Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Message from Taruskin
I woke up this morning and, before checking Sequenza21, checked my email, to find a
message from Richard Taruskin:
Hi. Quite something, that review. It show the power of reputation. You reviewed the book you expected from me, not the book I wrote. Your hysteria was very heartening. The best confirmation I get that my take on the history of 20c music is accurate are the reactions of those left high and dry, and you seem to be the highest and dryest. RT
The review in question is in the issue that I guess is just out (I haven't seen it yet) of Tempo. It was of The (five volume) Oxford History of Western Music by Taruskin, which I spent about six months at the beginning of last year reading. I spent about three months on the review (which largely consisted of direct quotations from the book, incidentally). I had heard that Taruskin was known for sending nasty emails to people who wrote reviews he didn't like, and I guess this is proof of it, although it seems pretty mild to me. I actually took pains--lots of them--to try to make the review as cold-blooded as possible, so it didn't seem particularly hysterical to me. I've certainly seen (and done) worse. I have a feeling his message was largely boilerplate, anyway.
I replied that I had reviewed the book I read (which I read just about every word of--a lot of them more than once), and I knew I was high and dry, anyway.
I can't post the actual review, so if anybody's interested, they'll have to look for it at some local library.
posted by Rodney Lister
12:21 PM
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