Roderic Knight

I taught the ethnomusicology courses at Oberlin for 32 years, starting in 1976. I have published a body of research on Mande music traditions of west Africa including on the kora and kora players. I brought to Oberlin the Mandinka Ensemble, growing out of my research and music studies with the Mandinka people of Gambia.

While at Oberlin I expanded my research interests to the peoples of Central India and introduced a performing group devoted to this subject as well. A third area of interest has always been organology, or the scientific study of musical instruments. Upon my retirement I gave my instrument collection to the conservatory. With assistance from students in the organology seminar, 2007-08 and members of the library staff, the collection is now available online. In conjunction with the collection, I have created the Knight-Revision of Hornbostel-Sachs, a system for classifying musical instruments. I also maintain a blog about organology and the collection.