|
 Visitors
to this website on għana will be saddened to
hear of the death of Marcia Herndon in the early
hours of May 19, 1997. She had been struggling
courageously with lupus and then with breast cancer.
She was an inspiration to her students and
colleagues with her optimism and determination to
heal.
Marcia Herndon should be remembered in Malta for her
innovative work on għana. She submitted her
PhD Singing and Politics. Maltese Folk Music and
Musicians to Tulane University in 1971. She took a
characteristically vigorous line by looking at areas
most folklorists had previously not investigated:
women from humble backgrounds, prostitution in the
port area, and the role of għana as an
anti-hegemonic voice. She had a great deal of
affection for the people she worked with, as well as
reserving some degree of scorn for the way għana
had been folklorised in Malta. Her thesis was not
published, but she went on to publish various
influential books in ethnomusicology at a time when
the subject was still in its infancy. She published
articles in Ethnomusicology, the foremost
anthropological journal on music, and two books with
Norma McLeod: The Ethnography of Musical Performance
(1980) and Music as Culture (1981). Her last edited
work was Women, Gender and Culture edited with
Susane Ziegler for the ICTM Study Group on Music and
Gender (Florian Noetzel Verlag, Wilhelmshaven,
1990). Sadly local institutions passed her by. She
was, as far as I know, never invited to lecture by
the University of Malta. That was Malta's loss. Her
last field trip to Malta was in December 1996, when
she was already ill. Fortunately, a annotated
bibliography on għana has recently been
compiled by Anita Ragonesi which should be published
soon. A dedication to her memory would be a fitting
tribute to a courageous scholar.
Marcia Herndon was born in Canton, North Carolina,
near the Cherokee community of her grandparents.
After a career in organ and voice performance she
pursued a Ph.D in Anthropology/Ethnomusicology at
Tulane University. She taught at the University of
Texas at Austin and at the University of California
at Berkeley. Before joining the University of
Maryland faculty in 1990, she directed the Music
Research Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Her scholarship helped shape the field of
ethnomusicology, especially in the areas of
performance ethnography, gender issues, and Native
American studies. Marcia was also the Metropolitan
(head bishop) of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of
America, and was especially dedicated to ordaining
gay and lesbian priests.
A public memorial service was held in the University
of Maryland Chapel on September 30, 1997, the day
before Marcia's 56th birthday.
She will be grieved and sorely missed in many
communities. |
