Late-style dissonance arises from harmony’s own insufficiency

Evidence

Without a reminiscence of contradiction and non-identity, harmony would be aesthetically irrelevant … If one were to see the anti-harmonic gestures of Michelangelo, of the later Rembrandt, or of Beethoven’s final period, as deriving from the dynamics of the concept of harmony itselfand ultimately from its insufficiencyinstead of deriving from a subjectively passionate development, it would hardly be an inappropriate generalization of matters that diverge too widely in terms of the philosophy of history. Dissonance is the truth about harmony. If harmony is taken in the strictest sense, it proves to be unattainable in terms of its own criteria. The desiderata for it can only be satisfied if this unattainability comes to appear as part of its essenceas in the so-called late style of significant artists. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2723

Categorization

• DEFINE: Articulates Adorno’s concept of ‘late style’: the unattainability of harmony made part of its essence.
• DEEPTHINKING: A paradigm-shifting redefinition of artistic late style — not subjective fatigue but the internal limit of the concept of harmony itself.