American musicologist, flutist, Americanist historian, diplomat, professor, writer, and librarian. He was an expert in Hispanic and Brazilian culture.

He was born on August 8, 1904, in New York (United States), the son of lawyer Clarence Bishop Smith and Catharine Cook Smith.

He began flute studies at the Institute of Musical Art with Georges Barrère, attended the Hackley School for Boys in New York, and studied flute for a year with Louis François Fleury in Paris. He earned his doctorate in 1928 from Harvard University, was a music critic from 1927 to 1928 for the periodical "Boston Transcript", and completed his musical training with Georges Laurent.

In 1926, he attended several conferences in Spain, given by Higinio Anglés and Ramón Menéndez Pidal, and in 1930, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Vienna (Austria). He returned to the United States and, in 1931, was appointed professor at Columbia University and head of the musical section of the New York Public Library (NYPL). At this institution, he carried out significant work: he expanded its music and dance sections, conceived the idea of a library-museum, and chaired and moderated the Composers Forum Concerts (1935-1939).

He married Elisabeth Cowles Sperry in Switzerland in 1934. In April 1936, he attended the International Musicological Society congress in Barcelona. That same year, he founded and directed the Music Library Association until 1938, and also served as president of the American Musicological Society from 1939 to 1940. He was a professor at New York University (1939-1967), combining this role with that of U.S. Foreign Service officer in Latin America.

In 1940, he met Manuel de Falla, to whom he suggested traveling to the United States. After retiring in 1959, he founded the Brazilian Institute at New York University in 1960 with Ernesto Cal, and he also served as director of the Spanish Institute of New York from 1967 to 1970.

In 1985, he was honored by the New York Public Library (NYPL) at the Vincent Astor Gallery of the Performing Arts Research Library at Lincoln Center, and in 1988, he received the Encomienda de número of the Order of Isabella the Catholic from Spain.

A renowned historian, he contributed to "Musical Quarterly", "Modern Music", "Boletín latino-americano de música", and "Music Today", and wrote works such as "Music Libraries in South America" (1940), "Music and Dance in the New York Public Library" (1951), and "Libraries of Music" in "The International Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians". He passed away on September 19, 1994, in Washington (United States).