Meet Lori Kruckenberg

Interview with Lori Kruckenberg, conducted by John Wood, May 22, 2024

John Wood – How did you get into musicology?

Lori Kruckenberg – So as a kid in junior high and high school, probably even grade school, I just liked history. And when I decided to go away to college—I went to a really small liberal arts college, and that was not because I was being savvy, but I went away to college early, and the kind of condition with my parents, especially my mother, was you have to go somewhere close, not to a big, giant university; and I just wanted to go to school, so I was fine with that—I wanted to go into a history bachelors. And because I played some piano, decently enough for this small school, they offered me a scholarship, but on the condition that I pursued a music major. So I was originally going to do a double major in history and music, and then I went through this program in three years. So I was going to do a major in music and a minor in history. There was one class I was lacking. I had to take an economics class, and, I don’t think it was really because I ran out of time, but I didn’t trust myself to do the economics, which was too bad. I don’t know why—you know, just ignorance. And so I just had a minor in history. And then I took a break from school for a couple of years, and I got married to my husband, Kurt, and decided to start looking at possible history programs. I had kind of thought Iowa or Wisconsin, again, maybe not for the smartest reasons, but I knew someone who I admired greatly, who had had connections with those two programs, and the University of Iowa offered a summer program where you could go just try out a graduate class at in-state rate. It was like you could only take 4 credits. And so I went twice to the University of Iowa over the summer. And I was getting ready to go and make my pitch to the history department, but there was a musicology class offered, and I thought, “Oh, as a last hurrah to music, I’ll go and take this history of music class.” And I was caught. I mean, I just thought, “Wait a minute. This is what I want to do.” Or I was really taken by it, and the professor of that class said, “Have you ever thought about musicology?” And I was like, “What’s musicology?” So I was really part of the unwashed masses. I was very naïve. But it allowed me to combine my natural inclinations for history, which I think has always been with me since I can remember, and combined with my knowledge of music. I don’t play anymore, but I had at that time. It’s a very unromantic story, but that’s how I got into it, kind of by accident. I didn’t start out to do it. I really thought I would go into history.

JW – I feel like other people have similar stories, where by happenstance, they didn’t know there was this thing called musicology, and then there’s sort of a moment where they discover it and realize that’s the thing.

LK – Yeah. In fact, even at my bachelor’s program, we had to do a final interview, every single bachelors, with the entire music department, which in hindsight I think is really wild. It was kind of like an oral exam. And then there were these exit questions about, “What do you think you want to do?” And I was like, “If there were such a thing as studying the history of music, I’d love to do that,” even though they had a music history class. And then someone said, “Well you want to be a musicologist.” And I’m like, “Wait, wait, wait. Slow down.” Because it was a very small liberal arts program. No one there was a musicologist. They were mostly studio teachers or conductors who happened to be teaching some history. But the same thing. It was sort of by happenstance. For sure.

JW – And now you’re here. And you’ve been at UO for a few years.

LK – Yeah. I’m just shy of a quarter of a century.

JW – I’m sure things have changed in that time. But what do you think is special about the musicology program here?

LK – Yeah, I mean, it has changed a lot. But despite the changes, I’ve always been appreciative of all the colleagues I have in musicology. They just do interesting things. Even as the actors change, the plays they perform remain fascinating and compelling. So I think that’s really strong. I love the work of Abigail Fine, and Zach Wallmark, and Ed Wolf. I don’t know my newest colleagues as well, although I have read Jesus Ramos-Kittrell, a few pieces of his. But I really just love what we have here on the faculty. And then our musicology and ethnomusicology faculty interacts very well with other members of the faculty, especially, say, music theory. We kind of find these natural alignments. And then even with people in, you know, the performance areas, and so on and so forth. So I think that’s something really strong here. From the get go, when I got here, the idea was: You don’t come to study with one person. You study with us all. And I think that has remained pretty much in play. Whereas, where I did my PhD, if you chose one professor, I mean, there were kind of unwritten rules. You don’t talk to the others, in some cases, because it was so antagonistic. So I find this a really great place to be nurtured, both professionally and for our students. You’ve been in Intro to Musicology, where I like to program in works of the colleagues. It’s not because I feel compelled to do it. It’s because I want to. And I like finding those synergies or those crossovers with what else people are doing outside of this university and outside of even the US. I find that really fun.

JW – Yeah, I really appreciated that. So, besides being a professor, what could a student do with the degree of his college?

LK – I see so much good writing coming out of our program. I mean, I see just fantastic writing, as good as ever. You know, in a time when we’re wringing our hands over AI, I’m constantly taken by how well so many of our graduate students write. So for those who want to continue in communication in that way, whether it’s acting as an editor or in some sort of journalistic vein, or there’s certainly a lot of freelance copy editing, writing for public radio—I have someone who did her dissertation with me, and she’s with one of the two largest public radio stations in New York City. And so she’s putting her work together that way, and she produces these radio pieces for the one of the NPR stations there. So to me, that’s a really strong one. People may go into some sort of curation or information technology, whether it’s librarianship or going into museum studies or something like that. I’ve seen people go into working for arts organizations. And that can come in so many different ways. I know of someone who’s now with the Seattle Orchestra and we have someone at the Oregon Bach Festival and so on and so forth. So I think there’s lots of ways. I’ve known people who’ve gone into work in museums, for instance, and then sometimes they pivot to something very different. But what remains constant is good communication skills. So in a way I think that works really well for musicology, that ability to translate experiences that are maybe coming out of something that’s artistic or musical but making it legible for more people.

JW – Yeah. Writing skills, research skills, communication, collaboration.

LK – Maybe that sounds like what a lot of folks in the humanities say, but I would agree with that, and that’s okay.

JW – But then having the musical specialization is a different angle.

LK – I think so too. Because it’s a mystery to so many people. And one of the groups I collaborate with in my research, I’m the only musicologist, I’m the only musical scholar, period. And what I find, in this group, is they’re just hungry and thirsty, like, explain this to me. And they’re worried about not getting it. But I take pride in being able to explain to them why they should care about this, or why this matters, or “It’s not nearly as mysterious as you would think; let me show you why.”

JW – That’s a great skill, being able to explain things to non-musicians. That’s something I’ve been thinking about, especially for students.

LK – That’s fun. Demystifying things that seem so mystifying. And you know, I need help coming into certain kinds of documents and texts, too, like looking at a deed or an economic document. I’m like, “What am I looking at here?” So I have historians who will help me with that. But it goes to the other direction too. And we deal with different language, right? Music, you know, has its own sort of script.

JW – Right. So we can translate.

LK – Exactly.

JW – One more question. What is your go-to coffee or tea order?

LK – It’s black coffee. I used to do the sugar and the cream, and you know I would do lattes and cappuccinos. And I still like espresso. But a black hot pot of coffee will keep me going the whole day.

 

 

Read the longer version of this interview.