THE DEPARTMENT OF MUSICOLOGY AT THE ACADEMY OF MUSIC IN ZAGREB (1970-2020): EMANCIPATION OF A DISCIPLINE

The Department of Musicology at the Academy of Music, University of Zagreb marks 50 years since its foundation (1970-2020). Although musicological courses were taught at the Croatian Music Institute since 1890, a crucial step was made by the foundation of the Department of Music History and Theory in 1948 at the Academy of Music in Zagreb. Although focusing on a narrower notion of the field (music history), this institutional predecessor was important in securing the continuity of higher education until the circumstances ripened for the formation of a broadly conceived department that reflected a more all-encompassing conception of the discipline in cooperation with the Faculty of Humanities. From 1970 onwards, the Department of Musicology maintained a high share of musico-theoretical subjects in its curriculum, while conducting both a single and a double major study programme. This article follows the history of the department in four phases: 1) 1948-1970, 2) 19701988, 3) 1988-2009 and 4) 2009-2021. It attempts to consider the mechanisms of constancy and change in the gradual emancipation of a scholarly discipline. It shows all the changes of teaching staff that occurred in this period, outlining several generational changes. The relationships between general music history and Croatian music history, between the subdisciplines of historical musicology, systematic musicology and ethnomusicology, with music theory as well as with other disciplines of the humanities is considered. However, the crucial sense of "otherness", but also of being a scholarly minority in the midst of the arts is shown to be of prime importance for the growing self-confidence of the Department.