Season 3, Episode 10

In his long career as a scholar and conductor, Joshua Rifkin has done a lot: arranged for Judy Collins, performed in the first-ever marathon of “Vexations,” helped lead the ragtime revival and, perhaps most importantly, totally upended the conventional wisdom about Bach’s choral music. This is a conversation about all of that, and more: rich, insightful, and scandalous stories about one of the most fascinating lives a music scholar can lead. (Including: getting tipsy with John Cage, playing in a jug band, and fighting an entire generation of Bach scholars.)

Joshua Rifkin is an acclaimed conductor and scholar.

If you’re interested in learning more about Rifkin’s work, check out:

• The canonic 1982 preliminary “report” on Bach’s choral music in the Musical Times
• A 2003 article on dating Josquin’s music in the Journal of the American Musicological Society
• A 2009 article on the Medici Codex in the Journal of the American Musicological Society
• The chapter “Rethinking Editions: Mass, Missa, and Monument Culture” in Rethinking Bach
• The 2021 article “Inside—and outside—Illibata: composition, context and chronology in a famous Josquin motet,” in Early Music
• His recording of Bach’s B Minor Mass
• His recording of Scott Joplin’s piano rags

Photo credit: Jan Kobel

Sound Expertise is hosted by Will Robin (@seatedovation), and produced by D. Edward Davis (@warmsilence). Please subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and/or Spotify. Questions or comments? Email soundexpertise00 @ gmail

A written transcript of this episode is available here; thanks to Andrew Dell’Antonio for volunteering to prepare transcripts for the show!