Expanding Perspectives. Materialising Musical Instruments

This article suggests the potential of organology is under-developed. It proposes an expanded vision for the discipline’s relevance from the perspective of the non-organological world, which in turn, undervalues organology’s potential for informing non-musical disciplines. It argues for re-positioning musical instruments—highly specialised manufactured objects with complex and particular properties, functions, and contexts—alongside, and in relation to other equally complex material objects, their functions, practices, networks, histories, geographies, and ideologies. This re-evaluation aims to encourage organologists to consider the “wider materiality” of the objects they study and to seek out new disciplinary connections beyond their traditional spheres of reference.