The Challenge of Global Musicology
I met Michael Saffle at IMS 2000 in Budapest, though I had been familiar with his works on Liszt as a graduate student working on a dissertation on American symphonic poems. In a way, having met Michael at the IMS was a crucial point in my career, as he has since become a mentor to whom I often turn for professional advice. Over the years, I have been amazed by Michael’s willingness to seek out new territories in research topics as well as approaches. His collaboration with me on two articles (in progress) – one on the utopian experience of pop music concerts and the other on the musical, cultural, gender, and political meanings of the folk-and-pop crossover group the “12 Girls Band” – is illustrative of Michael’s vision on the boundless possibilities of musicological research. After all, he is also working on various other projects including a new catalogue of Liszt’s works along with Lesley Howard and Michael Short.
The diversified profile of Michael’s research interests leads me to ponder how musicology and its practitioners are to embrace the so-called globalized world in the 21st century. If globalization is going to deliver what it promises, such as a world where national boundaries will become murky and the distinction between ‘us’ and the ‘other’ disappears, it seems musicological pursuits could also benefit from this so-called “global perspective.” Perhaps one of the future trends in musicological research is to be broadened to include the studying of the “Western musical diaspora” (a term I coin), the transplantation and transformation of Western music in the non-Western parts of the world, where Western music has become part of the national soundscape. Take for instance, in the PRC, there are over one million students learning to play the piano, and the musicology department of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing entails a full-time teaching staff of 48 and a student body of over 200.
Being a US-trained musicologist of Chinese origin who is now teaching in Hong Kong, the ex-British colony, I cannot help but wonder: will one day the musicological force of the PRC, or that of other Asian countries, for instance, be able to take part in the musicological discourses of the West? Will one day national boundaries in research interests, priorities, and methodologies no longer exist? While there is no doubt that such a day is still far away, what seems plausible and beneficial in the near future is to increase dialogues among musicological practitioners from various parts of the world and, if possible, collaborative efforts that will not only result in exchanges in research methodologies and issues but also lead to better understanding of the cultures and values systems of different parts of the world.
Hon-Lun Yang (Hong Kong Baptist University)