I am an academic researcher and an avid non-fiction reader. There are many popular books on science or music, but itās much harder to find texts that manage to occupy the space between popular and professional writing. Iļæ½ļæ½ve always been looking for this kind of book, whether on physics, music, AI, or math ā even when I knew that as a non-pro, I wouldnāt be able to understand everything. In my new book Iāve been trying to accomplish something similar: A book that can intrigue readers who are not professional economic theorists, that they will find interesting even if they canāt follow everything.
This is actually not one book but a five-volume (!) series of books which contains some of the best writing on classical music Iāve ever come across.
Taruskin, who passed away recently, was a legendary musicologist. In his writings, he managed to combine analytic writing that addresses his colleagues with unbelievably sharp and insightful writing that I, as a classical music fan who is not a pro, enjoy tremendously.
Taruskin loved picking intellectual fights, and this sort of combative energy is gripping. In this series, there are major story arcs like the interplay between āoralā and āliterateā traditions or the role of nationalism in 19th-century music. I liked how Tarsukin switches smoothly between a close analysis of a piece and a discussion of how it relates to the wider culture.
The Oxford History of Western Music is a magisterial survey of the traditions of Western music by one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists of our time. This text illuminates, through a representative sampling of masterworks, those themes, styles, and currents that give shape and direction to each musical age.
Taking a critical perspective, this text sets the details of music, the chronological sweep of figures, works, and musical ideas, within the larger context of world affairs and cultural history. Written by an authoritative, opinionated, and controversial figure in musicology, The Oxford History of Western Music provides a criticalā¦
