How empirical does musicology need to be?
This session was proposed and chaired by Tim Crawford (Goldsmiths College, University of London). In his introduction, Crawford observed that the German word ‘Musikwissenschaft’ exemplifies an attitude to (or at least an aspiration of) musicology (not very fashionable in the UK these days), that it is (or can be) in some sense a scientific discipline. He noted that the multi-disciplinary process of developing intelligent and useful ICT methods and tools throws up a number of issues arising from the mismatch between the ‘scientific method’ and humanistic scholarship which could affect the outcomes of such work in positive or negative ways. Crawford suggested that the discipline of engineering in some sense steers a middle course between these extremes and may offer a means for collaboration. The discussion that ensued focused on the relationships between musicology, science and e-Science. Music is both an art and a science. Engineering perhaps takes a middle course between these ‘extrem
