 24/1 [2022] 18–30; _RILM Abstracts of Music Literature,_ 2022-21042) and “Teaching citizenship through music education: A case study of a community youth orchestra program” by Amanda E. Ellerbe (_Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education_ 236 [spring 2023] 43–57; _RILM Abstracts of Music Literature,_ 2023-14178). The week of 17 March is International Teach Music Week. Below, a performance by the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra, featuring some of Venezuela’s best high school musicians, led by Gustavo Dudamel, playing Shostakovich’s symphony no. 10, 2nd movement. ### Share this: * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * ### Like this: Like Loading...

Since its founding in the mid-1960s, the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) has advanced a globalist perspective, fostering international networks that have connected scholars from around the world. During a period when Europe was politically split by the Iron Curtain and non-European entities aligned with either the Eastern or Western blocs, RILM’s founder, Barry S. Brook, worked to create opportunities for multilateral collaboration on a global scale. Brook envisioned RILM as an international initiative modeled after UNESCO’s administrative structure, where each participating country established its own national committee to contribute bibliographic records to the central database in New York. This model established an intellectual framework for collaboration, promoting equality among all participating nations. In recent years, RILM has taken this approach even further by earning UNESCO accreditation as a non-governmental organization (NGO), enabling it to provide advisory services to the Committee of Intangible Cultural Heritage. The milestone marks a significant advancement in RILM’s ongoing mission to document, preserve, and share the world’s musical knowledge. As RILM’s director, Tina Frühauf, notes, the organization’s UNESCO accreditation underscores its dedication to safeguarding global musical heritage. Watch an interview with Frühauf below, where she discusses UNESCO accreditation, the recent addition of _DEUMM Online_ to its suite of resources, and the upcoming release of the _RILM Archive of Popular Music Magazines_ , a new resource that further strengthens RILM’s role in the field of popular music research. ### Share this: * Facebook * Twitter * LinkedIn * ### Like this: Like Loading...

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<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="" class="wp-image-24718" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" height="674" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" src="https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan-1024x674.webp" srcset="https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan-1024x674.webp 1024w, https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan-300x197.webp 300w, https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan-768x506.webp 768w, https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan-1536x1011.webp 1536w, https://bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/antique-traditional-folk-musical-instrument-afghan.webp 2048w" width="1024"/></figure> <p>Afghanistan’s national instrument, the rubāb, a short-necked lute, is also popular in northwest India and Pakistan and may be the ancestor of the sarod. Carved from a single piece of mulberry wood and covered with skin, the instrument has a lively and percussive sound. The Afghan rubāb is often decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay, which accentuates the wood’s deep tones and textures.</p> <p>The sound of the Afghan rubāb is easily distinguished from that of other Central Asian lutes, due to its unique construction and <a data-id="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_string" data-type="link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_string">sympathetic (or resonance) strings</a>. An unusually shaped instrument often richly ornamented with inlaid bone or mother-of-pearl, the rubāb is appreciated by musicians and collectors alike. Although the instrument first appeared between the 18th and 19th centuries, its sound as we know it today emerged in the 20th century. The musician and teacher <a data-id="https://folkways.si.edu/ustad-mohammad-omar-master-afghan-classical/central-asia-world/music/article/smithsonian" data-type="link" href="https://folkways.si.edu/ustad-mohammad-omar-master-afghan-classical/central-asia-world/music/article/smithsonian">Ustad Mohammad Omar</a>, a singer from Kabul, led a highly prestigious band for many years and made the rubāb famous in Afghanistan and internationally. Legend has it that, inspired by another lute, the sarod, he altered the instrument to better suit the aesthetics of kiliwali, another genre of Afghan music. Luthiers in Kabul, most notably the celebrated Juma Khan Qaderi, began reproducing Mohammad Omar’s rubāb alterations. Distinct from other Afghan rubābs in the way it is played and its characteristic sound, the Kabuli rubāb quickly took hold in Central Asia, gradually supplanting all other Afghan rubāb practices. </p> <p>In December 2024, <a data-id="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/art-of-crafting-and-playing-rubab-rabab-02143" data-type="link" href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/art-of-crafting-and-playing-rubab-rabab-02143">UNESCO recognized the art of building and playing the rubāb</a> as intangible cultural heritage in Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Master players of the rubab are deeply respected as elders within their communities, often taking the lead in initiating specific ceremonies and rituals. The craft of making a rubāb traditionally involves carpentry, woodcarving, marquetry, and inlay work, typically passed down as a family tradition through hands-on practice. Although rubāb craftsmanship is predominantly done by men, performers are of all genders, ages, ethnicities, and religious backgrounds. The rubāb has long been referenced in poems and literature, with various cultures sharing myths and stories about the instrument, which are often narrated by elders and masters during social gatherings.</p> <div class="wp-block-image"> <figure class="alignleft size-full"><img alt="" class="wp-image-24731" data-recalc-dims="1" decoding="async" height="379" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" src="https://i0.wp.com/bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/17604-BIG.jpg?resize=500%2C379&amp;ssl=1" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/17604-BIG.jpg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https://i0.wp.com/bibliolore.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/17604-BIG.jpg?resize=300%2C227&amp;ssl=1 300w" width="500"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An older woman teaches teaches a boy to play the rubāb.</figcaption></figure></div> <p>That heritage, however, is currently threatened in Afghanistan under the Taliban authorities’ near-total ban on music, considered corrupting in their strict interpretation of Islamic law. Since coming to power in 2021, Taliban authorities have banned music in public, from performances to playing tracks in restaurants, in cars or on radio and TV broadcasts. They have shuttered music schools and smashed or burned musical instruments and sound systems. Taliban authorities have encouraged former musicians to turn their talents to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants–also the only forms of music allowed under their previous rule from 1996 to 2001. There is local resistance to the Taliban’s decrees, however. As a rubāb builder named Sakhi asserts, the cultural value of the rubāb in Afghanistan must not be lost. He states, “The value of this work for me is . . . the heritage it holds. The heritage must not be lost.”</p> <p>This according to <em>The Garland encyclopedia of world music. South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent</em> (2013, find it in <em><a data-id="https://rme.rilm.org/" data-type="link" href="https://rme.rilm.org/">RILM Music Encyclopedias</a></em>) and “Le timbre du rubāb de Kaboul” by Roy Sylvain (<em>Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie </em>34 [2021] 77–94; <em>RILM Abstracts of Music Literature,</em> 2021-10988).</p> <p>Below is a performance of an Afghani folksong by Quraishi on rubāb and accompanied by Samir Chatterjee on tabla.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> <span class="embed-youtube" style="text-align:center; display: block;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" class="youtube-player" height="282" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UQX8ZLI-4qs?version=3&amp;rel=1&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;fs=1&amp;hl=en-US&amp;autohide=2&amp;wmode=transparent" style="border:0;" width="500"></iframe></span> </div></figure> <div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing"><h3 class="sd-title">Share this:</h3><div class="sd-content"><ul><li class="share-facebook"><a class="share-facebook sd-button share-icon" data-shared="sharing-facebook-24715" href="https://bibliolore.org/2025/01/28/the-rubabs-threatened-heritage-in-afghanistan/?share=facebook" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Facebook"><span>Facebook</span></a></li><li class="share-twitter"><a class="share-twitter sd-button share-icon" data-shared="sharing-twitter-24715" href="https://bibliolore.org/2025/01/28/the-rubabs-threatened-heritage-in-afghanistan/?share=twitter" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on Twitter"><span>Twitter</span></a></li><li class="share-linkedin"><a class="share-linkedin sd-button share-icon" data-shared="sharing-linkedin-24715" href="https://bibliolore.org/2025/01/28/the-rubabs-threatened-heritage-in-afghanistan/?share=linkedin" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Click to share on LinkedIn"><span>LinkedIn</span></a></li><li class="share-end"></li></ul></div></div></div><div class="sharedaddy sd-block sd-like jetpack-likes-widget-wrapper jetpack-likes-widget-unloaded" data-name="like-post-frame-190537176-24715-6798bda49869a" data-src="https://widgets.wp.com/likes/#blog_id=190537176&amp;post_id=24715&amp;origin=bibliolore.org&amp;obj_id=190537176-24715-6798bda49869a" id="like-post-wrapper-190537176-24715-6798bda49869a"><h3 class="sd-title">Like this:</h3><div class="likes-widget-placeholder post-likes-widget-placeholder" style="height: 55px;"><span class="button"><span>Like</span></span> <span class="loading">Loading...</span></div><span class="sd-text-color"></span><a class="sd-link-color"></a></div>