On the study of music as material social practice

A fresh approach to musicology or the study of music is to regard it as material social practice which looks at a particular piece of music as a socially based art form that is a product of a particular culture and includes its production such as those of manuscripts and the instruments to perform it. This approach, which is imbued with cultural materialism, is distinguished from the traditional one which elevates music to a timeless sphere and judges it according to certain universal ideals independent of the politics and culture of its time.