ROBERT E. BROWN

ROBERT E. BROWN, a distinguished ethnomusicologist who taught at Wesleyan from 1962 to 1971, died Nov. 29, 2005. He was 78. A U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, he attended Ithaca College, Cornell University and the University of California at Los Angeles. He reportedly coined the term ‘world music’, by which he meant study based on the presence of living musicians so that students have direct contact with master musicians. An expert in the music of India and Indonesia, he founded the nonprofit Center for World Music and was a pioneer in making the music of Indonesia available internationally. He also established a music school and research center in Payangan, Bali, to which students, teachers and performers come from all over the world.