The composer’s problem of form is a special case of humanity’s problem of order
Evidence
Adorno was thus once again taking up the problem posed in his earlier essays on music: how does the modern composer achieve definite forms? This question is only a special case of the more general one: how can humanity achieve definite order today, when all traditional measures and norms have begun to crumble? — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 326
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the Frankfurt School diagnosis that all traditional norms have lost their self-evidence in modernity. — connects to: Arrangement extracts popular fragments and destroys a work’s symphonic unity; Order and chaos are essential elements of human existence. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 91; The concept of disorder is manufactured by the new regime of order (+2 more)
- QUESTION: What concrete answers did Adorno accept to the problem of definite form after traditional norms crumbled?
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Arrangement extracts popular fragments and destroys a work’s symphonic unity; Order and chaos are essential elements of human existence. — Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life An Antidote to Chaos, 91; The concept of disorder is manufactured by the new regime of order (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Stravinsky’s technique encodes demagoguery through extrinsic categories rather than total structure
#complicates(0.71) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 82