On Russian Music by Taruskin Richard

Author:Taruskin, Richard
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2011-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

Why then the quotes around “Samuel” and “Schmuÿle”? And why then would Stasov have felt the need to suppress the title? Why is Brown so eager to play along? Would a scholar in any other discipline than musicology fight off skepticism with such a lapse of intellect? Why is musicology so resolute in its naive sentimentality, so reluctant to recognize that music we do like can be written by people we don’t, and even by people who don’t like us? Brown’s, Russ’s, and Fanning’s reactions are quite of a piece with those of another British admirer who said of another attempt of mine not to flinch in the face of the unpleasant subtexts that can haunt beloved works, “I do not believe it is just the chagrin of having my lollipop snatched away from me by the playground bully … that makes me feel this as exaggerated, even pre-sumptuous.”25

Alas, I think that is just what it is. Must we reduce important works by significant composers to the level of lollipops? Is that the only level on which we can enjoy them? Must we always seek comfort in art? Or can we also admit that art criticism can and perhaps ought to have an ethical dimension, at least insofar as it requires us, when acting as critics or historians, to interpret meaning as we have come to understand it? I am delighted in the present instance to be deserting my own pusillanimous discipline for a venue where I can expect assent, and especially glad to have these lucubrations appear in a volume dedicated to Caryl Emerson, whose commitment to scholarly and critical ethics has been my inspiration for more than twenty years.

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