Indexing of Musical Genres. An Epistemological Perspective

摘要

This article sets out to investigate genre as a basic criterion in subject indexing of music in libraries and bibliographical databases. The concept of genre is examined in relation to epistemology and to different values and views in both musicology and libraries. The point of departure is to regard music as a domain of actors, institutions and processes. A comprehensive definition of this domain is suggested, which includes several subdomains and discourses. The classical music subdomain and the popular music subdomain are introduced and related to libraries. The article further investigates the concept of "paradigm" in relation to musicology. It demonstrates how two different paradigms influence the way music is defined, described, classified and indexed and how they are part of a historical context. The fourth part of the article focuses on the concept of genre and the analysis of music and the relation between analytical methods and values/paradigms. In addition, this part focuses on the actors that are responsible for the verbalization of genres in music. The fifth part examines indexing of musical genres with a view to their function as subject access points in databases. The unsatisfactory state of today's practice, as well as the need of a better theoretical foundation of the concept of genre, is documented. The unsatisfactory differentiation in the organising of popular music is exemplified by Danish and Norwegian libraries, including the DK5 system and the Indeksering af musik guidelines. Finally, arguments are put forward for developing an anthropological paradigm in relation to organizing music in libraries.