Musicologies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The study of music as a discipline, exploring its history, theory, and cultural significance
2. An academic field that examines the social, political, and emotional contexts of music across various cultures
3. A branch of scholarship that investigates the diverse approaches to understanding and interpreting musical practices and traditions

Etymology: "Musicologies" is simply the plural of "musicology," so the real story is that of the base word. It is built from "music" and the combining element "-logy," which comes from Ancient Greek "lógos," meaning word, speech, or reasoning, and in the sense of a systematic account or study. The Greek ending "-logia" passed into Latin as "-logia" and then into French as "-logie," from which English took the form "-logy." Because the element is so productive, English speakers have attached it to dozens of subjects, from "biology" to "theology." Musicology is therefore, in essence, the logos of music: the reasoned, systematic study of music as a subject of knowledge rather than merely as a performance art. The compound follows the same pattern as "biology" or "geology," and the plural form simply counts separate branches or schools of that study.