Locating the choreomusical: the case of European and American dance fiddling

This essay takes the term choreomusical as a starting place for discussion of attention to the study of music and dance relationships within ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. Extending this neologism, choreomusicology has been proposed as a distinct disciplinary perspective on its own. Recent publications advocating for the usefulness of this joint research perspective have begun to establish this terminology more generally. Explicit studies of music-dance as a unitary phenomenon in performance, however, long predate this development, particularly in the closely connected fi elds of ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. This history is here acknowledged, tracing interest in this research topic to major founding fi gures in both disciplines, as they took shape in the 1950s. An examination of the application of the choreomusical perspective to the case of European and American dance fiddling provides examples of how such inquiry has been carried out and identifi es emergent methods which make use of advances in digitally based sound and movement analysis. A more nuanced usage of the terms is advocated.