Highlights from the Ethnomusicology Archive: A World of Music

"A World of Music" is a documentary short about the UCLA Institute of Ethnomusicology.  A production of UCLA Public Information, it was released in 1972.  As the accompanying documentation explains, "Observes the activities of students and faculty at the UCLA Institute of Ethnomusicology, where a basis for international understanding is sought through cross-cultural studies in music and dance. Shows four of the Institute’s 15 performance study groups with students and faculty playing music of Java, Bali, Thailand and Africa on authentic native instruments. The Institute is unique in offering such practical training in the performance of non-Western music. Also shows examples from the Institute’s collection of over 1,000 instruments, and illustrates its research activities, some of which involve the use of sophisticated electronic measuring equipment. Concludes with highlights of an annual spring festival, in which students demonstrate their mastery of international musicianship."

I thought I would show some of the highlights of the film.  Sadly, the students are not named in the film nor in the documentation, so some people we can identify and some we cannot.  If your recognize someone and can give us a name, just email me! 

UCLA Javanese Gamelan Ensemble

UCLA Music of Thailand Ensemble with Professor David Morton, director

Michael Moore at the Seeger Melograph

Music and Dance of Ghana Ensemble, with Kwasi Badu (ensemble director) performing the Asante atumpan drum, and students Lynn Carpenter (not pictured), Jacqueline Cogdell (that's Prof. Cogdell DjeDje on the left), Philip Harland (sitting and playing apentema drum), Jacquelin Peters (sitting on right playing apentema drum), Elizabeth Tatar (not pictured), and male standing near Badu playing bell (name unknown).

Los Condores, Music of the Andes Student Group, with Dale Olsen (group leader) playing flute, Linda O’Brien playing guitar

UCLA Music of the Balkans Ensemble

UCLA Music of the Balkans Ensemble

If you would like to view the film in the Archive, ask for Collection 2004.15 (Film Collection) IE. 

And as of August 9, 2014, streaming online at the Internet Archive as part of California Light and Sound!!

If you want to skip past the count, start at 0:45

All photos © The Regents of the University of California, All Right Reserved.