Densmore, Frances

Densmore, Frances (Theresa)

(1867–1957) ethnomusicologist; born in Red Wing, Minn. Trained as a pianist, after 1893 she pioneered ethnomusicology by recording, transcribing, and analyzing American Indian music. In 40 years of fieldwork for the Bureau of American Ethnology, she recorded the music of more than 30 tribes. Her important published studies include Teton Sioux Music (1918).