Bruno Nettl (14 March 1930 – 15 January 2020) was an ethnomusicologist who was central in defining ethnomusicology as a discipline. His research focused on folk and traditional music, specifically Native American music, the music of Iran and numerous topics surrounding ethnomusicology as a discipline.
Life and career
Bruno Nettl was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1930, and he was the son of Paul and Gertrude (Hutter) Nettl, who both had musical backgrounds. In 1939, Nettl and his family, which was of Jewish heritage, moved to the US to escape the Holocaust, which caused several deaths within his family. He studied at Indiana University with George Herzog and the University of Michigan and taught from 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he eventually was named Professor Emeritus of Music and Anthropology. Nettl met his wife, Wanda Maria White, while he was a student at Indiana University and the couple married in 1952. Bruno and Wanda had two children, Rebecca and Gloria. The Nettl’s were a connected family, as his daughters continued living in Champaign even in their adult lives, and Bruno was said to be a devoted father and husband who cherished every moment with his family. He continued to teach part-time until his death. Nettl introduced and expanded the ethnomusicology department at the University of Illinois, making it among the national leaders in ethnomusicology. Nettl was known to have pride in the accomplishments of his students, many of whom went on to teach at leading national universities. Active principally in the field of ethnomusicology, he did field research with Native American peoples (1960s and 1980s, see Blackfoot music), in Iran (1966, 1968–69, 1972, 1974), and in South India (1981–82). He served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and as editor of its journal, Ethnomusicology. Nettl held honorary doctorates from the University of Illinois, Carleton College, Kenyon College, and the University of Chicago. He was a recipient of the Fumio Koizumi Prize for ethnomusicology, and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Nettl was named the 2014 Charles Homer Haskins Prize Lecturer by the American Council of Learned Societies. In the course of his long career as a scholar and as a professor, he was the teacher of many of the most visible ethnomusicologists active today in the international scene, including Philip Bohlman, Christopher Waterman, Marcello Sorce Keller, and Victoria Lindsay Levine. The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music holds the Bruno Nettl Papers, 1966–1988, which consists of administrative and personal correspondence while Nettl was a professor and head of the Musicology Division for the University of Illinois School of Music.
The Study of Ethnomusicology
The Study of Ethnomusicology, initially published in 1983, provides comprehensive discourse of ethnomusicology and is widely considered some of Nettl’s best work. The book’s first edition included 29 chapters discussing the ins and outs of ethnomusicology, which Nettl expanded to 31 chapters in 2005, and 33 chapters in 2015. The work includes an array of riveting discussions surrounding ethnomusicology, including defining the practice, the topic of universals, fieldwork, and the effects of music on different cultures and demographics.