There are several ways to find a musicologist:
- Online directories: Websites such as LinkedIn, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate have directories of musicologists and their contact information.
- Professional organizations: Join or search the website of a professional organization such as the American Musicological Society (AMS) or the Society for Music Theory (SMT) to find musicologists.
- University departments: Many universities have musicology departments that you can contact to find musicologists.
- Networking: Attend conferences, workshops, and concerts to meet musicologists and build your network.
- Recommendations: Ask colleagues, friends, or family members for recommendations of musicologists they may know.
It’s important to distinguish the different sorts of musicologists that are out there. Usually when someone is looking for a musicologist, they mean either an ethnomusicologist or a forensic musicologist. Here’s the difference:
Musicology in general is a scholarly pursuit that looks at music as an academic discipline, including its history, theory, composition, and performance. Musicologists may focus on a particular musical style, genre, or historical period, and may use a variety of methodologies to analyze musical works and the cultural, social, and historical context in which they were created. Most musicologists are ethnomusicologists who study music in a cultural context — the music of different societies, ethnic groups, and communities, as well as the relationship between music and cultural practices, beliefs, and values, analyzing musical traditions and the cultural role and impact of music.
A forensic musicologist is a musicologist who concentrates on matters of copyright infringement. Forensic musicology, according to Musicologize.com, is the application of musical expertise most often involving the analysis of melody, harmony, rhythm, form, and orchestration, to illuminate the relevant truths in matters of civil law. (Musicologize is a forensic musicology services provider in the San Francisco Bay Area.) Forensic musicologists are the sort of music experts who assist in cases of plagiarism like Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off or Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud. In both of those cases, Swift and Sheeran were sued for copyright infringement. The Sheeran case is ongoing. Forensic musicologists help clients determine if copying has taken place and if that copying is substantial enough to amount to an infringement.