Crossing Boundaries and Bridging Gaps: Thoughts on Relationships Between Ethnomusicology And Music Psychology

Judith Becker’s contribution highlights the timely issue of interdisciplinary interaction between ethnomusicology and music psychology, with its attendant opportunities and difficulties. My response aims to first of all place this issue in the historical context of disciplinary development and differentiation. As for the present-day situation, I argue that for interdisciplinary engagement to be productive, bridges need to be built between pockets of interest on both sides of the disciplinary divide. The difficulties faced by Becker do not in my view suggest that there is no appetite on the psychology side of the divide for interdisciplinary exchange, although they do highlight some of the barriers to such communication. Submitted 2009 May 27; accepted 2009 June 3.