Richard Taruskin

(1945-2022)

American writer

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Richard Filler Taruskin (2 April 1945 – 1 July 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as musical analysis that combines sociological, cultural, and political perspectives, has incited much discussion, debate and controversy. He wrote on a wide variety of topics, but central to his research is Russian music of the 18th century to present day. Other subjects he engaged with include the theory of performance, 15th-century music, 20th-century classical music, nationalism in music, the theory of modernism, and analysis. He is best known for his monumental survey of Western classical music, the 6-volume Oxford History of Western Music. In addition, he regularly wrote music criticism for newspapers like The New York Times.