Mantle Hood Papers
Owning Institution: UCLA, Ethnomusicology Archive
About this Collection
Mantle Hood (1918-2005), an ethnomusicologist and educator, made enormous contributions to the study of ethnomusicology in the United States. After completing undergraduate and graduate study in music at UCLA, Hood taught from 1954-1975. In 1960, he founded the Institute of Ethnomusicology, the precursor to UCLA's Department of Ethnomusicology. In 1960, he published one of his major theoretical contributions to the field on "bi-musicality," arguing that ethnomusicologists' practice requires the ability to play the music that they study. While considered controversial when published, it is now an established part of the discipline. He was a leading figure in research on Javanese gamelan music and arranged for one of the first gamelans to be taught at a U.S. university. This set of instruments (bronze gongs and metallophones) was cast in Java and given by the Javanese the honorific name Khjai Mendung (Venerable Dark Cloud). Hood is also remembered for his ethnographic documentary film on Ashanti drumming, "Atumpan: The Talking Drums of Ghana." In 1971, he published "The Ethnomusicologist," which outlined research issues and questions in a then still nascent field. He received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Fulbright Fellowship, and a Ford Foundation Fellowship. Hood served as President of the Society for Ethnomusicology from 1965 to 1967. The digital collection includes documentation of Hood's travels, acquisitions, and notes on gamelan. View this collection on the contributor's website.View our statement on digital primary resources and historical description.
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