Hewitt Pantaleoni (March 22, 1929 – October 17, 1988) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his work on

African music Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and others. The ...

. Pantaleoni was born in New York, the son of Guido Pantaleoni Jr., born in Missouri to an Italian immigrant father, and Lucy Hewitt. His father was the nephew of

Maffeo Pantaleoni Maffeo Pantaleoni (; Frascati, 2 July 1857Milan, 29 October 1924) was an Italian economist. At first he was a notable proponent of neoclassical economics. Later in his life, before and during World War I, he became an ardent nationalist and syndi ...

and grandson of Diomede Pantaleoni, and his mother was the granddaughter of New York City mayor

Abram Hewitt Abram Stevens Hewitt (July 31, 1822January 18, 1903) was an American politician, educator, ironmaking industrialist, and lawyer who was mayor of New York City for two years from 1887–1888. He also twice served as a U.S. Congressman from and ...

and the great-granddaughter of New York industrialist

Peter Cooper Peter Cooper (February 12, 1791April 4, 1883) was an American industrialist, inventor, philanthropist, and politician. He designed and built the first American steam locomotive, the ''Tom Thumb'', founded the Cooper Union for the Advancement of S ...

. Trained in musicology at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

(AB and MAT in Music, 1953; MA in music, 1956), he completed his doctoral research on West African drumming in

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

and received his Ph.D. from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

(1972). His fieldwork was primarily collaborative, leading to such joint projects as Songs and Stories from Uganda, a book he created with the

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

dance ethnographer Moses Serwadda. Pantaleoni taught Western and non-Western music for more than 20 years at

State University of New York at Oneonta The State University of New York College at Oneonta, also known as SUNY Oneonta, is a public college in Oneonta, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History SUNY Oneonta was established in 1889 as the Oneon ...

, where the Hewitt Pantaleoni Memorial Concert Series continues to this day. The Mid-Atlantic Chapter for the Society of Ethnomusicology (MACSEM), of which Pantaleoni was one of the first members, awards the Hewitt Pantaleoni Prize each year to the student who delivers the best paper at the chapter's annual meeting.Profile
webdb.iu.edu; accessed October 19, 2014. Hewitt Pantaleoni's stepmother Helenka Adamowska-Pantaleoni helped found the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and served as its president for 25 years. His niece is American actress

Téa Leoni Téa Leoni (; born Elizabeth Téa Pantaleoni; February 25, 1966) is an American actress. In her early career, she starred in the television sitcoms '' Flying Blind'' (1992–93) and ''The Naked Truth'' (1995–98). Her breakthrough role was in t ...

(born Pantaleoni).

Selected publications

*Ladzekpo, S. Kobla, and Pantaleoni, Hewitt. "Takada Drumming." ''African Music Journal'' 4.4 (1970): 6-31. *Pantaleoni, H., and Serwadda, M. "Drum notation tablature." ''African Music Journal'' 4.2 (1968): 47. *Pantaleoni, Hewitt. "Music in Africa: A Respectful Knock." ''Musical America'', 12 Dec. 1968. *Pantaleoni, Hewitt
''On the Nature of Music''
(Welkin Books, 1985) *Pantaleoni, Hewitt. "One of Densmore's Dakota rhythms reconsidered." ''Ethnomusicology'' 31.1 (1987): 35–55. *Pantaleoni, Hewitt, and Pantaleoni, Timothy. "Sharing Music With Your Child." ''Mothering Magazine'', 22 Mar. 1990. dited and published posthumously by Pantaleoni's son.*Pantaleoni, Hewitt. "Three principles of timing in Anlo dance drumming." ''African Music Journal'' 5.2 (1972): 50–63. *Serwada, W. Moses, and Pantaleoni, Hewitt (ed.). ''Songs and Stories from Uganda.'' (Crowell, 1974)

References

External links

*Obituary - McAllester, David P.br>Hewitt Pantaleoni (1929-1988)
''Ethnomusicology'' 33.2 (1989): 287–291.

American people of Italian descent 1929 births 1988 deaths Harvard University alumni State University of New York faculty American ethnomusicologists Wesleyan University alumni 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century American anthropologists {{US-ethnomusicologist-stub

Selected publications

See also

References

External links