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By Nolan Vallier, Adriana Cuervo, and Elizabeth Hartman
Collection Overview
Title: Bruno Nettl Papers, 1949-2010
ID: 12/5/39
Primary Creator: Nettl, Bruno (1930-2020)
Extent: 20.75 cubic feet
Arrangement:
The Bruno Nettl Papers were initially arranged into two distinct Series: Series 1) Correspondence and Series 2) Sound Recordings in 2006. After restrictions on the collection were lifted in 2009 and additional materials were acquired from Bruno Nettl in 2013, the papers were re-arranged keeping the original order of the 2006 arrangement in tact. All materials recevied after 2013 were arranged either chronologically or alphabetically. The 2019 arrangement partitioned the papers into four distinct series: Series 1: Administrative Records, Series 2: Correspondence, Series 3: Research, and Series 4: Sound Recordings. A fifth series was created with the 2021 addition: Series 5: Recognition and Photographs.
Series 1: Administrative Records is arranged into two sub-series: 1) University of Illinois Musicology Department Files and 2) Course Files for Musicology Courses, Anthropology Courses, and Other University Residencies. Starting with the 2019 acquisition, Subseries 1 and 2 are arranged chronologically when possible and alphabetically by subject when not.
Series 2: Correspondence is arranged into three sub-series: 1) Administrative Correspondence, 2) Professional Organization and Committee Correspondence, and 3) Personal and Research Correspondence. Subseries 1) Administrative Correspondence was arranged alphabetically in 2013. Subseries 3) Personal and Research Correspondence was arranged chronologically.
Series 3: Research is arranged into three sub-series: 1) Writings, Lectures, and Grant Applications, 2) Field Notes, Transcriptions, and Primary Research Materials, and 3) Secondary Sources and Annotations. Starting with the 2019 arrangment, Subseries 1 and 2 were arranged chronologically and Subseries 3 was arranged alphabetically by author's last name and chronologically by publication date when necessary. The 2021 addition follows the 2019 arrangement, with the addition of two further sub-series: 4) George Herzog Project (1928-1999) and 5) Paul Nettl Papers. Sub-series 4 is arranged alphabetically by name, and sub-series 5 is arranged chronologically.
Series 4: Sound Recordings is arranged chronologically and by collection and tape number therein. All undated tapes have been arranged alphabetically by subject. The sound recordings acquired in 2021 were arranged into three sub-series: 1) Field Recordings and Research, 2) Demonstrations, Lectures, and Example Recordings, and 3) Commercial Recordings. Sub-series 1 and 2 were arranged chronologically, and by collection and tape number where applicable, with undated tapes arranged alphabetically by title. Sub-series 3 is arranged alphabetically by performer.
Series 5: Recognition and Photographs is arranged into two sub-series: 1) Diplomas, Awards and Honorary Degrees and 2) Photographs. Subseries 1 and 2 were arranged chronologically.
Date Acquired: 01/13/2006. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: Champaign, Illinois, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Folklore, Folk music, Folk music - Instruction and study, Folk music - Music teachers, Indian Dance, Indians of North America -- Music, Music, Music, School of, Music -- India, Music - Instruction and study, Music -- Iran, Music -- Montana, Music -- Native American, Tehran, Iran, World Music
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English, Persian, Persian, Spanish;Castilian, German, Czech, Korean, Italian, Chinese
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Consists of administrative records, correspondence, published and unpublished research, and field recordings of Bruno Nettl while a professor of Musicology for the University of Illinois School of Music. The papers document Nettl's career as a teacher, administrator and internationally recognized researcher. Of particular interest is correspondence between Dr. Nettl and other renowned musicologists including Gerard Behauge, Stephen Blum, Philip Bohlman, Charles Hamm, Daniel Neuman, Stephen Slawek, Theodore Solis, Christopher Waterman, and Robert Witmer. In addition, these papers contain his field notes, field recordings, and melodic transcriptions from his three main research inquiries: the Blackfoot Native Americans, Persian Classical Music, and Indian Music. Additional areas of interest documented in The 2021 addition to the collection are Nettl's engagement with the work of other renowned musicologists Paul Nettl this father) and George Herzog, and the international commercial recordings collected by Nettl through his research.
Biographical Note
Bruno Nettl (1930-2020) was born March 14, 1930 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He is the son of the late musicologist Paul Nettl, who taught at Indiana University from 1946-1964. After emigrating to the United States at the age of nine, he began studying music. In 1950, he graduated from Indiana University with a bachelors degree in music. In 1951, he wrote his master's thesis entitled, "The Musical Culture of the Arapaho." Nettl completed his doctoral studies with the eminent musicologist, George Herzog, and graduated with a PhD in musicology from Indiana University just two years later. His dissertation, "American Indian Music North of Mexico: It's Styles and Areas," would later be expanded in several articles and books on Native American musics. After receiving his first faculty position as a musicologist at Wayne State University in 1953, Dr. Nettl received a Fulbright Lectureship at the University of Kiel in Germany in 1956. Four years later, Dr. Nettl received a master's degree in library and information science at the University of Michigan.
In 1964, Dr. Nettl was hired as an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Illinois. After being promoted to Professor of Musicology and Anthropology in 1967, he served as the head of the musicology department at Illinois from 1966-1968, 1969-1972, 1975-1977, 1982-1985, and 1987-1989. Dr. Nettl was instrumental in establishing a curriculum for the discipline of Ethnomusicology and his early courses at the University of Illinois show the interdisciplinary nature of his design. He offered a year-long survey in world musics as well as specific area studies geared toward graduate and undergraduate students. During his time at the University of Illinois, he served as the dissertation advisor to several important musicologists including: Stephen Blum, Philip Bohlman, Doris Dyen, Martha Ellen Davis, Marcello Sorce Keller, Daniel Neuman, Ronald Riddle, Ali Jihad Racy, Stephen Slawek, Theodore Solis, Christopher Waterman, and Robert Witmer. In 1992, he became Professor Emeritus and began teaching part-time. In 2000, Dr. Nettl and his wife, Wanda, endowed an annual lecture series featuring the work of eminent musicologists at the University of Illinois. Some of the participants of this lecture series include: Philip Bohlman, Pamela Potter, Thomas Turino, Martin Stokes, Jeff Todd Titon, Portia Maultsby, Alejando Madrid, and Kay Kauffman Shelemay.
Dr. Nettl's research includes three principal areas: Blackfoot Native American Music, Persian Classical Music (Radifs), and South Indian Music (Carnatic Music). Principally, his field research took place in Montana, Tehran, Jerusalem, and Madras between 1965 and 1982. In 1965 he began conducting research on various Blackfoot reservations in Montana. His research on the Blackfoot People would also bring him the Museum of the Southwest in 1984, where he consulted hundreds of early audio recordings of Blackfoot music. In 1966, he received a Fulbright Research Fellowship to conduct research in Iran. While in Tehran, he studied with the eminent Iranian pedagog Nur Ali Borumand. In the early 1970s, Nettl continued his research on Persian Radifs in Jerusalem, examining audio recordings at the Lachman Collection. His research on Blackfoot and Iranian music resulted in two of his most famous ethnographies: The Radif of Persian Music: Studies of Structure and Cultural Context (1987) and Blackfoot Musical Thought: Comparitive Perspectives (1989). In addition to these two primary research interests, he has written extensively about the history of the discipline of Ethnomusicology. His work on this subject includes the following books: Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology (1964), The Study of Ethnomusicology: 29 Issues and Concepts (1983), Encounters in Ethnomusicology, a Memoir (2002), The Study of Ethnomusicology: 31 Issues and Concepts (2005), and Nettl's Elephant: On the History of Ethnomusicology (2010). Dr. Nettl has also written and edited several editions of the popular world music survey Excursions in World Music (1992-2012) and has written several definitions related to his world music research for Oxford New Grove Dictionary of Music as well as The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music.
Dr. Nettl has served on numerous national and international councils related to ethnomusicology and folk music. In 1961, he became the editor of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) Journal, Ethnomusicology. The Society for Ethnomusicology had been founded only six years prior to his engagement as editor. He would later serve as the society's president from 1969-1971 and as editor of the journal once more from 1985-1989 and from 1998-2002. In 1983, he was awarded the Charles Seeger Lecturer Prize and in 2005 the Society awarded him a lifetime service award as well as the title of "Board Member Emeritus." Since 2012, the Society for Ethnomusicology has offered the Bruno Nettl Prize for historical studies on the field of Ethnomusicology. Beginning in 1972, he served as the general editor for the Detroit Studies in Music Bibliography (DSMB). Between 1974-1977, he served as the editor to the Journal Yearbook of the International Folk Music Council. He has also served on the editorial boards for the Harvard Dictionary of Music, The Garland Encylcopedia of World Music, and Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology. He became a member of the Executive Board of the College Music Society in 1977 and served until 1981. In 1985, he acted as the Spivacke Consultant to the Music Division of the Library of Congress. He also served on the Board of the International Society for Music Educators (ISME) In the early 1990s.
Dr. Nettl has also won several major awards for his research and his contributions to the field of Ethnomusicology. In 1981 he was named a fellow of the American Insititute for Indian Studies and a Senior Fellow for Independent Study and Research. Most recently in 2009, he received a Mellon Distinguished Emeritus Fellowship. He died after a short illness on January 15, 2020.
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository:
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
Accruals:
Papers were initially acquired on January 13, 2006 and were restricted until 2009. An additional two boxes of sound recordings and one box of correspondence was added on May 4, 2013. Four additional boxes of files were added on May 2, 2019. An additional seven boxes of files and twelve boxes of sound recordings were added on July 21, 2021. An addition of two boxes of files and one box of cassette recordings were added on July 25, 2022.
Access Restrictions:
Collection restricted until January 13, 2009, opened January 14, 2009.
Acquisition Source:
Bruno Nettl
Acquisition Method:
Gift
Other Note:
Pages
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Administrative Files, 1965-2009],
[Series 2: Correspondence, 1958-2010],
[Series 3: Research, 1951-2002],
[Series 4: Sound Recordings, 1949-1974],
[Series 5: Diplomas, Awards, Honorary Degrees, and Photographs, 1948-2018],
[All]
- Series 1: Administrative Files, 1965-2009
- This series encapsulates Nettl's Career as an Ethnomusicologist at the University of Illinois including his department files and course files. Nettl taught many different music courses at the University of Illinois from 1964 until becomming an emeritus faculty member in 1992. Of particular note are his course offerings on Native American Music, Persian Music, Folk Music, and Indian Music.
- Sub-Series 1: University of Illinois Musicology Department Files, 1966-2009
- Box 2
- Folder 4: Musicology Division, 1966-1968
- Folder 5: Division Workload Reports, 1971
- Folder 6: Division and School of Music, 1980-1982
- Folder 7: Division, 1987-1988
- Box 4
- Folder 12: 1979 Search Committee, 1978-1979
- Folder 13: Grading Subcommittee, 1978-1979
- Box 5
- Folder 22: Division Files, 1988-1992
- Box 6
- Folder 1: Research Board, 1986-1988
- Folder 2: Musicology Admissions, 1992
- Folder 3: Honors Committee, 1985-1987
- Folder 4: Musicology End of Semester Report, 1984
- Folder 5: Colloquia, 1987-1988
- Folder 6: Admissions and Financial Aid, 1987-1988
- Folder 7: LAS-Gen. Ed. Requirement, 1980-1982
- Folder 8: Brochure (Musicology), ca. 1980
- Folder 9: Graduate Students, Prospective, 1981-1983
- Folder 10: Graduate Students, Prospective, 1983-1986
- Folder 11: Graduate Students, Prospective, 1986-1989
- Folder 12: Summer Session, 1982-1983
- Folder 13: Timetable, 1981-1983
- Folder 14: Division, 1984-1987
- Folder 15: Recommendations for Financial Aid, 1983-1984
- Box 11
- Folder 16: Governance Committee, 1979
- Folder 17: Long Range Planning, 1982-1983
- Folder 18: School of Music Memoranda, 1982-1984
- Folder 19: Guest Lecturers, Guest Musicians, and Proposed Visitors, 1982-1983
- Folder 20: Four Semester Musicology Sequence, 1976 and 1987
- Box 12
- Folder 2: Sample Preliminary Exam Questions, 1995
- Box 16
- Folder 1: Visiting Musicians and Lectures, 1965-1969
- Folder 2: Musicology Division Business, 1966-1968
- Folder 3: Visiting Lecturers, 1967
- Folder 4: Musicology Division Budget and Staff Needs, 1968-1969
- Folder 5: Visiting Musicians and Musicologists, 1968-1975
- Folder 6: Instruments in University Collections, 1969-1975
- Folder 7: Musicology Division Minutes, 1969-1992
- Folder 8: Ethnomusicology Archives, 1970-1980
- Folder 9: Musicology Colloquium, 1971-1975
- Folder 10: LAS Committee, 1974-1978
- Folder 11: Music Library, 1974-1978
- Folder 12: Visiting Lecturers and Performers, 1975-1981
- Folder 13: Staffing Recommendations, 1976
- Folder 14: Ethnomusicology Performance Programs, 1978-1980
- Folder 15: Outside Speakers, 1980-1982
- Folder 16: Summer Session, 1980-1982
- Folder 17: TA's and RA's, 1980-1982
- Folder 18: Admission and Financial Aid, 1980-1983
- Folder 19: New York Musicological Soceity Bulletins 1-3 (1931-34) Musicology Conference Memento, 1988
- Folder 20: Conference Publicity, 1999-2004
- Folder 21: School of Music National Advisory Council, 2009
- Folder 22: Former Advisees, undated
- Box 21
- Folder 1: Musicology Division Meeting Minutes, 1999
- Folder 2: Musicology Students and Advisors, 1999
- Folder 3: Musicology Courses, 1999
- Box 39
- Folder 1: Procedures for Annual Review of Faculty Activity and Projected Activities, 2005-2006
- Sub-Series 2: Course Files for Musicology Courses, Anthropology Courses, and Other University Residencies, 1965-2009
- Box 7
- Folder 6: Music 133 - Intro to World Music, Master File, 1984-1985
- Folder 7: Music 423 - Methods of Music Ethnography, Master File, 1989
- Box 11
- Folder 1: Music 423 - Western Influences on Non-Western Music, Master File, 1982
- Folder 2: Music/Anthro 316 - Anthropology of Music, Master File, 1983
- Folder 3: Tintal Patterns and Notes, undated
- Folder 6: Music 317/Anthro 315 - European and American Folk Music, 1979
- Folder 7: Folk Music Classification Lecture Notes, ca. 1970s
- Folder 8: Music 317B - Folk Music Instruments, Notes and Photographs, 1989
- Folder 9: Polyphonic Folk Music Examples, ca. 1970s
- Folder 10: Scandanavian Musical Instruments, Notes and Photographs, undated
- Folder 11: Music 317 - Folk Music, Rumanian Christmas Carols, 1979
- Folder 12: "The Problem of Classification in Folksong Research: A Short History," by Marcello Sorce Keller, 1984
- Folder 13: German Calendar Songs and Spiritual Songs, ca. 1979
- Folder 14: Music 317/Anthro 315 - Folk Music, Lecture Notes, 1997
- Folder 15: Czech Joking Song Examples and Transcriptions, ca. 1995
- Box 12
- Folder 1: Cantometrics and Folk Song Analysis Lecture Notes, undated
- Folder 3: Afro-American Musical Studies Selected Bibliography and European Folk Song Notes, ca. 1952
- Written in German and English.
- Folder 4: Music 423 - Ethnography Summaries, ca. 1988
- Folder 5: Music 316 - Anthropology of Music, Lecture Notes, 1993
- Folder 6: Music 423 - Methods of Musical Ethnography, 1991
- Folder 7: Hill Professor Residency - University of Minnesota, 1995
- Folder 8: Music 317/Anthro 315 - African Music, Master File, 1972-1973
- Folder 9: Musical Universals and Simplest Music, Lecture Notes, undated
- Folder 10: Music 325/326 - Introduction to Musicology, Master File, 1994-1995
- Folder 11: Class Exams, 1968-1997
- Folder 12: Visiting Professor Residency - Northwestern University, 1993
- Folder 13: Music 423 - Folk Music, Lecture Notes, 1984
- Folder 14: History of Ethnomusicology, Lecture Notes and Handouts, undated
- Folder 15: Sample Class Exams, 1980-1983
- Folder 16: Music 423 - Musical Improvisation Seminar, co-taught by Lawrence Gushee, ca. 1976
- Box 16
- Folder 23: General Notes on Middle Eastern Music, 1965-1992
- Folder 24: Ishi Song Handouts, ca. 1965
- Folder 25: Mozart and Beethoven Literature Sampling, ca. 1966
- Folder 26: "An Annotated Bibliography of the African Xylophone," by Ted Solis, 1972
- Folder 27: Music 317/ Anthro 315 - American Indian Music Course Materials, 1973
- Folder 28: Taqsim Nahawand Tables, Handouts, ca. 1973
- Folder 29: Ethnomusicology General Bibliography for Teachers, Handouts, ca. 1977
- Folder 30: Music 316 - Indian Music (Hindustani and Carnatic), 1978
- Folder 31: Music 411 - Ethnomusicology, Bibliography of Publications Project, ca. 1978
- Folder 32: Music 423 - Book Reserve List, Fall, 1979
- Folder 33: Music 317B - Middle Eastern Music, 1979-1982
- Folder 34: Common Gushehs of Persian Music, Handouts, ca. 1980s
- Folder 35: Radifs of Persian Music, Handouts, ca. 1980
- Folder 36: Native Music in Various World Cultures, ca. 1980-1984
- Folder 37: Ethnomusicological Study of Urban Cultures Bibliography, ca. 1982
- Folder 38: Music 423B - Western Influences Survey, Tape Contents, 1982-1987
- Folder 39: Music 316/ Anthro 316 - Native American Music, 1983-1984
- Folder 40: Persian Course Handouts, ca. 1985
- Folder 41: Suggested Readings on Transcription and Analysis, ca. 1987
- Folder 42: Bibliography of Latin American Musicology, ca. 1987
- Folder 43: Music 317 B and C - Middle Eastern Music, Handouts, ca. 1990
- Folder 44: Persian Music, Handouts, ca. 1990
- Folder 45: Persian Criteria for Musical Styles, Handouts, ca. 1990
- Folder 46: Folk Music Seminar, Folk Music Definitions, ca. 1992
- Folder 47: "Roll over Beethoven," New York Times article, Handout, 1995
- Folder 48: Music 317 - Native American Music Lectures, 2003
- Folder 49: Music 317/ Anthro 315 - American Indian Music, 2003
- Folder 50: Music 499 - Persian Music, 2006
- Folder 51: Music 499 - Studies in Improvisation, 2008
- Folder 52: University of Chicago Residency - Persian Music Course, 2008
- Folder 53: University of Chicago Residency - Persian Music, Handouts, 2008
- Folder 54: Music 418 - Music in the Czech Lands, 2009
- Folder 55: 1695 Jewish Musicians Guild, History, undated
- Folder 56: 17th and 18th Century Czech Music, undated
- Folder 57: African Music Areas, Handouts, undated
- Folder 58: American Indian Languages, Handouts, undated
- Folder 59: Arabic and Turkish Forms, Handout, undated
- Folder 60: Arabic and Turkish Performance Types, Handout, undated
- Folder 61: Blackfoot Musical Terms, Handout, undated
- Box 17
- Folder 1: Carnatic Music Handouts, undated
- Folder 2: Cheremis Transposition, undated
- Folder 3: Class Notes on Navajo Music, Enemy Way Ceremony, undated
- Folder 4: Czech Folk Song Anthology Analytical Notes, Handout, undated
- Folder 5: Czech Jesting Songs, undated
- Folder 6: Definitions of Musicology, undated
- Folder 7: Devri Kebir Rhythmic Cycle Chart, undated
- Folder 8: Folk Music Seminar, Oral Tradition Lecture Notes, undated
- Folder 9: Gagaku, Handout, undated
- Folder 10: George Herzog, Handout, undated
- Folder 11: German Ballads and Calendar Songs, undated
- Folder 12: Hindustani Music Performance of a Rag, Handout, undated
- Folder 13: History of Ethnomusicology, undated
- Folder 14: Hungarian Folk Music Research Bibliography, undated
- Folder 15: Intro to Musicology, Various Handouts, undated
- Folder 16: Iranian Music Instruments, undated
- Folder 17: Japanese Notation, Handout, undated
- Folder 18: Main Tetrachords of Maqams (Racy), undated
- Folder 19: Melodic Movement in Taqasim on the Oud, Handouts, undated
- Folder 20: Middle Eastern Music Instruments Chart, undated
- Folder 21: Middle Eastern Theory, Lecture Notes, undated
- Folder 22: Music 133 - Intro to World Music Syllabus, undated
- Folder 23: Music 337 - Music in the Czech Lands, undated
- Folder 24: Music 418 - Music in the Czech Lands, Audio Example Lists, undated
- Folder 25: Native American Culture Groups, Maps and Handouts, undated
- Folder 26: Native American Maps and Peyote Songs, Handouts, undated
- Folder 27: Native American Musical Styles, Maps, undated
- Folder 28: Oral Tradition Folk Tune Morphology Examples, undated
- Folder 29: Persian Classical Tasnif Types, undated
- Folder 30: Persian Music History, undated
- Folder 31: Peyote Map, Handout, undated
- Folder 32: Radifs of Shur, Handouts, undated
- Folder 33: Roumanian Christmas Carols, undated
- Folder 34: State of Research Final Paper Assignment, undated
- Folder 35: Shona Mbira Lead Sheet for "Chemutengure" by Abraham Maraire, undated
- Folder 36: Shur Performance Chart, Handouts, undated
- Folder 37: Some Major Figures in Arabic-Persian Music Theory, undated
- Folder 38: "Speech-Melody and Primitive Music," by George Herzog and Igbo Song Transcriptions, undated
- Folder 39: Summary of Some Ways of Grouping Symbols and Signs (Semiotics), Handout, undated
- Folder 40: Tanbur Fret Chart, undated
- Folder 41: Tibetan Orchestra and Gamelan Orchestra, Handout, undated
- Folder 42: Tone Languages, Terms and Musical Applications, undated
- Box 19
- Folder 1: Ancient Samaritan Music, Newsclipping, 1974
- Oversize Portfolio Case 1: Oversized Maps, ca. 1951-1982
- Contains six maps: Map of Native American territories in North America used in Nettl's Dissertation, ca. 1951; National Geographic map of West Indies, 1970; US Map of Native American territories, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1965; National Geographic map of Cultural groups of North America, 1982 (2 copies); Bureau of American Ethnology Map of South America, Bulletin 146, Vo. 6, Map 18, undated.
- Box 21
- Folder 4: Library Science 529A, University of Michigan, 1963
- Folder 5: Music 599E, 1993
- Folder 6: Visiting professorship at Carleton College, 1996
- Folder 7: Seminar on Improvisation in the World's Music, University of Chicago, 1996
- Folder 8: 317B Persian Classical Tapes Handout, 2000
- Folder 9: Music 418A Music in the Czech Lands, 2009
- Folder 10: Music 418A Handout: Bedrich Smetana, 1824-1884, undated
- Folder 11: Music 317, 423: Notes and Handouts, undated
- Folder 12: Notes for History and Language, undated
- Folder 13: "Music of Iran" handout, undated
- Folder 14: Persian Music Explanation, undated
- Folder 15: Handout: TerezÃn, undated
Browse by Series:
[Series 1: Administrative Files, 1965-2009],
[Series 2: Correspondence, 1958-2010],
[Series 3: Research, 1951-2002],
[Series 4: Sound Recordings, 1949-1974],
[Series 5: Diplomas, Awards, Honorary Degrees, and Photographs, 1948-2018],
[All]