One of the ethnomusicologists takes the reader along for a tour of his workplace.

Bruno Nettl was born in Czechoslovakia in 1930, moved to United States in 1939, studied at Indiana University and the University of Michigan, and has taught since 1964 at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of Music and Anthropology, continuing to teach part-time. Active principally in the field of ethnomusicology, he has done field research with Native American peoples (1960s and 1980s, see Blackfoot music), in Iran (1966, 1968-69, 1972, 1974), and in South India (1981-2). He has served as president of the Society for Ethnomusicology and as editor of its journal, Ethnomusicology. Nettl holds honorary doctorates from the University of Illinois, Carleton College, Kenyon College, and the University of Chicago. He is a recipient of the Fumio Koizumi Prize for ethnomusicology, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.