Ethnomusicology, formerly comparative musicology, is cultural musicology or the study of music in its cultural context
One of the neatest definitions of ethnomusicology is the study of "people making music." In other words, ethnomusicologists are as interested in the people making the music as in the sounds of music they are making, and they try to consider the whole process and contexts through and within which music is imagined, discussed and made, not just the musical sound structures themselves
The majority of ethno musicological studies have focused on communities bounded in various ways - by nation, region, or city, for example, or by factors such as ethnicity, age group, gender, religion, or class. More rarely, ethno musicological studies are concerned with universal properties of human sounds or logical systems. Some studies have been comparative. Many ethnomusicologists have documented and described the musical style of large repertoires in specific communities, endeavours requiring field observation and collection. It is difficult to determine the limits of ethno musicological activity
Department of Music, SOAS, University of London offers a graduate programme in Ethnomusicology where music transcription is taken up as one of the papers. University of Berkeley, California also offers a B.A. degree programme in Music where music transcription is covered.