Joseph Kerman

Professor Emeritus, Musicology

Email: jokerm@socrates.berkeley.edu
Office phone: 642-2691

Personal statement

Joseph Kerman (b. 1924) studied with Oliver Strunk at Princeton and came to Berkeley in 1952. He left to become Heather Professor of Music at Oxford in 1972 but returned in 1974. For an introduction to his work, read Write All These Down (1994), an essay collection sampling his several fields of activity: Elizabethan music (books: The Elizabethan Madrigal, 1962, The Masses and Motets of William Byrd, 1980), Beethoven (The Beethoven Quartets, 1967, The Kafka Sketchbook, 1970, The New Grove Beethoven, 1983, with Alan Tyson), opera (Opera as Drama, 1956/1988), and criticism. An influential commentator on musicology (see Contemplating Music, 1986), he was an early champion of criticism within the discipline. He wrote (writes) for general readers in Hudson Review (1948ˆ62) and New York Review (1977ˆ ). Other books are Concerto Conversations (1998) and The Art of Fugue: Bach Fugues for Keyboard, 1715ˆ1750 (2005).

Retired since 1994, Kerman will be glad to consult with students on any of the above topics, opera studies included, though this is not a strong suit.

Compositions/Performances/Publications

Recent publications:
"Beethoven's Opus 131 and the Uncanny," 19th-Century Music 25 (2002), 155ˆ64
[On Bach fugues: E Major, WTC II], Words on Music: Essays in Honor of Andrew Porter (2003), pp. 92ˆ98, [C# Minor, WTC I], Eighteenth-Century Music 1(2004), 79ˆ83 CD notes for complete Beethoven sonatas by Stephen Kovacevich (EMI), 2003

With Gary Tomlinson, Listen (textbook), 5th Brief Edition, 2003

Reviews in New York Review: Nike Wagner, The Wagners, Aug. 9, 2001, pp. 27ˆ40. Monteverdi operas at BAM, June 13, 2002, pp. 36ˆ38. Lewis Lockwood, Beethoven, Feb. 27, 2003, pp. 35ˆ37. Craig Wright, The Maze and the Warrior, June 24, 2004, pp. 42ˆ45. Carlos Kleiber, September 23, 2004, p. 77