BiblioVault - Books about Nettl, Bruno

Comparative Musicology and Anthropology of Music: Essays on the History of Ethnomusicology
Edited by Bruno Nettl and Philip V. Bohlman
University of Chicago Press, 1991
Library of Congress ML3799.C69 1990 | Dewey Decimal 780.89

Nineteen scholars from five countries explore significant issues in the history of ethnomusicology and its methodological and theoretical foundations, while providing a critique of the discipline.

"This is a useful and enriching collection of articles of interest to musicologists and ethnomusicologists. . . . The authors manage to cover much ground, presenting fascinating insights into the history of the discipline while also exploring new directions in both theory and analysis. . . . the most sweeping work of this kind to be published since the 1960s."—L. D. Loeb, University of Utah, for Choice

Expand Description

Following the Elephant: Ethnomusicologists Contemplate Their Discipline
Edited by Bruno Nettl: A collection of articles from Ethnomusicology
University of Illinois Press, 2017
Library of Congress ML3797.6.F+ | Dewey Decimal 780.89

In Following the Elephant, Bruno Nettl edits articles drawn from fifty years of the pioneering journal Ethnomusicology. The roster of acclaimed scholars hail from across generations, using other works in the collection as launching points for dialogues on the history and accomplishments of the field. Nettl divides the collection into three sections. In the first, authors survey ethnomusicology from perspectives that include thoughts on defining and conceptualizing the field and its concepts. The second section offers milestones in the literature that critique major works. The authors look at what separates ethnomusicology from other forms of music research and discuss foundational issues. The final section presents scholars considering ethnomusicology--including recent trends--from the perspective of specific, but abiding, strands of thought. Contributors: Charlotte J. Frisbie, Mieczylaw Kolinski, Gerhard Kubik, George List, Alan P. Merriam, Bruno Nettl, David Pruett, Adelaida Reyes, Timothy Rice, Jesse D. Ruskin, Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Gabriel Solis, Jeff Todd Titon, J. Lawrence Witzleben, and Deborah Wong

Expand Description

Heartland Excursions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music
Bruno Nettl
University of Illinois Press, 1995
Library of Congress MT18.N48 1995 | Dewey Decimal 780.89

In Heartland Excursions, a legendary ethnomusicologist takes the reader along for a delightful, wide-ranging tour of his workplace. Bruno Nettl provides an insightful, sometimes tongue-in-cheek, always pithy ethnography of midwestern university schools of music from a different perspective in each of four chapters, alternating among three distinct voices: the longtime professor, the "native informant," and the outside observer, an "ethnomusicologist from Mars."

If you've ever been to a concert or been connected to a university with a school of music, you ll discover yourself--or someone you know--in these pages.

"In the music building you can't tell the quick from the dead without a program."--Chapter 1, "In the Service of the Masters"

"The great ability of a violin student whom I observed was established when his dean was persuaded to accompany him."--Chapter 2, "Society of Musicians"

"Some teachers of music history would accuse students who listen to Elvis Presley not only of taking time away from hearing Brahms, but also of polluting themselves."--Chapter 3, "A Place for All Musics?"

At commencement, the graduates "were perhaps not aware that they had just participated in an event in which the principal values of the Western musical world . . . had been taken out of storage bins for annual exercise."--Chapter 4, "Forays into the Repertory"

Expand Description

In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improvisation
Edited by Bruno Nettl and Melinda Russell
University of Chicago Press, 1998
Library of Congress ML430.7.I47 1998 | Dewey Decimal 781.36

In the Course of Performance is the first book in decades to illustrate and explain the practices and processes of musical improvisation. Improvisation, by its very nature, seems to resist interpretation or elucidation. This difficulty may account for the very few attempts scholars have made to provide a general guide to this elusive subject. With contributions by seventeen scholars and improvisers, In the Course of Performance offers a history of research on improvisation and an overview of the different approaches to the topic that can be used, ranging from cognitive study to detailed musical analysis. Such diverse genres as Italian lyrical singing, modal jazz, Indian classical music, Javanese gamelan, and African-American girls' singing games are examined. The most comprehensive guide to the understanding of musical improvisation available, In the Course of Performance will be indispensable to anyone attracted to this fascinating art.

Contributors are Stephen Blum, Sau Y. Chan, Jody Cormack, Valerie Woodring Goertzen, Lawrence Gushee, Eve Harwood, Tullia Magrini, Peter Manuel, Ingrid Monson, Bruno Nettl, Jeff Pressing, Ali Jihad Racy, Ronald Riddle, Stephen Slawek, Chris Smith, R. Anderson Sutton, and T. Viswanathan.

Expand Description

Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society
Edited by Gabriel Solis and Bruno Nettl
University of Illinois Press, 2008
Library of Congress ML193.M87 2009 | Dewey Decimal 781.36

A musical practice used for centuries the world over, improvisation too often has been dismissed as either technically undissectible or inexplicably mysterious. Approaching musical improvisation from the fields of ethnomusicology, education, performance, historical musicology, and music theory, the contributors to this volume delve into diverse topics such as the creative minds of Mozart and Beethoven, the place of improvised musics in Western and non-Western societies, and the development of jazz as a musical and cultural phenomenon.

Contributors are Stephen Blum, Patricia Shehan Campbell, Sabine M. Feisst, Lawrence Gushee, Robert S. Hatten, William Kinderman, Natalie Kononenko, Robert Levin, Charlotte Mattax Moersch, Ingrid Monson, John P. Murphy, Bruno Nettl, A. Jihad Racy, Anne K. Rasmussen, Stephen Slawek, Gabriel Solis, Nicholas Temperley, John Toenjes, and Thomas Turino.

Expand Description

Nettl's Elephant
Bruno Nettle
University of Illinois Press, 2010
Library of Congress ML3799.N38 2010 | Dewey Decimal 780.89

From one of the most lauded scholars in ethnomusicology comes this enlightening and highly personal narrative on the evolution and current state of the field of ethnomusicology. Surveying the field he helped establish, Bruno Nettl investigates how concepts such as evolution, geography, and history serve as catalysts for advancing ethnomusicological methods and perspectives.

This entertaining collection covers Nettl's scholarly interests ranging from Native American to Mediterranean to Middle Eastern contexts while laying out the pivotal moments of the field and conversations with the giants of its past. Nettl moves from reflections on the history of ethnomusicology to evaluations of the principal organizations in the field, interspersing those broader discussions with shorter essays focusing on neglected literature and personal experiences.

Expand Description

The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-one Issues and Concepts
Bruno Nettl
University of Illinois Press, 2010

The first edition of this book, The Study of Ethnomusicology: Twenty-Nine Issues and Concepts, has become a classic in the field. This revised edition, written twenty-two years after the original, continues the tradition of providing engagingly written analysis that offers the most comprehensive discussion of the field available anywhere.
This book looks at the field of ethnomusicology--defined as the study of the world's musics from a comparative perspective, and the study of all music from an anthropological perspective--as a field of research. Nettl selects thirty-one concepts and issues that have been the subjects of continuing debate by ethnomusicologists, and he adds four entirely new chapters and thoroughly updates the text to reflect new developments and concerns in the field.

Each chapter looks at its subject historically and goes on to make its points with case studies, many taken from Nettl's own field experience. Drawing extensively on his field research in the Middle East, Western urban settings, and North American Indian societies, as well as on a critical survey of the available literature, Nettl advances our understanding of both the diversity and universality of the world's music. This revised edition's four new chapters deal with the doing and writing of musical ethnography, the scholarly study of instruments, aspects of women's music and women in music, and the ethnomusicologist's study of his or her own culture.

Expand Description

The Study of Ethnomusicology: Thirty-Three Discussions
Bruno Nettl
University of Illinois Press, 2015
Library of Congress ML3798.N47 2015 | Dewey Decimal 780.89

Known affectionately as "The Red Book," Bruno Nettl's The Study of Ethnomusicology became a classic upon its original publication in 1983. Scholars and students alike have hailed it not just for its insights but for a disarming, witty style able to engage and entertain even casual readers while providing essential grounding in the field. In this third edition, Nettl revises the text throughout, adding new chapters and discussions that take into account recent developments across the field and reflecting on how his thinking has changed or even reversed itself during his sixty-year career. An updated bibliography rounds out the volume.

A classroom perennial and a must-have for any scholar's bookshelf, the third edition of The Study of Ethnomusicology introduces Nettl's thought to a new generation.

Expand Description