FROM THE GUEST EDITOR - ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY OF MUSIC

Music is a wide field that has important artistic and scientific disciplines attached to it so much so that it has various subdisciplines in the scientific sense and artistic sense. Moreover, there is a close relationship between these artistic and scientific disciplines. Music has a connection with social sciences such as philosophy, mythology, sociology, politics, ethics, aesthetics, communication, education and semiology as well as with scientific disciplines such as physics, acoustics, engineering and mathematics. It is, therefore, impossible for a musicologist to master each of these subdisciplines as a whole.

In this context, ethnomusicology and the sociology of music are the two closest fields in musicology in terms of approach and methodology, which means that they converge at certain points and diverge at others. What differs between ethnomusicology and the sociology of music is the fact that they tend to deal with small- and large-scale communities, respectively. Moreover, while the former addresses the static aspect of music related to culture and ethnicity, the latter tends to be more interested in the changing, modernizing and collective aspects of musicology. Max Weber, George Schimmel, Alfred Schutz, Pierre Bourdieu and Theodor Adorno are sociologists of music who try to systematize the formation of the discipline of the sociology of music by actually applying the approaches and methods of the field of sociology to the field of music. Ethnomusicologists, on the other hand, contribute to the formation of ethnomusicology by applying cultural and social anthropological approaches and methods to music. Such ethnomusicologists as Alan P. Merriam, Bruno Nettl, Jaap Kunst and Philip Bohlman have used the methods, techniques and approaches, particularly of the social and cultural subdisciplines of anthropology for the cultural analysis of practices related to indigenous/ethnic music, and thus provided research methods and theoretical framework for the field.

These two disciplines largely intersect and have much in common with each other in their analysis of music practices related to societies and communities in the urbanizing, modernizing and globalizing world. We have, therefore, titled this special issue neither only as music sociology nor only as ethnomusicology as it contains works from the fields of ethnomusicology and the sociology of music, hence the title "ethnomusicology and sociology of music."

The articles The Socio-Historical Background of the Classifications on Popular Music in Turkey and the West: A Comparison Between the Hierarchies of Taste (Popüler Müziğin Türkiye’deki Sınıflandırılması Üzerine Sosyo-Tarihsel Bir Bakış: Beğenilerin Hiyerarşisi Arasında Bir Karşılaştırma) (author: Onur Güneş AYAS) and Müzik Sosyolojisinde Theodor W. Adorno'nun Yeri (Theodor W. Adorno and the Sociology of Music) (author: Mümtaz Levent AKKOL) are works from the field of the sociology of music while The Clash of Definitions: A Critical Review of Field and Fieldwork in Ethnomusicology (Tanımların Çatışması: Etnomüzikolojideki Alan ve Alan Çalışması Üzerine Eleştirel bir Bakış) (author: Ferhat ARSLAN), Anadolu Sufiliğinin Oluşturduğu Çalgı Algısı Üzerine Kültürel Bir Analiz (A Cultural Analysis of the Perception of Instrument of Anatolian Sufism) (authors: Banu MUSTAN DÖNMEZ - Mehmet Sadık DOĞAN), Küreselleşmenin Seçkin Görünümü: Dünya Müziği Kategorisi olarak Roman Oyun Havası) (An Exclusive Display of Globalization: Roman Traditional Dance Music as a World Music Category) (author: Gonca Girgin TOHUMCU) and Bağlama Eğitiminde Kültürel Kimliğin Temsili: Şahkulu Sultan Dergâhı Örneği (Representation of Cultural Identity in Bağlama Training: The Case of the Dervish Lodge of Şahkulu Sultan) (author: Ali KELEŞ) are works from the field of ethnomusicology in terms of methodology and approach.

In conclusion, this special issue addresses issues of specific areas of ethnomusicology and the sociology of music such as the Sociology of Theodor Adorno, Roman Music in the World Music, problems with ethnomusicology fieldwork method, socio-historical dimensions of the classification of Turkish Popular Music, cultural analysis of the perception of musical instrument derived from Anatolian Sufism and relationship between instrument education and cultural identity. Six articles, among many that have been submitted to our journal, have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication.

I would like to thank Rasim Özgür DÖNMEZ and Gülçin Erdi LELANDAIS, the chief editors of the Journal of Alternative Politics, for inviting me as a guest editor for the special issue: Ethnomusicology and Sociology of Music. I hope that this issue will particularly contribute to new perspectives and bring new horizons for musicology in Turkey. I also hope that this issue will be of interest and provide access to anyone - professional academic, student, or general reader- who is interested in this field. Best regards.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Banu MUSTAN DÖNMEZ

Guest Editor of “Special Issue: Ethnomusicology and Sociology of Music” of the Journal of Alternative Politics

FROM THE GUEST EDITOR - ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY OF MUSIC Banu MUSTAN DÖNMEZ Alternatif Politika, Volume 10, Issue 1, February 2018