Jean Jenkins (ethnomusicologist) facts for kids
Jean Jenkins (born 1922, died 1990) was an amazing American woman who studied music from different cultures. She was called an ethnomusicologist, which means someone who studies music from all over the world. She lived mostly in the UK but traveled to many countries. Her goal was to collect sounds, pictures, and musical instruments from different places.
Biography
Jean Jenkins was born in Arkansas, USA. In the 1940s, she studied people and their cultures (anthropology) and music (musicology) in Missouri. In 1949, she moved to Britain. There, she continued her studies at the University of London. She studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Jean traveled a lot in Africa and Central Asia. She made amazing recordings of music and took careful notes. She helped start what we now call "world music." Her old notes and recordings show she was a very interesting person. She had to leave the US because of some political issues at the time. She was even friends with Haile Selassie, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia. Jean was very organized, always packing carefully for her trips.
In 1954, she started working at the Horniman Museum in South London. While there, she helped build up the museum's collection of musical instruments. Many of these instruments came from developing countries. She also did important fieldwork in Ethiopia during the 1960s. She helped create a special center for studying music from different cultures. To avoid being sent back to the US, she got a British passport. This was because of her work with groups that helped workers.
Jean was a very strong-willed and energetic woman. In the 1960s and 1970s, she traveled widely. She visited places in Southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Some of the countries she visited include Uganda (in 1966 and 1968), Malaysia (1972), Indonesia (1973), Afghanistan (1974), Algeria and Morocco, and Turkey and Syria (1975). During these long trips, she collected a lot of information. This included sound recordings, slides, and photographs. She also kept regular diaries. On top of that, she collected a huge number of musical instruments.
In 1976, she organized an exhibition at the Horniman Museum. It was called "Music and Musical Instruments for the World of Islam." This show helped many more people see the museum's collections. In 1978, she left the museum. She continued to work on her own in Edinburgh, France, and Germany. In 1983, she put together another important exhibition. It was called "Man and Music" at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. Jean Jenkins passed away in London on 12 September 1990.
Collections at the National Museums of Scotland
In 1980, the National Museum of Scotland bought Jean Jenkins's own collection of musical instruments. In 1990, after she died, the museum received all her other materials. This included her field recordings, notes, diaries, and 13,000 slides and photographs. Together, these items are a special record of music from different cultures. Some of these musical traditions have now disappeared.
Recordings
Jean Jenkins helped create many music albums. These albums share the sounds she collected from around the world.
- Jenkins, Jean and Olsen, Poul Rovsing Music in the World of Islam, a series of six albums from 1976. They covered topics like The Human Voice, Lutes, Strings, Flutes and Trumpets, Reeds and Bagpipes, and Drums and Rhythms.
- Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 1, "Music of the Central Highlands", 1970
- Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 2, "Music of the Desert Nomads", 1970
- Jenkins, Jean, Ethiopia Volume 3, "Music of the Eritrea", 1970
- Jenkins, Jean, Vocal Music From Mongolia, Volume 1, 1977
- Jenkins, Jean, Instrumental Music from Mongolia, Volume 2, 1977
