"[1] Officially founded in 1955, its origins extend back to November, 1953 at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Philadelphia with an informal agreement between Willard Rhodes, David McAllester, and Alan P.
This meeting resulted in the launch of the Ethno-musicology Newsletter, ethnomusicology's first dedicated serial publication, containing notes about current field research projects, a bibliography, and list of recordings of interest to the nascent discipline.
[5] Later, scholars turned to Austrian Erich Moritz von Hornbostel, credited with inventing the musical instrument categorization system still used today, and his 1905 article outlining "The Problems of Comparative Musicology.
The word first appeared in publication in Jaap Kunst's book, Ethno-musicology; a study of its nature, its problems, methods representative personalities, which wasn't published in 1955.
In response, Charles Seeger helped found the American Society for Comparative Musicology to house the number of musicologists fleeing the rise of Nazi Germany.
[5][8][9] In November 1953, David P. McAllester, Alan P. Merriam, and Willard Rhodes attended the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association taking place in the city of Philadelphia.
A letter separate from the Newsletter signed by the aforementioned four, but also Manfred Bukofzer, Frances Densmore, Mieczslaw Kolinksi, Curt Sachs (who worked alongside Hornbostel), Harold Spivacke, and Richard Waterman, was sent to about 70 individuals.
The constitution was drafted, officer positions expanded, and mission statement defined: “…to promote the research, study, and performance of music in all historical periods and cultural contexts.
Challenged to find a way to measure these successes, David McAllester and Donald Winkelman both commented on the impressive efforts made at academic institutions around the country to include courses entirely or partially related to ethnomusicology.
UCLA offered one of the largest graduate program, which believed that the “actual performance of an exotic music is essential to the full understand of its structure and purpose.
The University of Hawaii was well known for its ability to harmonize the relationship between the anthropology and music departments, drawing from both to create well-rounded ethnomusicology courses.
[15] He helped develop the ethnomusicology depart alongside Nicholas England, but later traveled to Africa and Asia to conduct and bring back research.
Rhodes believed that this was because the Newsletter's Bibliographies and Reviews sections had given students access to material and research that had previously been unavailable to them: “In comparison with the limited ethnomusicological literature in English that appeared during the first half of the present century, the production of books and monographs during the past decade is remarkable in quantity, quality, and range of subject matter.
An altered image of the Little Man, featuring him holding an electric guitar instead of his usual flute, was created for the 1995 pre-conference for the annual SEM meeting.
While the Logoistics panel on the 43rd annual SEM meeting (1998) ended up being accepted as a "counter-logo,"[25] the question as to whether it was appropriate or not for the Society to be using a figure such as the Little Man was not fully addressed.
Others felt it had nostalgic value- to them, it represented the early ages of the Society and all of the struggles and debates it took to give the discipline its current form.
Following these declarations, the president of the Society at the time, Tim Rice, held a ballot to decide if SEM would keep the Little Man as their official logo.
The first official SEM meeting was September 2–9, 1956, and since then, the Society of Ethnomusicology has continued to host annual conferences throughout the country and occasionally abroad.
The annual meetings are made up of programs, paper presentations, lectures, banquets, and special events, which include diverse performances, formal concerts, and dances.
The SEM website itself serves as a communicative and archival device, enabling members to discuss the latest news, share project updates, and gives digital access to many of the print publications.
The SEM website offers free access to the last fifteen issues of the journal (currently volumes 43-57 from 1999 to 2013), the student newsletter, and on-going lists of Ographies, including bibliographies, discographies, and dissertations.