The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays (Roth Family Foundation Music in America Imprint) [Hardcover]

Richard Taruskin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Roth Family Foundation Music in America Imprint | Publication Date: December 2, 2008

The Danger of Music gathers some two decades of Richard Taruskin's writing on the arts and politics, ranging in approach from occasional pieces for major newspapers such as the New York Times to full-scale critical essays for leading intellectual journals. Hard-hitting, provocative, and incisive, these essays consider contemporary composition and performance, the role of critics and historians in the life of the arts, and the fraught terrain where ethics and aesthetics interact and at times conflict. Many of the works collected here have themselves excited wide debate, including the title essay, which considers the rights and obligations of artists in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In a series of lively postscripts written especially for this volume, Taruskin, America's "public" musicologist, addresses the debates he has stirred up by insisting that art is not a utopian escape and that artists inhabit the same world as the rest of society. Among the book's forty-two essays are two public addresses--one about the prospects for classical music at the end of the second millennium C. E., the other a revisiting of the performance issues previously discussed in the author's Text and Act (1995)--that appear in print for the first time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is one of the most important books about music you'll read this year. . . . No one has bridged the gap between music scholarship and mainstream media as virtuosically as Taruskin."--The Guardian

"Very entertaining."--New York Review of Books

"A collection of essays by the fearsomely intelligent Berkeley-based musicologist [offering] a passionately engaging perspective."--The Guardian

"Intellectually generous compendium that merits serious and sustained engagement."--Classical Music Magazine

"A stimulating book that offers a wide range of topics and ideas."--Music Educators Journal

From the Inside Flap

"Taruskin's work is a major contribution to thinking about music in the broadest sense. The book is lucid, powerful, varied, self-aware, and courageous. It is the very best work being done today, not just in musicology, but in any discipline."--Michael Beckerman, author of New Worlds of Dvorák

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520249771
• ISBN-13: 978-0520249776
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,370,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neoconservative critique, July 24, 2011

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demo - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays (Paperback)

A very entertaining writer and strong scholar (particularly of early music), but, to me anyway, reactionary and often infatuated with polemic. For instance, what's up with his obsession with the late Milton Babbitt? I'll admit I probably don't like Babbitt's music any better than Taruskin (or nearly anybody else on earth) does, but does he (a minor composer and marginal theorist at best) really need to be dragged out as the bogeyman every time music influenced by Schoenberg is discussed? He even uses the same (Gotcha!!!) quotation every time.

I enjoyed the book (and learned from it), but I find it difficult to take Taruskin (and his opinions) as seriously as he takes himself (and them). I'm disappointed that a scholar of his caliber and a writer of his skill so often uses these opportunities (mostly reviews of books and concerts) as vehicles for expressing his own reactionary bias rather than engaging in discussion.

It saddens me to see how deeply neocon ideas and methodologies have penetrated our culture.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Like hanging out with someone smart but boorish, October 21, 2011

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Kuru (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Danger of Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays (Paperback)

The good news: This book, made up of essays collected mostly from relatively high-brow general interest periodicals, covers a wide range of musical subjects, conveys a lot of information, and should be easily accessible to any reasonably musically literate reader. The essays tend to be thought-provoking and encouraging of exploration.

The bad news: The writerly tone is too often arrogant, bullying, and petty. The author seems to have a need to try to prove himself smarter than everyone else, and too plainly enjoys settling scores with his "adversaries." If you've ever experienced the surreal nastiness of a university arts or humanities department, you'll recognize the tone immediately.

Reading the book left me feeling simultaneously intellectually stimulated, depressed, and cranky. Perhaps that's how it feels to be a musicology professor . . .)