Joseph Kerman facts for kids

Joseph Wilfred Kerman (born April 3, 1924 – died March 17, 2014) was an American musicologist and music critic. A musicologist is someone who studies music in a deep, academic way. A music critic writes about and judges music. Joseph Kerman was one of the most important musicologists of his time. His 1985 book, Contemplating Music, was a very important book in the field of music study. He was a professor of music at the University of California, Berkeley.

Life and Career of Joseph Kerman

Joseph Kerman was born in London, England. His father was an American journalist. Joseph went to University College School in London. Later, he studied at New York University and then Princeton University. He earned his PhD from Princeton in 1950. While at Princeton, he studied with famous music teachers. His PhD paper was about Elizabethan madrigals, which are a type of song from the 1500s and 1600s.

When he was young, he used "Kerman" as a pen name. Later, he made it his official name. From 1949 to 1951, he taught at Westminster Choir College. Then, he joined the University of California, Berkeley. He became a full professor in 1960. He was also the head of the music department there from 1960 to 1963.

Kerman's Time at Oxford University

In 1971, Joseph Kerman became a music professor at Oxford University in England. He stayed there until 1974. After that, he went back to Berkeley. He was again the head of the music department from 1991 until he retired in 1994.

Key Books and Ideas

Kerman's first book was Opera as Drama (1956). He based it on essays he wrote earlier. This book was published in many languages. In Opera as Drama, Kerman believed that an opera's story is very important. He thought the story should guide both the words (called the libretto) and the music. He felt that an opera was not as good if the words and music did not connect well.

One famous example from his book was his opinion on Puccini's opera Tosca. He called it a "shabby little shocker." This meant he thought the story was too dramatic and not very deep. He felt the music did not always match the story in a meaningful way.

His paper on Elizabethan madrigals was published as a book in 1962. It was important because it showed how English madrigals were connected to earlier Italian ones. He was always interested in the English composer William Byrd. He wrote several important books about Byrd's music.

Writing for Students and Scholars

Joseph Kerman also wrote a popular book about Beethoven's string quartets. These are pieces of music for four string instruments. With his wife, Vivian Kerman, he wrote a widely used textbook called Listen. This book was first published in 1972 and is still used today.

In 1985, he published Contemplating Music. This book looked at the history of music study. Kerman argued that music scholars were too focused on just facts and not enough on understanding the meaning of music. He believed this stopped serious music criticism from growing. This book helped create a "new musicology." This new way of studying music looked at it from different angles, like how music relates to society or feelings.

From 1997 to 1998, Kerman gave a series of public talks at Harvard University. He talked about the importance of "close reading" music. This means studying musical pieces and performances very carefully, similar to how people study literature. These talks were published in 1998 as Concerto Conversations. Kerman also wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books. He helped start the journal 19th-Century Music. Many of his critical essays were collected in his 1994 book, Write All These Down.

Honours and Awards

Joseph Kerman received many awards and honours for his work.

• In 1972, he became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.
• In 1973, he became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• In 2002, he became a member of the American Philosophical Society.
• He won the ASCAP's Deems Taylor Award for excellent writing about music in 1981 and 1995.
• He also received the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society in 1970 and 1981. This award is for outstanding music scholarship.

Death and Legacy

Joseph Kerman passed away at his home in Berkeley on March 17, 2014. He was 89 years old.

After his death, many people wrote about his life and work. Two of his former colleagues, Roger Parker and Carolyn Abbate, shared memories of working with him. They said that Kerman was a great editor. He would draw a wavy line in the margin of their writing to show them where to improve. This simple line made them think carefully about their words. They said he inspired them with his own clear and beautiful writing. He helped them become better writers. They wrote that he "formed us—sometimes sentence-by-sentence." This shows how much he influenced other music scholars.

See also

In Spanish: Joseph Kerman para niños