A (Global) History of What? Three Challenges in Contemporary Music History Writing

Abstract

What challenges do we face when trying to write “Histories of Music 2.0”? How did global history as a general field impact on music history writing? Are we carrying on our shoulders the legacies of nineteenth-century music histories when conceiving new ones? Discussing the topic of Eurocentrism in musicology, following Immanuel Wallerstein’s description of Eurocentrism in the social sciences, and relating recent musicological works to Sebastian Conrad’s description of the field of global history, this article promotes a post-colonial and decolonizing approach to the writing of music histories and singles out three specific challenges inherent to global music history writing.