Adorno read modernist music’s technical conflicts as symptoms of social disorder

Evidence

This discussion concerns itself … exclusively with music. How is a total world to be structured in which mere questions of counterpoint give rise to unresolvable conflicts? How disordered is life today at its very roots if its shuddering and rigidity are reflected even in a field no longer affected by empirical necessity, a field in which human beings hope to find a sanctuary from the presence of horrifying norms. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2181 (#expands, via linked claim)

Although the mediating connection was difficult to illustrate satisfactorily, Adorno went so far as to suggest that objectivism was in a sense the correlate of fascism. Its use of neoprimitive rhythms corresponded to the shocks of unintegrated Erlebnis (experience) fostered by fascist society. The irrationality of the objectivists’ principles of composition - the composer’s “taste” rather than the immanent dialectic of the music was decisive - suggested the arbitrary control of the fascist Fiihrer. Stravinsky might be attacked by the fascists for his “destructiveness,” but whether they knew it or not, his music expressed their ideology. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 558 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

But was one not simply left with a collection of tones which could be manipulated, perhaps even using traditional forms, or whose sounds, purified of all human touches, could have metaphysical powers attributed to themas composers inspired by Zen, for example, did? And did this not correspond precisely to what Adorno had long since diagnosed as a weakening of the individual in society, which composers were also affected by? In the midst of the anthropology of the present age, to demand non-revisionist music is to expect too much,' Adorno himself stated. He mentioned the prohibitive difficulties’ of contemporary art again and again. Yet it was precisely in music that he saw chances at the present time for a third path to succeed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2209 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Adorno read Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique as demythologizing rationalization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 365; Adorno read esoteric musical technicalities as indices of total social disorder — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2181; Adorno saw contemporary music as weakened by the decline of the individual — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2209 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno read esoteric musical technicalities as indices of total social disorder #expands (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2181
• Adorno linked neoclassical musical objectivism to fascist ideology #exemplifies (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 558
• Adorno saw contemporary music as weakened by the decline of the individual #expands (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2209
• Adorno saw jitterbugging as a vestige of negation within standardized pop music #corroborates (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 582