Zoomusicology

howling-wolves

Zoomusicology is an area of intellectual endeavor that developed outside of music studies, among scholars interested in animal behavior.

Although this field is almost 30 years old, people operating in ethnomusicology, who are potentially the better equipped to understand the goals and challenges of zoomusicology, are often not aware of how compatible the two fields are.

Zoomusicology and ethnomusicology have much to gain from each other. Moreover, if ethnomusicology indeed has the ambition to be a field that brings together musical knowledge in a worldwide perspective, then one would have to maintain that zoomusicology should be seen as part of ethnomusicology.

This according to “Zoomusicology and ethnomusicology: A marriage to celebrate in heaven” by Marcello Sorce Keller (Yearbook for traditional music XLIV [2012] 166–83). Above and below, lupine group vocalizations.

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Filed under Animals, Curiosities, Ethnomusicology