George Herzog: A Hungarian Pioneer of American Ethnomusicology

Type of Abstract (select): Individual Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
This paper highlights the contributions of George Herzog (1901, Budapest--1983, Indianapolis), one of the founders of American ethnomusicology, and draws attention to his under-researched personal archive housed at Indiana University’s Archives of Traditional Music (ATM IU), which he established in 1949.
Herzog arrived in the United States in 1925 to study anthropology under Franz Boas, bringing with him the methodological rigor of Hungarian folk-song research pioneered by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály, with whom he had studied composition. His early professional training also reflected the German comparative musicological approach he acquired while assisting Erich M. von Hornbostel at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv. After earning his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1931, Herzog taught and conducted field research at the University of Chicago, Yale, and Columbia, before joining Indiana University, where he relocated his extensive field recordings. His pioneering work in ethnographic documentation and analysis significantly shaped the development of ethnomusicology in the United States, and several of his recordings are now listed in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress.
Despite his achievements, including two twice a Guggenheim Fellowships, Herzog’s career was curtailed by illness. He ceased publishing in 1951 and retired early. His extensive archive—including correspondence (notably letters from Bartók), transcriptions, and field materials—awaits systematic study and renewed recognition of its global significance.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Veronika Trotter serves in the Area Studies department of Indiana University libraries and is engaged in collection development, management, and promotion of Slavic and East European, Central Eurasian, and Middle Eastern Studies collections, as well as in reference services. Her interests include exploring rare books of the forementioned regions. Trotter has extensive pedagogical experience and regularly conducts enriching classes based on the resources of the university rare books and manuscript library for students of various disciplines. She frequently contributes her research to national and international conferences.