This essay collection is written in celebration of a remarkable academic leader and scholar whose writing on Czech and Eastern European music–most notably AntonÃn Dvorak (1841-1904), Leos Janaceck (1854-1928), Jaroslav Jezek (1906-1942), Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959), Pavel Haas (1899-1944) and Gideon Klein (1919-1945)–as well as on music in the concentration camps, has profoundly shaped the musicological landscape. Unafraid to be controversial, Michael Beckerman’s approach represents a number of vital challenges to musicology. These range from an interrogation of the way in which we write about music history to how we consider widely diverse fields of meaning as we approach musical works, especially problematic ones. A distinguishing hallmark of Beckerman’s career is the exceptional way in which he shares scholarship with public audiences and actively addresses central challenges in contemporary concert life.
Prague: Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2026.
