Heartland Excursions: Ethnomusicological Reflections on Schools of Music

by Bruno Nettl

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 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"

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Anthropology

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Bruno Nettl is professor emeritus of music and anthropology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. An internationally renowned musicologist, he is both a founder and past president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and the author of many books.

Reviews

[addy · Rating 4 out of 5]

liked this! other than the part where he said that women study music because they want to teach it to children (which i do, but this felt reductive)

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything Nettl writes is worth reading and re-reading, once for his brilliance and insight, and again for the clarity and directness of his writing (a model for any writing, academic or not). This book should be required reading in schools of music everywhere, since it forces us to confront the deeper implications of what we do every day.

[Steve Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first chapter, "In the Service of Muisc" begins with a discussion of an Extraterrestrial Ethnomusicologist, great material for anyone who thinks about creating, playing, and participating in music (listening, too!).

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

ethnomusicologically satisfying