Season 2 Finale (!), Episode 14

(But stay tuned for a bonus, post-season episode in July!)

For our Season 2 finale, a wide-ranging conversation with the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin. We talk about his trajectory, from playing early music and studying Russian opera to writing the Oxford History of Western Music and penning polemics in the New York Times; his deep-set belief that musicologists should be skeptics and contrarians; what he hopes for the future of music scholarship; and why he believes it’s necessary to make people angry.

Richard Taruskin is professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you’re interested in learning more about Professor Taruskin’s scholarship, you check out this select list of recent work from a very, very extensive list of publications:

• His latest book, Cursed Questions: On Music and Its Social Practices, published by University of California Press in 2020
• His book Russian Music at Home and Abroad: New Essays, published by University of California Press in 2016
• His book The Danger of Music, and Other Anti-Utopian Essays, published by University of California Press in 2008
• His five-volume Oxford History of Western Music
• His 2009 assessment of Susan McClary’s scholarship, in Music & Letters (which we discuss towards the end of the episode)

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 williamlrobin@ gmail

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