Passing of a great classical scholar, 91
mainWe have been notified of the death of Eva Badura-Skoda, one of the foremost researchers of Mozart and Schubert.
She worked closely with her husband, the pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, from whom she later parted.
Away from Vienna, she was visiting professor in Boston, Montreal and elsewhere.
She was a visiting professor at McGill. She taught high school level stuff to university students. One of her exams included a series of really simple questions that most of us aced without breaking a sweat. She therefore accused us of cheating. Angels and ministers of grace defend us.
I had the same experience in musicology at my university (not in the USA). The exam questions (there shouldn’t have been an ‘exam’ for that subject) where “identify all the Ballades of Chopin”. I thought, “Whaaaat?” This exam had zero merit because it could have included a piece of music and asked for an analysis and a recognition of style!!
I took several Honors Music History classes from her while completing my B.Mus at U. of Wisconsin-Madison in the very late 1960s. She was a full professor n husband Paul was Artist-in-Residence. I loved her classes and her perspective on musical developments – Hayden, (of course Mozart) n earlier work of Beethoven. She was the one professor who strongly encouraged my studies and urged me to stay on for graduate work. But for me at the time I had “other fish to fry.” I found a new passion working as a trumpeter with artist in residence pianist Cecil Taylor, building with a core group of like-minded musicians, a large Black Music Ensemble, playing and recording Taylor’s orchestral compositions for several subsequent years.
I fondly remember Professor Badura-Skoda’s kindness, encouragement and high academic standards. One of my all-time favorite educators.
Darryl Wolfe
Houston, Texas