Taruskin has died

The New York Times has the obituary:  Richard Taruskin, Vigorously Polemical Musicologist, Dies at 77 “He was the most important living writer on classical music, either in academia or in journalism,…

World of Music

As a bit of a footnote to our recent discussion: I decided to re-read Taruskin's Oxford History and the introduction, titled "The History of What?" is a brilliant discussion of the meth…

Avant-Garde and Modernism

I make no apologies for postings inspired by writings of Richard Taruskin for the simple reason that most of what he writes is both interesting and provocative--something not true of most writing on …

Difficult Questions

One of the core projects of this blog has been to advocate for the quality and worth of classical music. The main reason I feel this is a worthwhile project is that classical music seems more and mor…

There is No Hope for Art?

I'm reading Richard Taruskin's newest collection of essays, just published a few days ago. One of the largest pieces in the book is the one titled "Is There a Baby in the Bathwater? On a…