Philosophy of Modern Music – Selected Summaries and Interpretations

Theodor Adorno

INTRODUCTION

CHOICE OF SUBJECT MATTER

Adorno opens with a [rather long] quote by Walter Benjamin about the
role of philosophy in identifying two “opposing camps,” and bringing them
together through their relationship to a larger whole. The quote outlines
Adorno’s Philosophy of Modern Music, which deals essentially with the two
protagonists of 20th century music: Schoenberg and Stravinsky. In justifying
his claim that the two camps do not measure the level of relevance or ability,
Adorno mentioned Bartok as a “reconciler of the two,” and stated that his
best works are probably better in density and richness than those of
Stravinsky. The statement was supported by a reference to an article by
Rene Leibowitz entitled, “Bela Bartok or the Possibility ofCompromise In
Modern Music.” Adorno concludes this section by explaining that a
philosophical study of art aims not to analyze the specific techniques – 12
tone, neo-classical – but by their incorporation into the works of the
composers.

NEW CONFORMISM

Adorno claims that modern music, like visual art, is not cast in
antitheses, but involves varying camps seeking the same goal: to “react to
the cultural depravity of the traditional idiom.” To Adorno, visual abstraction
saw its parallel in atonal music. Photography and decorative, post-romantic
music were the same stimuli to bring forth modernism. Because of the
“mass-produced” appeal of “accessible” music, modern or “radical” music
was cast into isolation. Adorno then attacks the generation following
Schoenberg and Stavinsky, especially Hindemith, for its turn to pre-
establishes norms for the sake of safety and not for innovation. He also
attacks those who completely abandon all previously established norms in
favor of anarchy. About the music of Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and Britten,
Adorno writes: all these have in common a taste for tastelessness, a
simplicity resulting from ignorance, an immaturity which masks as
enlightenment, and a dearth of technical means.”

SCHOENBERG AND PROGRESS

LONELINESS AS STYLE

In this section, Schoenberg discusses musical borrowing in Schoenberg

and Berg, especially in Erwartung, whose words he regards as being
paradigmatic to the style of loneliness. The poem is about a city dweller
whose citizens are totally unaware of each other. The words define the point
of intersection between Art Nouveau and Expressionism. Berg’s Lyric Suite is
also mentioned in the way it quotes directly from Zemlinsky. Adorno writes
that Expressionism reveals loneliness as universal.

EXPRESSIONISM AS OBJECTIVITY

Adorno writes: “Expression polarizes musical continuity according to its

extremes.” An expressionist work, then, is built upon extreme contrasts
much in the way older forms relied on transition. By rejecting communication
with the outside world, Expressionism attains consistency only within works
of art. In other words, the work is consistent within itself, but not with the
outside world – this includes classical form or derivative melody. The
expressive character of the musical work, to Adorno, is solidified and
“objectified” within the music’s structure. Adorno is trying to deconstruct the
illusion of subjectivity in Expressionism, saying that amidst the inward
character of the music, the work holds together via its form, the glue of which
is the very element of contrast that makes the work seem untamed or
“expressionistic.” Adorno concludes that Expressionism managed to
reconcile objectivity with subjectivity; it rejected totality yet was organic in
composition, however irrational it may seem on the surface. In a footnote,
Adorno expresses the difference between Expressionism and Surrealism. In a
nutshell, the former portrays sudden gesture and motionlessness of the body,
whereas the latter dispenses with life, destroying the boundary between the
body and the world of objects.