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pointedto its assumptionof the E flat clarinet'srole. Nevertheless, greatthings were expected of the instrumentsand
players.Jullien had a favouriteophicleide virtuoso whom
Fact
and
Value
in
Scholarship
Contemporary
MargaretBent
'Musicology', writes Joseph Kerman, 'is
perceivedas dealingessentiallywiththe factual, the documentary,the verifiable,the
analysable,the positivistic. Musicologists
arerespectedforthe factsthey knowabout
music. They are not admired for their
insight into music as aesthetic experience.'1 Kerman argues that we should
raise the popular image of criticism; I
would like to arguehere that we owe it to
ourselves to foster a more generous view
of musicology.
It has become commonplace to label
pejorativelyas 'positivist'certainkinds of
scholarlypursuitsthatinvolvepatienceand
hardwork. But what is or was positivism?
As a late 19th-centuryphilosophy of history, it assertsan absoluteexternalreality,
from which facts of objective, scientific
statusaregatheredempiricallyby an 'innocent eye'. It mandatesa separationbetween
this bedrock of certainty and the independent interpretation of the facts so
gained. I have been labelled a positivist
myself.2 I must admit I am tempted to
takethe role of the priestwho askeda nonbeliever to describe the God he couldn't
accept; after listening to the reply he
1 Musicology(London, 1985), 12
2 ibid, 116-20. Incidentally, Kerman has his facts
wrong. Thurston Dart specificallyincludedcriticism
in the postgraduatecurriculahe designedat Cambridge
and London, and I am not the first woman president
of the American Musicological Society.
3 I thank
Mary Lewis for this story, as also, together
with other friends and especially Ellen Rosand, for
helpful reactionsto an earlier version of this paper.
4 Karl
Discovery(New
Popper:TheLogicof Scienztific
York, 1959), 111; cited by ArthurMendel: 'Evidence
International
and Explanation',
MusicologicalSociety,
viii: NewzYork1961(Kassel, 1962), ii, 2-18. Despite
Kerman
some quiet qualifications,
(115) alleges that
Mendel 'assumedthe roleof spokesmanforpositivistic
musicology'.
I am not concernedhere with the causal aspects of
positivism; Kerman's criticism seems to be directed
not so much at those who do proceed to an interpretativestageafterapplyingthe two principaltenets,but
ratherat certaintypesof work:'the preparationofedi-
85
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an experienced,criticalscholaralertto the
need for a guidinghandand to the inevitability of bias - preferablyinformed and
consciousbias. Ludwig'sRepertoriumis a
classicillustration.The betterthe scholar,
the soonerhis interactionwith the material
begins to shape it. Observation,selection
and orderingof data go togetherwith the
formation,testingandrefinementof hypotheses; the questions that arise, in turn,
directthe searchfor furtherevidence, the
search for a right course rather than the
rightcourseforthatinvestigation.Evidence
and interpretationare inseparable.
Even in the most traditionalsense, facts
change,as readily,andforsimilarreasons,
as criticalcommonplaceschange;we know
more music, we have more evidence in
hand.Factsarealive. Knowledgeis on the
move, dynamic and growing. How much
of it is consideredobjectivefact,hypothesis
orvaluejudgment,changesconstantly.We
can be sure that some facts will no longer
be factsnext yearor next century.Indeed,
I hope that some facts have changedsince
yesterday; why else are we here, at a
scholarlymeeting?The 'fact'thatthe Caput
mass ascribedto Dufay was by him has
given way to a new consensus that it is,
instead, an anonymous English work, a
ticket that would never have earnedit the
5 in Historical
Inlevitability,reprintedin Patrick L.
Gardiner:Theoriesof History:Readingsfrom Classical
andContemporary
Sources(Glencoe,Ill., 1959),324 - 5
hasunseatedSpitta's.Someof Stravinsky's
claims about the genesis of his works have
xxxiv (1981),
GERMAN
BAROQUE SONATAS
(Edited by Frans Vester)
Comprisingthe firstpart of a four-partanthology
entitled the True Art of Baroque Flute Playing,
this volume contains sonatas by Telemann,
Kleinknecht and Mtithel. The remaining three collections, at present in preparation, will be devoted
respectively to the French, Italian and English
Baroque.
Price: ?6.00
86
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perfor-
(1969), 63 n.4
87
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Erik
r~7~
~I~ET
rI 'IV-,q-
--'I
si
Bergman
andinteresting
"Oneofthemostimportant
alivetoday... inventive,
composers
POST
&compelling"WASHINGTON
imaginative
in1911.Studied
atSibelius
BorninFinland
of
Academy
(wherehelaterbecameProfessor
&
&withHeinz
Tiessen,Berlin
Composition)
Wladimir
Vogel,Ascona.Early
reputation
choral
works.
basedona seriesofremarkable
&
Hisstyleis basedona highlypersonal
to certain
colourful
aspectsofserial
response
ofhis
&hismusicdisplays
evidence
technique
inunusual
musical
interest
extensive
travels,
instruments
&hisstudyoftherootsof
music.
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Erik
Bergman:
these are only partial, if important, responses to the goal of all musical scholarship - to increase and to integrate our
understandingof music on as manyfronts
as possible. Let us not thin the definition
of musicology to what happens to be left
of musicalscholarshipaftervariouslimbs
have been amputated.
One of the saddestriftscurrentlyimpeding integrationis thatbetweentheoristsand
so-called'historical'musicologists.Howard
Mayer Brown has deplored the present
separationin a trainingthatwas once common to theorist-composersandto musicologists; Leo Treitler has called for integration along many lines, above all for the
confrontationandcollaborationof history
andtheory;EdwardLowinskymadean eloquent case for integration20 years ago,5
andI findmyselfechoingthatmessage.Let
us all listen harderto each other, without
territorial prejudice, individually and
through our societies, as colleagues and
teachers.Let us consolidateour common
groundwithoutforfeitingthe rigourof our
various specialities. Who wants interdisciplinary contact based on diluted
disciplines?Ourteachingencouragesus to
demonstratebreadthandrelevance,to communicate at many levels. But while of
15 'Character and Purposes of American Musicology:
a Reply to Joseph Kerman', JAMS, xviii (1965),
222-34
Words
and
Music
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