By Steve Holt

Robert Margo picked up his first guitar at age 12 and proceeded on a journey deep into some of the oldest and most niche stringed instruments on the planet: the classical guitar, baroque and renaissance lute, the mandola, and the mandolin, to name a few. The professor of economics now primarily plays the mandolin, best known in America for creating bluegrass music’s “high, lonesome sound.” Margo mostly plays in the classical style, however, performing regularly with the Providence (Rhode Island) Mandolin Orchestra, the New American Mandolin Ensemble, and the Hampton Trio, but he also arranges pop tunes on the mandolin by the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan.

At CAS, Margo is an economic historian who has researched and taught about the evolution of racial inequality, the evolution of labor markets, and most recently, the historical roots of automation. A research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, Margo is the author or co-author of six books and 170 articles, book chapters, and book reviews. Beloved in the classroom, he was awarded the 2018 Provost’s Scholar–Teacher of the Year Award.

Margo spoke with arts&sciences about his musical evolution, passion for early stringed instruments, and the similarities he draws between economics and playing the mandolin.

arts&sciences: Why did you pick up your first instrument?

Robert Margo: I don’t come from a family of musicians, but my parents started me on music lessons when I was young. I was fortunate to have a very good teacher. When I was in college, I played jazz guitar. I went to the University of Michigan, where I never really had an intention to become a professional musician—that wasn’t on my radar screen. But I did it enthusiastically on the side. I played in the University of Michigan big band ensemble as the guitarist, and then played around Ann Arbor in clubs and things like that with small groups.

arts&sciences: You picked up classical guitar after graduate school but eventually moved on from the guitar. Why?

Margo: Well, I still play classical guitar from time to time, but I reached a point where I basically felt limited by the instrument, because it’s mostly a culture of soloists. I like playing solo, and I do it a lot—even now. But I really like the camaraderie and the community when I play with other people. I discovered the mandolin when I was in Nashville [teaching at Vanderbilt University]. The mandolin actually has a very long history as a classical instrument going back to the 18th century. I realized pretty quickly it had this side that I wanted, which was playing in groups and playing with other people, and it had one other: it was very niche. It’s my hobby, but I have ambitions, and I want to play at a high level. If you’re an amateur, classical guitar is not something that you can participate in at a truly professional level. The lute, it’s the same thing. But the mandolin is not quite like that, and it’s still open to people like me.

Do you have a favorite style of music that you arrange or play on the mandolin?

It’s pretty eclectic. I like to play what you might call traditional classical mandolin repertoire—things like Vivaldi, going back to the 18th century. Then, there’s a lot of 20th century repertoire that I play, but I also like to arrange music that’s written for other instruments for the mandolin or the other instruments that I play, and often that’s pop music. 

I did an arrangement recently that is up on my YouTube Channel. It’s a suite called “Protest Songs,” and there are songs from American songwriters that were important in that respect. So that has, for example, music by Stephen Stills, by Bob Dylan, and then the last movement of that suite is a song from the 1930s—a very famous labor organizing song [by Florence Reece] called, “Which side are you on?” It’s a very important song that was influential to Pete Seeger, The Weavers, and the folk music movement of the 1950s. So, I look for things like that with pop music.

What role does music play in your life? Does it inform your scholarship, or vice versa?

It’s balance. Balance has always been important to me. Both sides of work influence each other. My approach to playing a musical instrument, the mandolin in particular, is quite analytical, and it’s analytical in a way that my scholarship is analytical. When you’re trying to do scholarship, you’re looking at what people did in the past on some topic, and you’re trying to advance it, trying to figure out what needs to be done. Often that means that you recognize what’s good in the prior work, but you also have to push it forward. So, you’re respectful of the tradition, but you’re not necessarily agreeing with it. 

When you play music, there’s a constant tension from having an overview of the piece. If I’m playing a piece of music, I have a sort of overview of the piece—the big impression that I want to make—and I try to be aware of how what I’m doing in the moment relates to the overall architecture of the piece. I’ve also found that helpful in thinking about my work, because every book or article that I write has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It has an architecture, and I try to think how the small details feed into that. It’s like a musical composition in that way. I have realized how much art there is in science. Whatever type of science it is, whether it’s social science or hard science, there’s a lot of art and artistry, and I suppose that indirectly feeds into it as well. It’s symbiotic. It goes back and forth.

How do you find the time to practice and perform amid all your research and writing and teaching?

I wake up early, I go downstairs, and I try not to play too loudly and wake my wife up—which I’m usually not successful at. I just try to be efficient about it, and I’m pretty scheduled up. I go back and forth between the two. Obviously, my university job is my main focus, but I sort of like to keep the two parts of my life distinct.

This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.