Text and act : essays on music and performance / Richard Taruskin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taruskin, Richard.

Contributor:

ebrary, Inc.

J. Fithian Tatem Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Performance practice (Music).

Style, Musical.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vi, 382 pages) : illustrations

polychrome

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1995.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Over the last dozen years, the writings of Richard Taruskin have transformed the debate about "early music" and "authenticity". Text and Act collects for the first time the most important of Taruskin's essays and reviews from this period, many of which are now classics in the field. Taking a wide-ranging cultural view of the early music phenomenon, he shows that the movement, far from reviving ancient traditions, in fact represents the only truly modern style of performance being offered today. He goes on to contend that the movement is therefore far more valuable - and even authentic - than simple historical verisimilitude could ever be. These essays cast fresh light on many aspects of contemporary music-making and music-thinking, mixing lighthearted debunking with impassioned argumentation. Taruskin moves fluently from theoretical speculation to practical criticism, and covers a repertory ranging from Josquin des Prez to Stravinsky.

Contents:

Introduction: Last Thoughts First. 1. On Letting the Music Speak for Itself. 2. The Limits of Authenticity: A Contribution. 3. Down with the Fence. 4. The Pastness of the Present and the Presence of the Past. 5. What - or Where - Is the Original? 6. The Modern Sound of Early Music. 7. Tradition and Authority

Beethoven. 8. The New Antiquity. 9. Resisting the Ninth

Mozart. 10. An Icon for Our Time. 11. A Mozart Wholly Ours. 12. Old (New) Instruments, New (Old) Tempos

Bach. 13. Backslide or Harbinger? 14. Facing up, Finally, to Bach's Dark Vision. 15. The Crooked Straight and the Rough Places Plain

Antiquarian Innocence. 16. Report from Lincoln Center: The International Josquin Festival-Conference, 21-25 June 1971. 17. The Price of Literacy, or, Why We Need Musicology. 18. High, Sweet, and Loud. 19. Text and Act

Full Circle. 20. Stravinsky Lite (Even "The Rite").

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. Available via World Wide Web.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the J. Fithian Tatem Memorial Fund.

Other Format:

Print version: Taruskin, Richard. Text and act.

ISBN:

9780195094589

0195094581

0195357434

9780195357431

6610450994

9786610450992

Publisher Number:

99958072874

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.