To Blast away the Things that Block Men's Ears' Adorno's Relevance for Contemporary Music

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Miles, Stephen

Keywords

Adorno, Modernism, 20th Century Music, B�rger, Peter, Haberman, J�rgen, Ferneyhough, Rihm, Wolfgang

Area of Concentration

Music

Abstract

Theodor Adomo can without exaggeration be called the intellectual avatar of musical modernism. As the foremost philosophical advocate of the Second Viennese School in the 1920's and 30's, Adomo's writings were fundamental in articulating the aspirations and challenges of post-tonal music. In the 50's and 60's, he was a central figure at the Darmstadt summer courses, the crucible of the postwar musical avant-garde. Now that the lineage of musical modernism with which Adomo concerned himself can be put in historical perspective, we can begin to assess the significance of Adomo's thought for contemporary music. In the first part of this thesis I present a synopsis of Adomo's ideas on modem music, venturing, where necessary for purposes of explication, into his writings on aesthetics and modernity. The subsequent section is devoted to critiques of Adomo which seek to continue the spirit of his project while calling into question many of his basic assumptions. Finally, I look at the work of Brian Ferneybough and Wolfgang Rihm, two contemporary composers working within a broadly defined modernist idiom. Through a consideration of their music and writings, as well as the reception of their work, I investigate the implications of their work for both the theoretical discourse of modernism and the horizons of contemporary musical practice.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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