Robert E. Brown (18 April 1927 – 29 November 2005) was an American ethnomusicologist, educator, and advocate for multicultural music education. He is widely credited with coining the term “world music” in the early 1960s and played a pivotal role in establishing ethnomusicology as a scholarly discipline in the United States.
Early life and education
Brown was born in Utica, New York, and grew up in Clinton, New York. He completed his undergraduate studies at Ithaca College before pursuing graduate work at Cornell University. In 1953 he entered a Ph.D. program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), initially as a piano major. After the arrival of ethnomusicologist Mantle Hood at UCLA, Brown switched to the emerging ethnomusicology program and became Hood’s first graduate assistant. He earned his doctorate in 1965 with a dissertation entitled The Mridang: A Study of Drumming in South India.
Academic career
Brown began teaching at Wesleyan University in 1961, where he founded the institution’s ethnomusicology program. His pedagogical philosophy emphasized “bi‑musical” proficiency: students were expected to achieve competence on instruments from both their own cultural tradition and a non‑Western tradition. Throughout the 1970s he served as a visiting lecturer at three additional universities.
In 1979 Brown joined the faculty of San Diego State University (SDSU) as chairman of the School of Music. At SDSU he introduced world‑music courses and directed performance ensembles, including gamelan groups, thereby expanding the university’s curricular focus beyond Western classical music.
World Music advocacy
In the early 1960s Brown began using the phrase “world music” to describe a pedagogical approach that integrated non‑Western musical traditions into mainstream music education. He co‑founded the Center for World Music (originally the American Society for Eastern Arts) in 1973, serving as its executive director. Under his leadership the Center developed community outreach programs, study‑abroad opportunities, and the “World Music in the Schools” initiative, which brought performances and workshops by artists from India, Indonesia, Africa, and Latin America to K‑12 classrooms throughout Southern California.
Later years and legacy
Brown retired from SDSU in 1992 but continued to direct the Center for World Music until his death in La Mesa, California, in 2005. His contributions are recognized for helping to institutionalize ethnomusicology in American academia, for promoting cross‑cultural musical exchange, and for popularizing the concept of “world music” as a field of study and public interest.
Selected publications and recordings
- The Mridang: A Study of Drumming in South India (Ph.D. dissertation, UCLA, 1965)
- Numerous articles on gamelan, Indian classical music, and music pedagogy (published in journals such as Ethnomusicology and The Journal of Music Education)
- Recordings produced through the Center for World Music, documenting performances by traditional artists from South Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Recognition
Brown’s work earned him honors from various cultural organizations and academic societies, and he is frequently cited in histories of ethnomusicology and world‑music education. His archives, including research notes, correspondence, and recordings, are housed in the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois.
