This volume collects the proceedings of the International Seminar on Ethnomusicology of the same name, edited by Francesco Giannattasio and organised by the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies in January 2003.

Although born with purely scientific and research intentions, ethnomusicology has had, from its very beginnings, a component that can be defined as ‘applied’. Setting up museums, consulting within the framework of colonial empires, organising concerts, popularising through the publication of recordings, were already part of the professional background of comparative musicologists at the beginning of the 20th century. With the passage of time, the figure of the ethnomusicologist as a mediator of culture then took on an increasingly broader role within the discipline. In recent times, however, the question of the various applications of fieldwork has developed exponentially, posing unprecedented problems and questions to the figure of the researcher of traditional musics, in some cases of such delicacy as to invest the very statute of the discipline together with the methodological and ethical positions of anyone doing research today.

The texts collected here were published on the old Cini Foundation website back in 2004 and have been widely circulated, also providing useful references for Ethnomusicology courses in various Italian universities. They are republished here, substantially unchanged, in a new graphic version and retaining their multimedia form, so that they may continue to circulate, considering them still valid, despite the time that has elapsed.

Go to the Italian language publication