Musicology Journal

8 April:
Due to me playing in Wind Symphony, I was unable to attend the Musicology Workshop this week, but I watched th
e video about researched that was linked under the modules tab for the week and I was able to develop my understan
ding of research further. I became aware that research shouldn’t be one dimensional, and that I should look for as ma
ny different angles on something as possible. The video detailed about how you can be more specific in what you lo
ok for and how you should use what you find to inform a topic of research.

16 April:
The revered Dr Sarah Kirby looked at how music was used in a nationalistic fashion in Europe. It allowed me to real
ise that music can be used to compete, and that I should be searching for ways that music can be used other than to e
ntertain. It’s easy to become trapped in the idea that music is just entertainment, when it can do so much more than t
hat. Other talks have also made me aware of this, however I was most aware of the idea in this talk. Also, the fact tha
t music evolves and adapts to its surroundings was very prevalent in the examples used by Dr Kirby.

27 April:
Professor Charles Fairchild’s discussion on how pop stars are fuelled by a capitalist system would have been more u
seful to me had there been other examples used than only Michael Jackson. Fully aware of how Jackson’s image and
catalogue was abused by the music industry to make money even after his death, I came out of this talk feeling as th
ough I gained very little. I myself feel personally that Jackson is an overused example of the issues with the music in
dustry, I had a discussion with my peers about Asian pop prior to Professor Fairchild’s talk, and found out more abo
ut that. I appreciate Professor Fairchild’s research and the time and effort he put into explaining the case of Michael
Jackson, however I feel as though it wasn’t useful for me personally.

2-15 May:
I have spent some time during these weeks on my presentation on the history of orchestral percussion.

19 May:
This week I viewed the presentations of my fellow peers Benjamin and Anna after the normal class time due to Win
d Symphony rehearsals. I was very impressed by their research and was very intrigued by their respective topics. Go
etz Richter’s discussion on how music is interpreted was very full of ideas that were difficult for me to grasp. There
was a lot of language that I couldn’t interpret myself, but I was appreciative of the fact that interpretation is a very di
fficult and full-on experience.

27 May:
The last week of semester allowed me to see in full the ideas of the rest of my peers and the excellent work they put i
nto their research. I was particularly interested in the Japanese fusion music presented by Jarrod and how they took i
nspiration from other specific styles and how their circumstances brought them to develop the style in such a specific
way. I was very impressed with his sources and the extent to which he went to find information about the history on
the style and its key musicians.