Saturday, December 18, 2004
The History of Western Music? Well, It's A Long Story
Richard Taruskin in interview about his upcoming "Oxford History of Western Music"
"Music history begins when it does because that's when notation was invented, and that would be in North Central Europe in the eighth or ninth century. We don't really know what century, because nobody thought it was so important that all of a sudden there's a way of writing down music, so nobody told us exactly when it happened. We just found the artifacts.
And now we're in a situation where the literate tradition of music seems to be ending, because of new technological means and because of the convergence between art and pop. There's a lot more real-time and improvisatory music-making going on within the classical domain. I write about the end of the tradition I'm describing, an end that I won't live to see, and neither will anybody who reads this. But it's in the cards."
Richard Taruskin Publishes Massive History of Music
"[The work] is an opinionated narrative of music from the 8th century (when music began to be written down) to the present, describing the development of the art form as the result of cultural, economic, social, even nationalistic factors. Taruskin believes that such context dictated compositional choices—in many cases to a far greater extent than previously thought. The history also contains detailed analysis of musical works in illustration of the author’s points.
"According to a review in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Taruskin’s work is "a feast of contrarian ideas. . . [that] aims for nothing less than a revaluation of practically everything you thought you knew about 'classical' music."
"For example, the review says, Taruskin claims that at some points in history, people “looked to music to resolve a community’s insecurities, as reflected in the German cultural nationalism that gave rise to the cults of Bach and Beethoven."
¶ 12/18/2004 07:26:00 AM
Richard Taruskin in interview about his upcoming "Oxford History of Western Music"
"Music history begins when it does because that's when notation was invented, and that would be in North Central Europe in the eighth or ninth century. We don't really know what century, because nobody thought it was so important that all of a sudden there's a way of writing down music, so nobody told us exactly when it happened. We just found the artifacts.
And now we're in a situation where the literate tradition of music seems to be ending, because of new technological means and because of the convergence between art and pop. There's a lot more real-time and improvisatory music-making going on within the classical domain. I write about the end of the tradition I'm describing, an end that I won't live to see, and neither will anybody who reads this. But it's in the cards."
Richard Taruskin Publishes Massive History of Music
"[The work] is an opinionated narrative of music from the 8th century (when music began to be written down) to the present, describing the development of the art form as the result of cultural, economic, social, even nationalistic factors. Taruskin believes that such context dictated compositional choices—in many cases to a far greater extent than previously thought. The history also contains detailed analysis of musical works in illustration of the author’s points.
"According to a review in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Taruskin’s work is "a feast of contrarian ideas. . . [that] aims for nothing less than a revaluation of practically everything you thought you knew about 'classical' music."
"For example, the review says, Taruskin claims that at some points in history, people “looked to music to resolve a community’s insecurities, as reflected in the German cultural nationalism that gave rise to the cults of Bach and Beethoven."
¶ 12/18/2004 07:26:00 AM
