Choice Reviews Online · 1996 · 331 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesMusicologyPerformance StudiesHistorical MusicologyMusic CriticismPerformance PracticeClassical Music CriticismEarly Music PerformanceMusic HistoriographyMusic Performance HistoryPerformance CriticismPerformance Practice HistoryAesthetic DebatesAuthenticity In Music PerformanceEvaluationHistoriography Of Music AestheticsInstrumental Performance TraditionsMusical PracticeOriginality In PerformancePeriod Performance Practice
Taruskin’s collection surveys a decade of performance‑practice scholarship, linking musical issues to broader cultural debates and challenging prevailing views on early‑music authenticity. The volume opens with an interdisciplinary introduction and then presents Taruskin’s essays—ranging from theoretical speculation to practical criticism—across a repertoire that spans Bach to Stravinsky. Taruskin argues that the early‑music revival is a triumph of modernist aesthetics, redefining authenticity as a contemporary, profound practice rather than historical fidelity, and his essays illuminate this view with both critique and insight.
Gathers together for the first time Taruskin's influential and insightful essays and articles on musical performance practice written over the past decade. Links issues in musical performance with wider cultural scene. Author's highly respected and controversial viewpoints and reputation will spark intellectual debate in the musical field. Text and Act, a collection of essays and reviews, published over the last dozen years, offers a brilliant evaluation of the movement, transforming the debate about early music and authenticity. Demolishing the argument that the movement to revive instruments and performance practices represents the recovery of an ancient truth or a reinstatement of a lost tradition, these writings show that the movement actually represents the triumph of a modernist esthetic - and consequently that period performances are in fact the only truly modern performances of classical on offer. Yet far from impugning the movement's claim to authenticity, Taruskin argues that as the only truly contemporary performance practice, early music is authentic in a much more profound and relevant sense than a mere historical verisimilitude could ever be. These essays cast fresh light on many aspects of contemporary music-making and music-thinking, with lighthearted debunking taking its place alongside impassioned argumentation. A wide-ranging, newly written introduction explores the relationship between issues surrounding musical performance and other areas of contemporary intellectual ferment in the humanities and the social sciences, including philosophy, law, history, and anthropology. Bringing his considerable skills as a scholar and a performer to bear on the situation, Taruskin's essays, ranging from theoretical speculation to practical criticism, cover a repertory that includes Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Stravinsky.