Portia K. Maultsby

{{short description|American ethnomusicologist, educator (b. 1947)}}

{{Infobox academic|name=Portia Katrenia Maultsby|alma_mater=University of Wisconsin, Madison|workplaces=Indiana University|titles=Professor emerita|discipline=Ethnomusicology|birth_place=Orlando, Florida, U.S.|birth_date={{birth date and age|1947|06|11}}|sub_discipline=African American music}}

Portia Katrenia Maultsby (born June 11, 1947){{cite book|doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2087451|chapter=Maultsby, Portia Katrenia|title=Oxford Music Online|year=2010|last1=Wright|first1=Josephine}} is an American ethnomusicologist and educator. She is a professor emerita at Indiana University Bloomington and specializes in African-American music. She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991.

Biography

= Early life and education =

Maultsby was born in Orlando, Florida, to Maxie C. and Valdee Maultsby (later Maultsby-Williams),{{Cite news|last=Madlee|first=Dorothy|date=1977-01-03|title='Tank' Would Rather Talk About People Than Football|pages=10|work=The Orlando Sentinel|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52812928/tank-would-rather-talk-about-people/|access-date=2020-06-05}}{{Cite news|date=2008-01-15|title=Maultsby-Williams, Valdee|pages=C4|work=The Orlando Sentinel|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52813270/maultsby-williams-valdee/|access-date=2020-06-05}} and grew up in the segregated American South.{{Cite news|last=Renze-Rhodes|first=Lisa|date=2003-02-06|title=Archives spotlight heritage, history of black music|pages=19|work=The Indianapolis Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52876044/archives-spotlight-heritage-history-of/|access-date=2020-06-06}} Her older brother was psychiatrist Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr. (1932–2016).{{Cite journal|last1=Wirga|first1=Mariusz|last2=DeBernardi|first2=Michael|last3=Wirga|first3=Aleksandra|date=2019|title=Our Memories of Maxie C. Maultsby, Jr., 1932–2016|journal=Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy|language=en|volume=37|issue=3|pages=316–324|doi=10.1007/s10942-018-0309-3|s2cid=149984153|issn=0894-9085}} She also had a twin brother, Casel Hayes Maultsby (1947–1988), a pilot.{{Cite news|date=1988-01-25|title=Maultsby, Casel Hayes|pages=10|work=The Orlando Sentinel|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52813502/maultsby-casel-hayes/|access-date=2020-06-05}}

Maultsby graduated from Jones High School in Orlando in 1964.{{Cite news|last=Demchuk|first=Tania|date=1975-03-19|title=Tonight's Revue Success Mark for Jones Grad|pages=43|work=The Orlando Sentinel|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52812427/tonights-revue-success-mark-for-jones/|access-date=2020-06-05}} She attended Mount St Scholastica College (now Benedictine College) in Atchison, Kansas, on a music scholarship, graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in piano, theory, and composition. The following year, she earned a master's degree in musicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1974, she was awarded a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison;{{Cite book|last=Maultsby|first=Portia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bf7OAAAAMAAJ|title=Afro-American Religious Music: 1619–1861|publisher=University of Wisconsin-Madison|year=1974|type=Doctoral dissertation}} she was the first African American to be awarded that degree in the United States.

= Career =

Maultsby began lecturing at Indiana University in 1971, while still a graduate student.{{Cite web|last=Stone|first=Ruth M.|title=About Portia K. Maultsby|url=https://folklore.indiana.edu/about/emeriti-faculty/maultsby-portia.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605045518/https://folklore.indiana.edu/about/emeriti-faculty/maultsby-portia.html|archive-date=2020-06-05|access-date=2020-06-05|website=Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology|language=en}} She was recruited by Dr. Herman Hudson and became the founding director of the Indiana University Soul Revue, a student ensemble dedicated to Black music. By 1975, she was an assistant professor in the Department of African-American Studies. In 1977 Maultsby produced a song called "Music is Just a Party" for her ensemble. This song would be selected as Billboard's top single in the First-Time-Around category.{{Cite web |title=Portia K. Maultsby |url=https://folklore.indiana.edu/about/emeriti-faculty/maultsby-portia.html |access-date=2023-12-11 |website=Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology |language=en}} She went on to become chair of the department (1985–91), then professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology (from 1992).

Maultsby's specialization in African-American music spans genres, including funk, soul, rhythm and blues, and spirituals.{{Cite news|last=Molter|first=Jeff|date=1980-01-29|title=Expert says music mirrors events|pages=13|work=Journal and Courier|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53110181/expert-says-music-mirrors-events/|access-date=2020-06-09}} She founded the university's Archives of African American Music and Culture in 1991, and served as its director from 1991 through 2013. The archives started as Maultsby's personal collection and grew to include more than 10,000 pieces of music and music-related items (including interviews, photographs, and recordings) by 2003.

Maultsby co-edited two textbooks with her Indiana University colleague Mellonee V. Burnim: African American Music: An Introduction (2006){{Cite news|last=Kauffman|first=Nicole|date=2006-03-26|title=Tuning the page|pages=13|work=The Reporter-Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/52876410/tuning-the-page/|access-date=2020-06-06}} and Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (2016).{{Cite web|last=Friedberg|first=Joshua|date=2018-12-11|title=Aretha Franklin: Context, Intersectionality, and the Rock Canon|url=https://www.popmatters.com/aretha-franklin-music-criticism-2623060199.html|access-date=2020-06-09|website=PopMatters|language=en}} She wrote the foreword to the 2018 book Black Lives Matter and Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection, edited by Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan.{{Cite journal|last=Aksoy|first=Ozan|date=2020-02-19|title=Book Review: Black lives matter and music: protest, intervention, reflection: foreword by Portia K. Maultsby, edited by Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan|journal=Ethnic and Racial Studies|language=en|volume=43|issue=3|pages=534–536|doi=10.1080/01419870.2019.1654121|s2cid=202280983|issn=0141-9870}}

In 2011, Maultsby received an award from National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music. Maultsby has also served as a consultant for museums (including serving as a senior scholar at the Smithsonian Institution in 1985) and as a researcher documentary films (including the PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize).{{Cite news|last=Pittman|first=Bill|date=1990-03-01|title=I.U. educator links music with black experience|pages=16|work=The Indianapolis News|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53109356/iu-educator-links-music-with-black/|access-date=2020-06-09}}{{Cite news|date=1990-01-14|title=IU teacher will have her ears tuned to a prized PBS series|pages=59|work=The Indianapolis Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/53110065/iu-teacher-will-have-her-ears-tuned-to/|access-date=2020-06-09}} She has consulted on various different projects such as The Motown Sound, Wade in the Water, and Chicago’s Record Row: The Cradle of Rhythm and Blues.

Selected works

= Books =

African American Music: An Introduction (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2006. {{ISBN|9781317934431|}}
Issues in African American Music: Power, Gender, Race, Representation (co-edited with Mellonee V. Burnim), 2016. {{ISBN|9781315472072|}}

= Book chapters =

{{Cite book|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|title=We'll Understand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press|year=1992|editor-last=Reagon|editor-first=Bernice Johnson|editor-link=Bernice Johnson Reagon|location=Washington, DC|pages=19–33|chapter=The impact of gospel music on the secular music industry}}
{{Cite book|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|title=Black Lives Matter & Music: Protest, Intervention, Reflection|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-253-03843-2|editor-last=Orejuela|location=Bloomington, IN|pages=ix-xiv|chapter=Foreword|oclc=1062301971|editor-last2=Shonekan|editor-first2=Stephanie|editor-first=Fernando}}

= Articles =

{{Cite journal|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|date=1975|title=Music of Northern Independent Black Churches during the Ante-Bellum Period|journal=Ethnomusicology|volume=19|issue=3|pages=401–420|doi=10.2307/850793|jstor=850793}}
{{Cite journal|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|date=1976|title=Black spirituals: An analysis of textual forms and structures|journal=The Black Perspective in Music|language=en|volume=4|issue=1|pages=54–69|doi=10.2307/1214403|jstor=1214403}}
{{Cite journal|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|date=1983|title=The use and performance of hymnody, spirituals, and gospels in the Black church|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/6666b7c286c2dc1b892bb4045d2a0665/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1821483|journal=The Western Journal of Black Studies|language=en|volume=7|issue=3|pages=161–171}}
{{Cite journal|last=Maultsby|first=Portia K.|date=1983|title=Soul music: Its sociological and political significance in American popular culture|journal=The Journal of Popular Culture|language=en|volume=17|issue=2|pages=51–60|doi=10.1111/j.0022-3840.1983.1702_51.x}}