Jeff Todd Titon (born 1943) is a professor emeritus of

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

. He holds a B.A. (1965) from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zepha ...

, an M.A. (in English, 1970) and a Ph.D. (in American Studies, 1971) from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. He taught American literature, folklore and ethnomusicology in the departments of English and Music at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

(1971-1986), where he co-founded the American Studies program and also the M.A. program in Ethnomusicology. He taught at

(1986–2013) where he was director of the Ph.D. program in Ethnomusicology. He held visiting professorships at

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1866, the main campus is between Northfield and the approximately Carleton ...

Berea College Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. It was integrated from as early as 1866 ...

East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University (ETSU) is a public research university in Johnson City, Tennessee. It was historically part of the State University and Community College System of Tennessee under the Tennessee Board of Regents, but since 2016, ...

and

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

's Folklore Institute. His published books include ''Early Downhome

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

: A Musical and Cultural Analysis'' (

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

Press, 1977; 2nd edition, University of North Carolina Press, 1994), ''Powerhouse for God: Speech, Chant and Song in an Appalachian Baptist Church'' (

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Press, 1988; 2nd ed. University of Tennessee Press, 2018), ''Toward a Sound Ecology: New and Selected Essays'' (Indiana University Press, 2020). He is co-editor of the ''Oxford Handbook of Applied Ethnomusicology'' (Oxford University Press, 2015), ''Sounds, Ecologies, Musics'' (Oxford University Press, 2023) and general editor of ''Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples'' (Cengage/Schirmer Books, 6th ed., 2016). He was editor of ''Ethnomusicology'', the journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, from 1990-1995. In 1998, he was elected a Fellow of the American Folklore Society, and in 2020, he received their Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award. In 2015, his field recordings were chosen for preservation in the National Recording Registry, Library of Congress. Titon is known for developing collaborative ethnographic research based on reciprocity and friendship, for helping to establish an applied ethnomusicology based in social responsibility, for proposing that music cultures can be understood as ecosystems, for introducing the concepts of musical and cultural sustainability, and for his appeal for a sound commons for all living creatures and his current ecomusicological project of a sound ecology. His definition of ethnomusicology as "the study of people making music"—making the sounds they call music, and making music as a cultural domain—is widely accepted within the field.''Worlds of Music'', 2nd. ed., p. xxi. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.

References

Relevant literature

*Titon, Jeff Todd. 2020. ''Toward a Sound Ecology: New and Selected Essays.'' Indiana University Press. 324 pages. (hard cover). Living people Brown University faculty American ethnomusicologists 1943 births {{US-ethnomusicologist-stub