Peter J. Hoesing

Director of Sponsored Programs, Dakota state university

Here’s a remembrance of Prof. Nettl.

Bruno Nettl’s name has been synonymous with Ethnomusicology since long before I first heard of the field as an undergraduate student in a global music survey course. His work was foundational for an M.M. cohort at Florida State University as it has been for so many graduate students, again long before we arrived there. As students, we were keenly aware of him at SEM conferences. He was such a ubiquitous influence that a goofy game of “Marco Polo” in a hotel pool during SEM in Miami in 2003 replaced the calls and responses with his name: Bruno! Nettl! We saw him around, our professors introduced us to him, and we attended events that featured him, but I really didn’t get a chance to interact much with Prof. Nettl until after I’d finished the Ph.D. and was chatting with a press about the book it would become. 

Bruno heard a few encouraging words to me from Laurie Matheson as we were wrapping up our meeting at SEM in Indianapolis in 2013. As he moseyed past the University of Illinois Press booth, she’d said something like, “well, that’s good progress; just keep going each day. That’s how Bruno gets books done.” He turned around, recognizing the opportunity she’d created for him to encourage a junior colleague, and he said, “Yep. A few pages each day, and it’ll be done.” At a busy conference, he could well just have moved along from there to get the new books he was searching for, chat with colleagues and friends, or get to his next session. Instead, we were his sole focus as he asked about my work and the book project with genuine interest.

This was Bruno’s magic: ever the ethnographer and teacher, his example of how to listen, really listen, was constant. He knew from years in the field and the classroom that an ounce of sincere interest in someone’s work could open them to sharing it generously. Today I pour a libation and sing a prayer of gratitude as I repeat his name, this master of listening. I thank Bruno Nettl for the countless fieldwork and cocktail party stories and songs he revealed and shared. Professor Bruno Nettl’s exemplary work shaped ethnomusicology from its foundations and tirelessly made it better. We shall miss you dearly, Bruno.