Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, speaks at length about her field and the challenges that its discoveries present to musicians. She addresses the difficulty in interpreting music of past centuries, why context matters when preparing to perform a piece of music, the history of improvisation in Western music, the effect of recording technology on how people hear music, and finally how to get started on a career in musicology.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, shares some advice for parents of musicians on how to accept, enjoy and support their child's decision to enter a career in music.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, gives some honest advice to people considering a career in music about the scope of the commitment that the field requires - the thousands of hours of practice, the potential for failure, the hard work, and the risks that it will all amount to nothing.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses her early training and education, how the field of musicology has evolved in recent decades to actually embrace music as something that’s performed or played rather than studied, and how her interdisciplinary approach to musicology took shape.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, makes a forceful case for the importance of understanding the context in which a piece of music was written, as a prerequisite for understanding the music itself. She uses as an example Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and its slow evolution in Western culture as an un-performable mess to one of the greatest works of all time.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the various ways that musicians approach interpreting music, and the outcomes that each approach can yield. She uses her own study of 17th-century French harpsichord music, and the ways in which it doesn’t make sense to 21st-century ears as an example of the challenges and opportunities that await musicians inside a piece of music.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the history of improvisation in Western music and the shift of composed music from essentially a head chart in the 17th and 18th centuries, to a more static, score-based system in the Classical era, and ties this shift to the rise of a Western music ("Classical") canon based on older works rather than contemporary works.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the experience of music in the pre-recording era when someone might hear a Beethoven symphony once or twice in their lives, to the experience available to people today, where music from any century or any quarter of the globe can be heard at will. She also points out some less-desired effects of recording on music, for example, creating "definitive" performances that might discourage players from being as daring, or as relaxed, as they otherwise might be when interpreting a piece.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, discusses the book she is writing on the history of music in 17th-century Europe. She describes some of the major trends that were shaping music at that time, as well as some of the challenges that a modern musician and writer faces when trying to recapture the original intention of works of the era.

Susan McClary, Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, shares some resources that are available for people considering entering the field of musicology, that will orient them to the field and to the major debates that novice musicologists need to be aware of.. She also gives listening recommendations to prepare people for such a career.