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Twines and tangles: this text is a response to the review of J. Tyrrell's monograph on Janacek from the pen of Milos Stedron, which was printed in CMQ 2/2008. Michael Beckerman is a professor at New York University and the author of the monograph Janacek as Theorist (Pendragon Press, 1994). (Ed. note).

Article Excerpt
After several breathless pages of unvarnished praise in his recent review of John Tyrrell's roughly 2000 page Janacek: Years of a Life, Milos Stedron pauses to state his primary objection to the 3.6 kg biography:

One aspect which I do not agree with and which I consider to be an inadequately thought out part of the monograph is the passage on Janacek as Theorist. Tyrrell generally takes over the internationally cited monograph by Michael Beckerman Janacek as Theorist. I personally think that despite its elegant form this book is only an attempt at identifying Janacek the theorist. Beckerman seems to have wanted to stake a claim to this lucrative theme, but his treatment ignores the results of Czech music theory (Blazek, Rehanek, Volek) and starts entirely from his own research.

On every level, Stedron's assessment is careless and incorrect. First he misreads Tyrrell who, after damning my 470gm volume (which he calls "slim") with faint praise, swiftly moves on to quote such scholars as Kulka, Chlubna, Kunc, Hanak, Volek and Blatny, completing a lean consideration of Janacek's theories in a mere 9 page (4gm) chapter. My book may be the starting point for his chapter, but it is hardly the core of it.

This would hardly be worth noticing had Stedron's reading of my own work not been so sloppy and misinformed, particularly when he claims that I have ignored specific Czech sources. Blazek's contributions are cited throughout my work, and I annotated his texts thoroughly as I prepared my book. I also studied the work of Rehanek, and have had a warm relationship with that author over the years. Finally, I had many long conversations with Jaroslav Volek about related issues,...