This paper aims at an assessment of comparison as a central concept and methodology in the history of comparative musicology. It argues that cross-cultural comparison - if carried out on the basis of a thorough knowledge of emic principles gained through ethnographic methods - can be a powerful tool to arrive at a better understanding of musical concepts and performance practices in various cultures. Improvisation is taken as a case in point.
Anja Brunner, Cornelia Gruber, August Schmidhofer (eds.), Transgressions of a Musical Kind. Festschrift for Regine Allgayer-Kaufmann on the Occasion of her 65th Birthday