Marcia Herndon

Marcia Alice Herndon (October 1, 1941 – May 19, 1997) was an American ethnomusicologist and anthropologist. She specialized in the ways culture and music reflect each other. Herndon grew up in a family of country music performers in North Carolina. After completing her master's degree in 1964 at Tulane University, she performed classical music for several years. Earning a PhD in anthropology and ethnomusicology in 1971, she taught at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Maryland. She is widely known for her contributions to Native American music studies with books such as Native American Music, as well as collaborating on Music as Culture, and Music, Gender, and Culture, which analyze the overlapping of musical forms and cultural structures.

Herndon's works have been used as university textbooks. Her contributions to the field of ethnomusicology were recognized by the Society of Ethnomusicology, which created an award in her name. The Marcia Herndon Prize is allotted to those who focus on the studies of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and two-spirit communities.

Early life and education Marcia Alice Herndon was born October 1, 1941, in Canton, North Carolina, close to where her grandparents lived. She spent her early years in the Tennessee and North Carolina hills and performed country music with her family. When she began her formal music training, she turned away from country music, focusing on classical music and performance. She played several different instruments including the organ.

In 1962, Herndon graduated from H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College in New Orleans, now known as Tulane University, with a bachelor's degree in German. Besides German, she spoke English, French, Malagasy, and Spanish. While teaching in Texas, Herndon developed a course which returned to her roots in country music and examined the genre from an anthropological perspective. Students of the course looked at how country music was viewed culturally as music of white, unsophisticated and lower-class people, even for those who gained fame. It also examined how the genre was used as a gateway for singers like Charley Pride and Johnny Rodriguez to gain acceptance in white society. Wanting to create a venue which would support independent scholarship without censorship in ethnomusicological research, in 1984, she founded the Music Research Institute, in Hercules, California. with the ballgames organized to reflect the political and religious organization of the local settlements. Each town, and the game, had a division of white peace officials and red war officials with representatives from each of the seven matrilineal clans.

Herndon saw music as an expression of culture; Cynthia Tse Kimberlin wrote that she was one of the pioneers in evaluating music from a gender perspective. The book describes how individuals perceive their gender and gender traits based upon their society, and details some of the ways society rewards and punishes certain behaviors related to one's gender – for example, by restricting or allowing who can be a vocalist or instrumentalist. Her study The Bormliza: Maltese Folksong Style and Women with McLeod noted that women in Malta who sing in public places are considered to be prostitutes, while those who refrain from public performance are deemed to be of good moral character. Music as Culture written with her former doctoral advisor McLeod, has been used as a university textbook.

Death and legacy Herndon died on May 19, 1997, in Hyattsville, Maryland, from complications of lupus, breast cancer, and liver cancer. Herndon worked with the Society for Ethnomusicology beginning in 1971. She served on its council for three terms – 1976–1979, 1980–1983, and 1988–1991 – and on its board of directors between 1981 and 1983. Her papers are held in the collection of the Michelle Smith Performing Arts Library on the campus of the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.

Selected works