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David P. McAllester

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This article is about the ethnomusicologist. For the computer scientist, see David A. McAllester.
David P. McAllester
Born6 August 1916
Everett, Massachusetts
Died30 April 2006 (aged 89)
Monterey, Massachusetts
EducationHarvard University
Columbia University
Known forStudy of Native American musics, cofounding the Society for Ethnomusicology, research and teaching in the field of ethnomusicology.

David Park McAllester (6 August 1916 – 30 April 2006) was an American ethnomusicologist and Professor of Anthropology and Music at Wesleyan University, where he taught from 1947–1986. He contributed to the development of the field of ethnomusicology through his studies of Native American musics and traditions, and he helped to establish the ethnomusicology department and the World Music Program at Wesleyan. His recordings of Navajo and Comanche music led to the establishment of the World Music Archives at the University.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Biography

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David McAllester was born the youngest of four siblings on 6 August 1916 to Maude Park McAllester and Dr. Ralph W. McAllester[7] in Everett, Massachusetts. McAllester held a fascination with Native Americans and Native American culture from a young age, and he also claimed to have "remote Narragansett heritage."[7]

He graduated from Harvard College in 1938 and entered the Juilliard School. However, after his first year at Julliard, McAllester began to doubt whether he wanted to pursue life as a professional musician. After taking an anthropology course on primitive music with George Herzog at Columbia in 1940, he decided not to pursue a career in music, instead enrolling in a Ph.D. program in anthropology at Columbia University.[8]

While in Manhattan, New York City, he joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and remained a member for his entire life.[8]

In the Second World War, as a conscientious objector, he applied for and received exemption from military draft, and worked with the Civilian Public Service.[9]

After the war, he returned to Columbia. He briefly taught introductory anthropology at Brooklyn College before accepting a teaching position at Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1947, while still working on his degree.[10] He was awarded the Ph.D. in 1950.

Along with Alan Merriam, Willard Rhodes, Charles Seeger, and honorary president Frances Densmore,[11] he founded the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1955.

McAllester partially retired in 1979 and retired fully in 1986 to a home in the Berkshires. He died on 30 April 2006 in Monterey, Massachusetts.[12] Although retired, McAllester remained an active scholar even into his late life, writing for publications until his death in 2006.[13]

Scholarship

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McAllester specialized in the study of Native American music. Much of his field research centered around the music, ceremony, and religion of Southwest Native American peoples.[14] McAllester's literature on Southwest Native American cultures includes research on the peyote religion across various Native nations,[15] research on music in Navajo ceremony,[16] and a collection of translated Navajo house songs and photographs of Navajo dwellings,[17] among other works.[18]

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References

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  1. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Four volumes, edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan Press (1986)
  2. ^ The Native North American Almanac — A reference work on Native North Americans in the United States and Canada, Second edition, edited by Duane Champagne, Detroit: Gale Group (2001) — The Prominent Native North Americans section begins on page 1171
  3. ^ Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian, 11th edition, by Barry T. Klein (entries begin on page 529), Nyack, New York: Todd Publications (2005)
  4. ^ American Men & Women of Science. A biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences, New York: R.R. Bowker
       12th edition, Two volumes (1973)
       13th edition, Seven volumes (1976)
  5. ^ Baker's Biographical Dictionaries
       Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Eighth edition, revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. (1992)
       Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York: Schirmer Books (1997)
       Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. Ninth edition, edited by Laura Diane Kuhn (born 1953), New York: Schirmer Books (2001)
  6. ^ Fifth International Directory of Anthropologists, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1975)
  7. ^ a b McAllester, David (1986). "Autobiographical Sketch". In Frisbie (ed.). Explorations in ethnomusicology: essays in honor of David P. McAllester (Charlotte J ed.). Detroit, Mich: Information Coordinators Inc. p. 201. ISBN 0-89990-030-5.
  8. ^ a b McAllester, David P (1986). "Autobiographical Sketch". In Frisbie, Charlotte J (ed.). Explorations in ethnomusicology: essays in honor of David P. McAllester. Detroit, Mich: Information Coordinators Inc. p. 204. ISBN 0-89990-030-5.
  9. ^ McAllester, David P (1986). "Autobiographical Sketch". In Frisbie, Charlotte J (ed.). Explorations in ethnomusicology: essays in honor of David P. McAllester. Detroit, Mich: Information Coordinators Inc. pp. 204–205.
  10. ^ McAllester, David (1986). "Autobiographical Sketches". In Frisbie, Charlotte J (ed.). Explorations in ethnomusicology: essays in honor of David P. McAllester. Detroit, Mich: Information Coordinators Inc. p. 205. ISBN 0-89990-030-5.
  11. ^ SEM (2015-08-24). "David P. McAllester". Sound Matters: The SEM Blog. Retrieved 2024-11-06.
  12. ^ Who's Who in America, Marquis Who's Who
       38th edition, 1974–1975 (1974)
       39th edition, 1976-1977 (1976)
       40th edition, 1978-1979 (1978)
  13. ^ Frisbie, Charlotte J. (2007). "The Lifework of David P. McAllester: A Bibliography". Ethnomusicology. 51 (2): 326–344. doi:10.2307/20174528. ISSN 0014-1836. JSTOR 20174528.
  14. ^ Campbell, Patricia Shehan; McAllester, David P. (1994). "David P. McAllester on Navajo Music". Music Educators Journal. 81 (1): 17–23. doi:10.2307/3398792. ISSN 0027-4321. JSTOR 3398792.
  15. ^ McAllester, David P (January 1, 1949). Linton, Ralph (ed.). Peyote Music. New York, NY: The Viking Fund.
  16. ^ McAllester, David P (1954). Enemy Way Music: A Study of Social and Esthetic Values as Seen in Navaho Music. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology.
  17. ^ McAllester, David P (1980). Hogans: Navajo Houses and House Songs. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.
  18. ^ Frisbie, Charlotte J (2007). "The Lifework of David P. McAllester: A Bibliography". Ethnomusicology. 51 (2): 326–344. doi:10.2307/20174528. JSTOR 20174528 – via JSTOR.
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