Text and Act Essays on Music and Performance [Paperback]

Over the last dozen years, the writings of Richard Taruskin have transformed the debate about early music and authenticity. Text and Actcollects for the first time the most important of Taruskin's essays and reviews from this period, many of which now classics in the field. Taking a wide-ranging cultural view of the 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 the historical verisimilitude for which it ostensibly strives 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 ranges from theoretical speculation to practical criticism, and covers a repertory spanning from Bach to Stravinsky. Including a newly written introduction,Text and Actcollects the very best of one of our most incisive musical thinkers.

This is not a book, it's an education, and a joyous one. Richard Taruskin's stylistic flair and incisive wit make it an endless pleasure to pick his fertile brain. --James R. Oestreich, Classical Music Editor,The New York Times

This deliciously readable collection by America's most brilliant musicologist is a model of how to think independently, even before that becomes fashionable, and of how to articulate values, even after that becomes unfashionable. When other books on music are forgotten, Taruskin's essays, like those of Berlioz and Tovey, will be savored and relished as the best musical writing of their time. --Rose Rosengard Subotnik,Professor of Music, Brown University

Little escapes his sharp eye, and his incisive commentary spans developments from the Middle Ages to the present era. The author is sometimes whimsical, often bitingly critical, occasiol_