It is heartbreaking to announce the death of a renowned American Musicologist. Richard Taruskin is said to have passed on in the early hours of today (July 2) at the age of 77.
Richard Taruskin cause of death: What happened to Richard Taruskin
Per rumors, the most divisive and influential musicologist of his generation, died today of esophageal cancer in Oakland, California.
Taruskin ruled musicology from professorships at Columbia and California, with visiting lectureships at Cambridge and other universities.
His major work was the six-volume Oxford History of Western Music, which he published alongside numerous other works, some of which were ferocious and combative.
He was a Russian music specialist who took sides in the Shostakovich wars – both sides, in fact.
Among Mr. Taruskin’s many honors was the prestigious Kyoto Prize from Japan, which he received in 2017. His most recent book, Cursed Questions: On Music and Its Social Practices, was published in 2020.
He was working on a book of essays that would serve as an intellectual biography when he died.
