Scholarly research on musical performance has gained momentum over the past two decades to the point that ‘performance studies’ can claim the central role in musicology that it has had for some time in other disciplines such as theatre and dance. Evidence for this exists in the burgeoning books and articles on musical performance from recent years, and in the remarkable number of musicological conferences devoted at least in part to performance issues. More and more universities and conservatoires offer programmes of study encouraging the interaction of theory and practice, rather than their traditional separation, while professional musicians increasingly present themselves as both ‘doers’ and ‘talkers’ (Joseph Kerman’s terms – Musicology, 1985, p. 196).

This healthy state of affairs partly reflects changes within musicology at large – among others, challenges to the ‘work concept’ and the presumed identity between score and music; thus, a renewed emphasis on music as sound and event, an ontological status lost in the mid nineteenth century, when music’s notation gained the upper hand. Of course, the study of musical performance has a long tradition within musicology, mostly in the fields of historical performance practice and the psychology of performance. The chief differences today are a broader remit and a simultaneous dismantling of boundaries between performance-related research domains.

The fact that we can speak of performance studies as an integral part of today’s musicology is attributable to the development of a sizeable international community of scholars, institutions to support their work, a large body of research, established modes of dissemination, shared beliefs and values, a common discourse, and a perceived identity. Notwithstanding the last of these, performance studies embraces a wide range of intellectual traditions and methodological approaches across such fields as music history, psychology, analysis, computational musicology, aesthetics, ethnomusicology, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology, while also rubbing shoulders with other art forms including drama, dance and the visual arts. This diversity is to be celebrated: it has led to considerable richness and vitality in much of the performance studies literature to date, while also providing the potential for virtually limitless engagement and exploration in the future.