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2020-11-15T07:31:26Z

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[[Image:RobertEBrown.jpg|thumb|right|Bob Brown circa 2004]]

'''Robert Edward "Bob" Brown'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.illinois.edu/archives/archon/?p=creators/creator&id=2159|title=Brown, Robert E. (Robert Edward) (1927-2005) : University of Illinois Archives|publisher=Library.illinois.ewdu\accessdate=16 January 2015}}</ref> (18 April 1927 – 29 November 2005) was an American [[ethnomusicologist]] who is credited with coining the term "[[world music]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051211/news_lz1j11brown.html|title=Robert E. Brown; brought world musicto San Diego schools - The San Diego Union-Tribune|publisher=Signonsandiego.com|accessdate=16 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/04/new-classical-tracks-lively-baroque-fusion/|title=New Classical Tracks: Lively Baroque Fusion|publisher=Minnesota.publicradio.org|accessdate=16 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfcOBAAAQBAJ&q=Robert+E.+Brown+ethnomusicologist+american&pg=PA1198 |title=Music in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An Encyclopedia |date=18 July 2014 |editor=Thompson, William Forde |page=1198 |isbn=9781452283029 |accessdate=16 May 2016}}</ref> He was also well known for his [[audio recording|recordings]] of [[music]] from [[Indonesia]]. Many of these recordings, among the first widely distributed and commercially available in the [[United States]], inspired a generation of musicians to study and perform Indonesian [[gamelan]] music.

Brown grew up in [[Clinton, Oneida County, New York|Clinton, New York]]. He had a very extensive background in music while still young. He played [[timpani]] and [[bass drum]] in a band, [[double bass]] and [[cello]] in the school [[orchestra]] and accompanied the school chorus on piano. A sponsor enabled him to study [[music theory]] at the Utica Conservatory with Johannes Magendanz and study [[piano]] with Clara Magendanz. He performed the first movement of the [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]] [[Piano Concerto (Schumann)|piano concerto]] with the high school orchestra during his sophomore year.

The same year, he held the job of [[Organ (music)|organist]] at [[Hamilton College (New York)|Hamilton College]]. He also performed popular music with his own band, '''Bobby Brown and His Swingsters'''. During his undergraduate years at [[Ithaca College]] and his graduate studies at [[Cornell University]] he continued to work as an organist.

Bob Brown started his doctoral studies at [[UCLA]] as a piano major in 1953. After [[Mantle Hood]] began teaching at UCLA the following year, Brown switched to ethnomusicology and became Hood's first teaching assistant. Brown received his doctorate in ethnomusicology from [[UCLA]]. His dissertation was titled ''The [[Mridangam|Mrdanga]]: A Study of Drumming in [[Carnatic music|South India]]'' (1965). He studied and played the ''mridangam''.

Brown began teaching at [[Wesleyan University]] in 1961.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jgetter.web.wesleyan.edu/navaratri.html|title=Navaratri and Indian Music at Wesleyan|last=Getter|first=Joseph M.|accessdate=2009-04-25|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817135101/http://jgetter.web.wesleyan.edu/navaratri.html|archivedate=2007-08-17}}</ref> He founded the world music/[[ethnomusicology]] program at Wesleyan. It was here that Brown first used the term "world music" to describe the ethnomusicology program.

Bob Brown followed the philosophy advocated by Mantle Hood, who could be considered the father of [[gamelan]] music education in the USA: that students become bi-musical. Bob Brown's own "World Music" programs from the 1960s onwards were built on the ideal of [[bi-musicality]], which was an innovative approach to music education at the time. It proposed that students, after acquiring competence in the music of their native culture, study with master musicians from another culture, and thereby acquire competence in the musical performance and theory of that culture too. The result would be a person with musical competence in two cultures: ''bi-musicality''.

Brown was one of the organizers of the [[American Society for Eastern Arts]] (ASEA). In 1973, Brown founded the [[Center for World Music]]. He remained president of the organization until his death. Thinking about how much musical experience was available to him in high school motivated him to start the "Music in the Schools program" for the Center for World Music.

Brown began teaching at [[San Diego State University]] in 1979. He served as the Chair of the School of Music for three years from 1979 to 1982. He retired in 1992. Brown also was the owner of Girikusuma or Flower Mountain, a center for traditional [[Bali]]nese performing arts located in [[Bali]].

In 2006, The [[University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana]] announced that Brown had bequeathed his extensive collection of instruments, recordings, books, paintings and artifacts and to the school's world music center. The [[Robert E. Brown Center for World Music]], which opened in April 2008, was named in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.illinois.edu/NEWS/08/0407worldfest.html|title=World Music Center at Illinois to celebrate grand opening|last=Mitchell|first=Melissa|accessdate=2009-04-25}}</ref>

==Recordings==
Brown produced five of the early recordings from Indonesia in the "Explorer Series" released on [[Nonesuch Records]]. Two of the recordings were from Bali, and three were from [[Java (island)|Java]]:
*''Bali: Gamelan Semar Pegulingan''
*''Bali: Music from the Shadow Play'', music from a [[wayang]] performance
*''[[Java: Court Gamelan]]'' (1971). This [[Grammy]]-nominated recording has been potentially heard throughout the galaxy. In 1977, [[NASA]] launched the space probe [[Voyager program|Voyager]] with a [[Voyager Golden Record|gold-plated copper record]] featuring sounds and images of life and culture on Earth. Working with [[Carl Sagan]], Brown chose a track from the recording, ''[[Ketawang: Puspawarna]]'', to represent [[Southeast Asia]]. He also recommended the recording "Jaat Kahan Ho" in Raga Bhairavi by Surashri [[Kesarbai Kerkar]] for inclusion on the Voyager disc, since he believed it to be the finest recorded example of Indian classical music.
*''Java: Court Gamelan, Volume II'' (1977)
*''Java: Court Gamelan, Volume III'' (1979)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20051211/news_lz1j11brown.html Obituary in San Diego Union-Tribune]
*[http://www.library.illinois.edu/archives/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=5711&q=brown Robert E. Brown Papers and Center for World Music Records, c. 1945 - 2005, The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music]
*[http://centerforworldmusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/REB_Obit_SEM_2006-01.pdf Ithaka: A Tribute to Robert E. Brown (1927-2005)] SEM Newsletter 40-2 (Mar 06)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Robert E.}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:Cornell University alumni]]
[[Category:American musicologists]]
[[Category:Ethnomusicologists]]
[[Category:Gamelan]]
[[Category:Hamilton College (New York) alumni]]
[[Category:Ithaca College alumni]]
[[Category:People from Clinton, Oneida County, New York]]
[[Category:Wesleyan University faculty]]
[[Category:San Diego State University faculty]]
[[Category:UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni]]
[[Category:Mridangam players]]
[[Category:20th-century musicologists]]

Robert E. Brown - Revision history

>Citation bot: Alter: url, template type. URLs might have been internationalized/anonymized. Add: isbn, date. Correct ISBN10 to ISBN13. | You can use this bot yourself. Report bugs here. | Suggested by Abductive | Category:20th-century musicologists | via #UCB_Category 503/825