Joseph Kerman, Colorful Critic of Musicology, Dies at 89

Joseph Kerman, an eminent musicologist who modernized a field he had found insular and stagnant, challenging conventional wisdom with colorful, pungent prose, died on March 17 in Berkeley, Calif. He was 89. 

His death, after a long illness, was confirmed by his daughter, Lucy Kerman.

Mr. Kerman, the author of a number of admired books and essays, disliked what he saw as the intellectual isolation of musicology and encouraged a more multidisciplinary approach. In 1985, for example, he noted that feminist criticism, an integral part of film, literary and art studies, was largely absent from musicology. more