William Malm (born March 6, 1928) is an American musicologist known for his studies of Japanese traditional music. As a composer, teacher, and scholar of Japanese music, Malm shaped the study of

ethnomusicology Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...

in the United States. Malm authored the first major scholarly study in English of the history and instruments of Japanese music, ''Japanese Music and Musical Instruments'' (1959). He was a faculty member at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

from 1960 to 1994. Malm served as President of the

Society for Ethnomusicology The Society for Ethnomusicology is, with the International Council for Traditional Music and thBritish Forum for Ethnomusicology one of three major international associations for ethnomusicology. Its mission is "to promote the research, study, an ...

from 1977 to 1979 and was named an Honorary Member of that organization in 2004. Malm was awarded the Fumio Koizumi Prize in 1992 for his contributions to the study of Japanese music. As the 2001 Charles Seeger Lecturer, Malm's address focused on the history and founding of ethnomusicology in the United States.

Biography

Malm studied composition at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, where he completed a Bachelor's in 1949 and a Master's in Music in 1950. He subsequently taught at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

for a year. From 1951 to 1953, he was an instructor at th
Naval School of Music
He completed the PhD in musicology at UCLA in 1959, where he also taught from 1958 to 1960. The bulk of his academic career was spent as a professor at the

, where he taught from 1960 until 1994. At Michigan, he began an ethnomusicology program and worked with the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments. His book ''Music Cultures of the Pacific, the Near East, and Asia'' (1967) is an authoritative and widely used textbook. Malm made significant contributions to the study of Asian ethnomusicology, particularly his fieldwork and research into music for dance and Japanese music. His primary research area was the music of the

shamisen The , also known as the or (all meaning "three strings"), is a three-stringed traditional Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument . It is played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usual ...

, including music of traditional Japanese

Kabuki is a classical form of Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for its heavily-stylised performances, the often-glamorous costumes worn by performers, and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. Kabuki is thought to ...

theatre and

Bunraku (also known as ) is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a performance: the or ( puppeteers ...

puppet theatre.

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

writes of attending a recital of Joruri (

music) with Malm in Tokyo in 1963 where Malm translated three long scenes for him. Seeger also accompanied Malm to his Joruri lesson where Malm sang and recited long passages with the teacher playing the samisen. Malm's book on

Nagauta is a kind of traditional Japanese music played on the and used in kabuki theater, primarily to accompany dance and to provide reflective interludes. History It is uncertain when the was first integrated into kabuki, but it was sometime dur ...

(music of the

theatre), which grew out of his doctoral dissertation, is one of the first detailed studies of a single genre of Japanese music to be published in English. In 1986 in New York when the To-on-Kai ensemble from Japan presented the first professional performances in America of

performed separately from

theatre, Malm published an article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' about the art form.Malm, "Japanese Ensemble Gives New Life to Old Tradition," ''The New York Times'', May 4, 1986.

Select publications

* * * * William P. Malm (1971), ''Introduction'' in ''Gagaku Court Music and Dance'' by Masataro Togi, New York & Tokyo: Walker/Weatherhill. *

Honors

Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd Class, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon (2020)

References

External links

2001 Bibliography of Malm's writings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malm, William P. 1928 births University of Michigan faculty American anthropologists Cultural anthropologists Ethnomusicologists Living people UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni People from La Grange, Illinois Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class Northwestern University alumni University of Illinois faculty