Home > MMP > Iss. 6 (2025)
Document Type
A Life's Work
Abstract
This memorial essay begins with a brief appreciation of Richard Taruskin’s The Oxford History of Western Music and its critical reception (Susan McClary, Charles Rosen). It continues with comments on the early stages of his career, noting his strategic pincer movement, that is, a pivot from his early research on Russian operas—to his 1980 groundbreaking JAMS article on Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring on the one hand, and a source reading book (Weiss-Taruskin, 1984) on the other. Both became essential for launching his career, and for our field. I then delve into several of Taruskin’s core ideas—about current and past musicology—that he shared in his 2015 keynote presentation at a conference celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Department of Musicology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (which I attended). I intertwine these ideas with a critical re-look at correspondence that he and I shared in 2021. I appreciate his statement regarding his perception of changes in musicology since 2019 (cited in the title of this essay; on the Ewell-Jackson controversy on Schenker), and I challenge a contentious statement that he made to me, relating to my identity as a Mizrahi woman and a person of color: a casual, personal comment that illuminates his brilliance, and perhaps a dull spot or two. These points float on the foreground of this essay. In the background lie themes that I regard as most important for my research: the immense influence that Taruskin’s oeuvre has had on my work and the specific impact of his 1997 Defining Russia Musically on my writing on nationalism in Israeli art music, and my deep admiration and gratitude to the man and his work.
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