Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts School of Music Bruno Nettl Papers Finding Aid Holdings Fine Arts and Applied Arts School of Music Bruno Nettl Papers Finding Aid By Nolan Vallier, Adriana Cuervo, and Elizabeth Hartman
Title: Bruno Nettl Papers, 1949-2010
ID: 12/5/39
Primary Creator: Nettl, Bruno (1930-2020)
Extent: 21.5 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, Czechoslovakia, Ethnography, Ethnomusicology, Faculty, Faculty Papers, 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, Musicology, Society for Ethnomusicology, Tehran, Iran, World Music
Formats/Genres: Papers
Languages: English, Persian, Persian, Spanish;Castilian, German, Czech, Korean, Italian, Chinese
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.
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. At the age of nine he and his family fled the National Socialist movement in Prague and emigrated to the United States where 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 just two years later, studying with the preminent musicologist George Herzog. 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, 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 from the University of Michigan.
In 1964, Dr. Nettl was hired as an assistant 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. 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 retired from the University of Illinois, but continued to teach part-time. In 2000, he 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 brought him to the Museum of the Southwest in 1984, where he consulted hundreds of early audio recordings of Blackfoot music. In 1966, he adopted a secondary area of research after he received a Fulbright Research Fellowship to conduct research in Iran. While in Tehran, he studied with the Iranian pedagog Nour Ali Boroumand. 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.
Nettl 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 was founded just 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 twice 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.
Nettl was also the recipient of 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.
Champaign, Illinois
Czechoslovakia
Ethnography
Ethnomusicology
Faculty
Faculty Papers
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
Musicology
Society for Ethnomusicology
Tehran, Iran
World Music
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. Autobiography entitled Prague 1930-1939, transferred to the Sousa Archives from Faculty Papers on August 7, 2025. Two boxes of correspondence were donated by Rebecca Fiol on October 16, 2025.
Access Restrictions: None
Acquisition Source: Bruno Nettl
Acquisition Method: Gift
Other Note: Pages
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