Richard Taruskin
Richard Taruskin | |
|---|---|
 Taruskin in 2014 | |
| Born | Richard Filler Taruskin April 2, 1945 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | July 1, 2022 (aged 77) Oakland, California, U.S. |
| Spouse |
Cathy Roebuck (m. 1984) |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
|
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Russian music |
| Institutions |
|
| Notable works | Oxford History of Western Music |
Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American
Early life and education
Richard Filler Taruskin
During his PhD studies, he worked with Paul Henry Lang, who had pioneered placing music within its socio-cultural context, as in Music in Western Civilization.[6] Through a family member who had stayed in Russia after the Revolution, Taruskin had access to recordings of Russian operas besides the most familiar ones, which sparked his interest in Russian music. He went to Moscow for a year on a Fulbright Scholarship, where he was interested not only in the language and music, but also in the way music connects to social and political history. In the 1980s he explored the archives of Igor Stravinsky when they were held by the New York Public Library.[1]
Career
Taruskin was on the faculty of Columbia University from 1975 until 1986.[6] He then moved to California as a professor of musicology at the University of California, Berkeley,[1] where he held the Class of 1955 Chair.[2] He retired from Berkeley at the end of 2014.[8]
Taruskin published his first book in 1981, Opera and Drama in Russia as Preached and Practiced in the 1860s.[6] He also wrote extensively for lay readers, including numerous articles in The New York Times beginning in the mid-1980s.[6][9] They were often "lively, erudite, fiercely articulate"[6] and controversial, with targets such as Elliott Carter, Carl Orff, and Sergei Prokofiev.[6] Many of his articles were collected in books such as Text and Act,[10] a volume that exhibits him as having been an influential critic of the premises of the "historically informed performance" movement in classical music,[1][2][9] The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays,[11] and On Russian Music.[12] His writings frequently took up social, cultural, and political issues in connection with music—for example, the question of censorship. A specific instance was the debate over John Adams’s opera The Death of Klinghoffer.[13][n 1]
Taruskin's extensive 1996 study Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works through Mavra showed that Igor Stravinsky drew more heavily on Russian folk material than had previously been recognized. The book analyzed the historical trends that caused Stravinsky not to be forthcoming about some of these borrowings.[1][14]
His survey of
Personal life and death
Taruskin married Cathy Roebuck in 1984. They had two children.[1][6] He died from esophageal cancer at a hospital in Oakland, California, on July 1, 2022, aged 77.[6][7][15]
Awards and honors
Taruskin received numerous awards and honors for his scholarship. In 1978, he was the first recipient of the
Publications
Books
- Taruskin, Richard (1981). Opera and Drama in Russia: As Preached and Practiced in the 1860s. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press. ISBN 978-0-8357-1245-3. Republished in 1993, Rochester: University of Rochester Press
- ——; ISBN 978-0-02-872900-8.
- —— (1993). Musorgsky: Eight Essays and an Epilogue. Princeton: Princeton University Press. S2CID 241012607.
- —— (1995). Text and Act: Essays on Music and Performance. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-535743-1.
- —— (1996). Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works through Mavra. Vol. 2 volumes. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-07099-8.
- —— (1997). Defining Russia Musically: Historical and Hermeneutical Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press. S2CID 193710371.
- —— (2005). The Oxford History of Western Music. Vol. 6 volumes. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- —— (2008). The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26805-0.
- —— (2008). On Russian Music. Berkeley: University of California Press. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1ppqnq.
- Karlinsky, Simon (2013). ——; Karlinsky, Simon; Hughes, Robert P.; Koster, Thomas A. (eds.). Freedom from Violence and Lies: Essays on Russian Poetry and Music (PDF). Boston: JSTOR j.ctt1zxsk34.
- ——; ISBN 978-0-520-27407-5.
- —— (2016). Russian Music at Home and Abroad: New Essays. Berkeley: University of California Press. JSTOR 10.1525/j.ctt1dnncjs.
- —— (2020). Cursed Questions: On Music and Its Social Practices. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-34429-7.
- —— (2023). Musical Lives and Times Examined: Keynotes and Clippings, 2006-2019. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-39200-7.
Chapters
- Taruskin, Richard (1982). "The Musicologist and the Performer". In ISBN 978-0-306-76188-1.
- —— (1982). "'Little Star': an Etude in the Folk Style". In Brown, Malcolm Hamrick (ed.). Musorgsky, in Memoriam, 1881–1981. Ann Arbor: ISBN 978-0-8357-1295-8.
- —— (1983). "Handel, Shakespeare, and Musorgksy: The Sources and Limits of Russian Musical Realism". Music and Language. Studies in the history of music. Vol. 1. New York: Broude Bros. pp. 247–268. ISBN 978-0-8450-7401-5.
- —— (1984). ""The Present in the Past": Russian Opera and Russian Historiography, ca. 1870". In Brown, Malcolm Hamrick (ed.). Russian and Soviet Music: Essays for Boris Schwarz. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press. pp. 77–146. ISBN 978-0-8357-1295-8.
- —— (1984). "The Rite Revisited: the Idea and the Sources of its Scenario". In Hatch, Christopher; Strainchamps, Edmond; ISBN 978-0-393-01677-2.
- —— (1985). "Serov and Musorgsky". In Brown, Malcolm Hamrick; ISBN 978-0-8357-1594-2.
- —— (1986) [1982]. "From Subject to Style: Stravinsky and the Painters". In Pasler, Jann (ed.). Confronting Stravinsky: Man, Musician, and Modernist. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 16–38. ISBN 978-0-520-05403-5.
- —— (1987). "Stravinsky's "Rejoicing Discovery" and what it Meant: in Defense of his Notorious Text Setting". In Haimo, Ethan; Johnson, Paul (eds.). Stravinsky Retrospectives. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 162–200. ISBN 978-0-8032-7301-6.
- —— (1988). "The Pastness of the Present and the Presence of the Past". In ISBN 978-0-19-816152-3.
- —— (1995). "The Traditional Revisited: Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles as Russian Music". In Hatch, Christopher; Bernstein, David W. (eds.). Music Theory and the Exploration of the Past. Chicago: Chicago University Press. pp. 525–550. ISBN 978-0-226-31902-5.
- —— (1995). "From Fairy Tale to Opera in Four Moves (Not so Simple)". In ISBN 978-0-521-46172-6.
- —— (1995). "Public Lies and Unspeakable Truth: Interpreting Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony". In ISBN 978-0-511-55140-6.
Articles
- Taruskin, Richard (July 1970). "Realism as Preached and Practiced: The Russian Opera Dialogue". JSTOR 741247.
- —— (November 1977). "Glinka's Ambiguous Legacy and the Birth Pangs of Russian Opera". JSTOR 746475.
- —— (Spring 1979). "Opera and Drama in Russia: The Case of Serov's "Judith"". JSTOR 831269.
- —— (Autumn 1980). "Russian Folk Melodies in "The Rite of Spring"". JSTOR 831304.
- —— (June 1982). "On Letting the Music Speak for Itself: some Reflections on Musicology and Performance". JSTOR 763881.
- —— (Spring 1983). "How the Acorn Took Root: A Tale of Russia". JSTOR 746585.
- —— (Autumn 1984). "Some Thoughts on the History and Historiography of Russian Music". JSTOR 763585.
- —— (Autumn 1984). "Musorgsky vs. Musorgsky: The Versions of "Boris Godunov"". JSTOR 746756.
- —— (Spring 1985). "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; Or, Stravinsky's "Angle"". JSTOR 831550.
- —— (Summer 1986). "Antoine Busnoys and the "L'Homme armé" Tradition". JSTOR 831531.
- —— (Spring 1987). "Chez Pétrouchka: Harmony and Tonality "chez" Stravinsky". JSTOR 746439.
- —— (Spring 1989). "Resisting the Ninth". JSTOR 746505.
- —— (June 15, 1989). "'Jews and Geniuses': An Exchange". The New York Review of Books.
- —— (May 1992). "Tradition and Authority". JSTOR 3127887.
- —— (November 1992). "'Entoiling the Falconet': Russian Musical Orientalism in Context". Cambridge Opera Journal. 4 (3). Cambridge University Press: 253–280. S2CID 190722625.
- —— (1995). "Busnoys and Chaikovsky". International Journal of Musicology. 4, A Birthday Offering for George Perle: 111–137. JSTOR 24617753.
- —— (January 1995). "A Myth of the Twentieth Century: The Rite of Spring, the Tradition of the New, and the Myth Itself". S2CID 145160261.
- —— (2006). "The Birth of Contemporary Russia out of the Spirit of Russian Music". Muzikologija. 6 (6): 63–76. .
- —— (2006). "Is There a Baby in the Bathwater? (Part I)". JSTOR 25162364.
- —— (2006). "Is There a Baby in the Bathwater? (Part II)". JSTOR 25162374.
- —— (December 9, 2001). "MUSIC; Music's Dangers And The Case For Control". The New York Times.
- —— (September 2006). "Why You Cannot Leave Bartók Out". Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. T. 47 (Fasc. 3/4): 265–277. JSTOR 25598260.
- —— (Spring 2009). "Afterword: Nicht blutbefleckt?". JSTOR 10.1525/jm.2009.26.2.274.
- —— (Fall 2011). "Non-Nationalists and Other Nationalists". .
- —— (Spring 2014). "Agents and Causes and Ends, Oh My". JSTOR 10.1525/jm.2014.31.2.272.
Review Articles
- Taruskin, Richard (Spring 1989). "Resisting the Ninth". JSTOR 746505.
- —— (Spring 1993). "Back to Whom? Neoclassicism as Ideology". JSTOR 746396.
- —— (Spring 1993). "Revising Revision". JSTOR 831807.
- —— (Spring 2004). "The poietic fallacy". JSTOR 4149092.
- —— (Fall 2005). "Speed Bumps". .
- —— (October 22, 2007). "The Musical Mystique: Defending Classical Music against Its Devotees". The New Republic.
- —— (August 2009). "Material Gains: Assessing Susan McClary". .
References
Notes
- ^ See, for example, “The Klinghoffer Controversy” in Thomas May, ed., The John Adams Reader (Amadeus Press, 2006), pp. 297–339; Taruskin’s original 2001 The New York Times article is reprinted there and, with a lengthy postscript, in The Danger of Music.
Citations
- ^ SF Gate. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ Stanford University Libraries and Academic Information Resources. Archived from the originalon January 30, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ Anon. 2017, "Achievement Digest".
- ^ a b c d e Morgan 2001.
- ^ a b Ritzarev 2017, pp. 124–125.
- ^ Washington Post. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
- ^ a b c Robin, William (July 1, 2022). "Richard Taruskin, Vigorously Polemical Musicologist, Dies at 77". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
- ^ a b "Music Professor Wins Prestigious Kyoto Prize". artsdesign.berkeley.edu. June 20, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
- ^ a b c Anon. 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-19-509458-9.[page needed]
- ISBN 978-0-520-26805-0.[page needed]
- Project MUSE 25677.[page needed]
- ^ Maddocks, Fiona (February 17, 2017). "John Adams: 'Trump is a sociopath – there's no empathy, he's a manipulator'". The Guardian. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- Project MUSE 23184.
- FAZ.NET. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
- ^ "The Noah Greenberg Award Winners". American Musicological Society. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
- ^ "Richard Taruskin". University of California, Berkeley. March 5, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved December 2, 2021.
- ^ "30th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Recipients". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ "38th Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award Recipients". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ "Musicologist Richard Taruskin Wins Japanese 'Nobel'". The Forward. June 21, 2017. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ Anon. 2017, Profile: Selected Publications.
- ^ Morgan 2001, "Writings".
Sources
- Morgan, Paula (2001). "Taruskin, Richard". ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
- Ritzarev, Marina (2017). "UC music historian Richard Taruskin relishes provocateur role" (PDF). Israel Studies in Musicology Online. Retrieved July 2, 2022.
- Anon. (2017). "Richard Taruskin | Kyoto Prize". Inamori Foundation.
Further reading
- JSTOR 3876907.
- Oestreich, James R. (December 19, 2004). "A History of Western Music? Well, It's a Long Story". The New York Times (interview about Oxford History of Western Music). Retrieved May 28, 2022.
- Oestreich, James R. (February 15, 2012). "The World According to One Musicologist". The New York Times.
External links
- Richard Taruskin discography at Discogs
- DeVoto, Mark: Richard Taruskin, 1945–2022. The Boston Musical Intelligencer, July 1, 2022
- Richard Taruskin publications indexed by Google Scholar
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