Ecomusicology as an Ecocritical and Naturecultural Approach to Musicology
Ulaş ÖzdemirEkoeleştirel ve Doğakültürel Bir Müzikoloji Yaklaşımı Olarak Ekomüzikoloji
Ulaş ÖzdemirThe relationship between human and nature is critically re-considered today. Particularly in Western culture, the way of thinking in which human and nature are constructed as opposites has been examined and criticized in depth through critical studies. After World War II, both the development of critical thinking in the academic field and the emergence of environmental crises all over the world have increased the debate on environmental/ nature awareness. From the late 1960s onwards, critical approaches began to multiply in different fields of science, and over time, they became more prominent with the discussions of postmodernism and poststructuralism. In parallel with the development of the idea of ecocriticism in the field of literature, critical or new musicology studies have influenced the existing paradigms in the field of musicology, and the question of what music is in this context has begun to be handled from a very broad perspective.
In this period in which the human-nature relationship was reconsidered, academic studies on the one hand and activist activities for the environment on the other hand increased, and scientific, artistic or activist studies were carried out in many subjects from the protection of natural life to the environmental crisis. Sustainability of ecosystems has been one of the most important topics among these studies.
Studies that emerged as “critical musicology” in the UK or “new musicology” in the United States and developed under the influence of different critical theories have the approach that musicology should be critically considered as a science. Today, influencing the “old” musicological paradigms, the so-called new or critical musicology studies have also come into contact with different sub-branches of ethnomusicology and have created a broad framework of music sciences that can be regarded as “new (ethno)musicologies”. Thus, musicology has become an “intertextual field”. One such practice is ecomusicology, nurtured by both new (ethno)musicological approaches and ecocritical thinking.
The ecocritical approach in musicology developed in parallel with the spread of environmental concern in physics, natural and social sciences, especially in the 1970s, but it gained value as “ecomusicology” in North American and Scandinavian academic circles in the 2000s. The critical and activist approach of the new musicology studies to the positivist music research influenced ecomusicology. Different conceptual and methodological tools are used in ecomusicology studies that intersect with different fields such as sound studies, acoustics, bioacoustics, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, cultural studies, and environmental studies and sciences.
The field of ecomusicology, where ecocritical thinking and musicology come together, has included nature in music and culture studies, and has greatly expanded its field of study, and has enabled the study of all kinds of sounds existing in nature. Ecomusicologists, who are open to other disciplines conceptually and methodically, are interdisciplinary. With their political positions on environment/nature issues, ecomusicologists seeking to respond to ecological crises through music research by developing environmental/ nature awareness both in academia and outside academia, therefore go one step beyond the musicology with the answers they find and become “involved” in environmental/ nature issues. Another important issue on which ecomusicology focuses is the sustainability of music cultures as ecosystems.
Ecomusicology tends to approach and discuss the objects in question from an expanding point of view by critically examining not only what we mean by “nature”, but also by “music”. In other words, ecomusicology, as an ecocritical and naturecultural musicology approach, is an interdisciplinary field that raises critical questions about the relationship between music, culture, and nature and seeks answers to these questions. Today ecomusicology is a rapidly evolving field as an ecocritical and naturecultural musicology approach with a wide range of study subjects, conceptual world, and methodological tools. In this article, the history and development process of the ecomusicology field is examined in detail with the aim of presenting a perspective for future research in this field in Turkey.
