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Topic · Music

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Musicology and Musical Analysis is a research topic within Music. Science Explorer counts 22k research works in it since 1950. 10.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers a wide range of topics related to the historical and theoretical study of music, including musicology, musical theory, performance practice, historical analysis, cultural context, ethnomusicology, music criticism, musical narrative, mathematics of music, and opera studies. The papers explore various aspects of music from different time periods and cultural contexts, delving into the complexities of musical composition, performance, and reception.

  • Musicology
  • Musical Theory
  • Performance Practice
  • Historical Analysis
  • Cultural Context
  • Ethnomusicology
  • Music Criticism
  • Musical Narrative
  • Mathematics of Music
  • Opera Studies
Research works
22k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.3k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+7%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
35% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Musicology and Musical Analysis

Which countries lead Musicology and Musical Analysis research?

By volume, the United States and the United Kingdom publish the most (918 and 450 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 918 works
  2. 2 United Kingdom 450 works
  3. 3 Germany 262 works
  4. 4 France 231 works
  5. 5 Russia 189 works
  6. 6 China 156 works
  7. 7 Brazil 127 works
  8. 8 Poland 119 works
  9. 9 Italy 107 works
  10. 10 Canada 97 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 34.6%United Kingdom: 16.9%Germany: 9.9%France: 8.7%6 others listed: 29.9%35%largest
United States918 · 34.6%United Kingdom450 · 16.9%Germany262 · 9.9%France231 · 8.7%6 others listed796 · 29.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Musicology and Musical Analysis research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Musicology and Musical Analysis research, followed by University of Cambridge and Film Independent.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 50 works
  2. 2 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 32 works
  3. 3 Film IndependentUnited States 31 works
  4. 4 Herzen UniversityRussia 29 works
  5. 5 Transylvania University of BrașovRomania 28 works
  6. 6 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 25 works
  7. 7 University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 25 works
  8. 8 Weatherford CollegeUnited States 25 works
  9. 9 University of Music and Performing Arts ViennaAustria 23 works
  10. 10 University of LeedsUnited Kingdom 22 works

Who are the leading researchers in Musicology and Musical Analysis?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Musicology and Musical Analysis include Jeremy Grimshaw, David John Hunter and Paul M. Thompson.

  1. 1 Jeremy Grimshaw Canada 281k citations
  2. 2 David John Hunter Australia 211k citations
  3. 3 Paul M. Thompson United States 196k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Musicology and Musical Analysis?

The most cited paper in Musicology and Musical Analysis is "Tonal Consonance and Critical Bandwidth" (Reinier Plomp, Willem J. M. Levelt, 1965), with 785 citations. Next come "Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception." (600) and "Instrumental methods of analysis" (554).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Tonal Consonance and Critical Bandwidth Reinier Plomp, Willem J. M. Levelt · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Open access Oct 1965 785
2 Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception. K. Peter Etzkorn, Richard D. Leppert, Susan McClary · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews Sep 1988 600
3 Instrumental methods of analysis Laszlo Pataki, E. Zapp · Elsevier eBooks Book chapter 1980 554
4 Some Exploratory Findings on the Development of Musical Tastes Morris B. Holbrook, Robert M. Schindler · Journal of Consumer Research Jun 1989 553
5 On the Well-Posedness of the Kirchhoff String Alberto Arosio, Stefano Panizzi · Transactions of the American Mathematical Society Open access 1996 549
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Musicology and Musical Analysis research done?

The largest centres of Musicology and Musical Analysis research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), New York (United States) and Moscow (Russia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Brasov.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 105 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 95 works
  3. 3 New YorkUnited States 64 works
  4. 4 MoscowRussia 61 works
  5. 5 Saint PetersburgRussia 51 works
  6. 6 Los AngelesUnited States 49 works
  7. 7 WarsawPoland 42 works
  8. 8 ViennaAustria 42 works
  9. 9 OxfordUnited Kingdom 39 works
  10. 10 CambridgeUnited Kingdom 33 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. BrasovRO · 27.7 works54×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Musicology and Musical Analysis than the world average.

See Musicology and Musical Analysis on the map

Where is the best place to study Musicology and Musical Analysis?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Edinburgh, University of Cambridge and Gnessin Russian Academy of Music score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%mean 11.45%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Gnessin Russian Acad…University of LeedsUniversity of Edinbu…University of Cambri…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom 70.77.7%8.5×25 +85.6%
2University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 70.25.6%7.8×32 +87.5%
3Gnessin Russian Academy of MusicRussia 69.719.9%1008.0×20 +85.2%
4University of LeedsUnited Kingdom 68.09.6%11.2×22 +8.1%
5University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 67.517.0%5.3×25 -13.2%
6Sultan Idris Education UniversityMalaysia 61.223.1%11.8×8 -
7King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 61.15.2%7.1×21 +45.9%
8Weatherford CollegeUnited States 59.29.0%5.5×25 +1122.6%
9Transylvania University of BrașovRomania 58.24.4%61.7×28 +38.9%
10University of the Arts HelsinkiFinland 57.313.0%234.3×10 +51.7%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Musicology and Musical Analysis, country by country

Is Musicology and Musical Analysis research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 7% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Musicology and Musical Analysis.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Musicology and Musical Analysis as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.015% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Musicology and Musical Analysis0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Musicology and Musical Analysis over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Musicology and Musical Analysis10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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