This chapter provides a critical history of ethnomusicology of the creative process, from the first works on oral-tradition societies and their “instinct of variation” to the most recent reflections on transcultural music and digital audio production. It shows that the question of creative process extends throughout the history of ethnomusicology and reflects the vitality of debate within the discipline. The chapter includes references from different ethnomusicological currents or schools of thought, both English- and French- speaking, from countries of the North as well as countries of the South. All these references are situated within the major social science research paradigms that have nourished ethnomusicology throughout its history.