The concept of musical time in T. W. Adorno

Abstract

This project aims to describe the fundamental aspects of the concept of musical time within T.W. Adorno's philosophy of music, after his return to Germany in 1949. Our initial scope will be his critique towards post-Webern serialism - notably his controversial intervention among "Darmstadt School" debates during the 1950's and 60's - and his counterpart dialectical concept of "informal music". Thus, this project is oriented by a dual purpose. First, it shall clarify the theoretical references of the specific notion of time that Adorno reveals in his musical thought and writings, considering the reciprocity between philosophical categories and musical categories hold by his distinct intellectual approach. This hypothesis is supported by the close relationship between history of reason and history of music that Adorno established in order to demonstrate the progressive spacialization and "detemporalization" of time in western culture (one must remember that "detemporalization of time" is a crucial sub-chapter of Negative Dialectics). Secondly, we shall account why the conceptual development of "informal music" can be considered as the heyday of Adorno's philosophy of music vis-à-vis his critical assessment to post-war avant-garde music orientations. We observe indeed that Adorno's persistent attendance to Darmstadt Courses from 1950 to 1966 (as an important organizer and lecturer) is straightly linked to his intense musical writing production published at the same time. Hence, we believe that these debates, having Darmstadt School composers and avant-garde bearings as theoretical counterpoints, enabled Adorno himself to better expose critically the parameters of his concept of musical time. (AU)