On definitions and guiding principles in ethnomusicological minority research

Abstract

The foundation of the MMRC in November 2019 as the first Music and Minorities Research Center worldwide raised a lot of questions concerning theories and methods in ethnomusicological minority research. At the core of the lively discussions among the international advisory board of the MMRC were definitions as well as guiding principles. While the varying definitions of the term “minority” are a theoretical issue, the guiding principles of research are very much connected to methods. Adelaida Reyes was a key figure in these discussions but also in earlier ones that happened at the time of the foundation of the ICTM Study Group on music and minorities. Drawing from her work this article deals in its first part with the term “minority”, the historical perspectives of its use and meanings. The second part is concerned with methodological issues with a special focus on future perspectives, that include dehierarchisation as well as decolonisation of ethnomusicology. The article pays tribute to the foundational work of Adelaida Reyes and many of her peers in the early development of ethnomusicological minority research, which helps scholars of today to pay attention to power relations as well as intersectional approaches in ethnomusicological minority research. Thus minority research proves to have the potential to influence the discipline ethnomusicology in general.