Correspondence 1925-1935 (eBook)

Theodor W. Adorno, Alban Berg (Autoren)

Henri Lonitz (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2014
John Wiley & Sons (Verlag)
9780745692555 (ISBN)

Infos

Adorno was twenty-one years old when he traveled to Vienna in March 1925 to study musical composition with Alban Berg. Twenty years later, Adorno wrote: 'how much of my writing will remain is beyond my knowledge or my control, but there is one claim I wish to stake: that I understand the language of birds,' It was no less than the desire to learn to speak this language that drew him to Berg. Adorno already knew what he wanted to drew to compose before he went to Berg, and the aim of his stay in Vienna and the following years was to learn to put this knowledge of musical composition into practice.

His correspondence with Berg, who was soon to be world famous, is partly defined by his engagement with the compositional problems posed for the musical avant-garde by Schoenberg's discovery of the twelve-tone technique, for which Adorno was to become an advocate, not least in Vienna and through Berg. This correspondence documents how he wrote numerous essays on Berg, Webern and Schoenberg during this time, and tried in vain to establish a platform for the Second Viennese School against 'moderated modernity' in the journal Anbruch, where he exerted considerable editorial influence. It also shows how much Adorno - continually admonished by Berg to focus only on his musical composition - strove to reconcile his academic duties and his literary and journalistic work with the constant which to do nothing more than compose.

Theodor W. Adorno and Alban Berg

Inhalt

Editor's Note.

Translator's Note.

Correspondence 1943-1955.

Appendix I: Letters from Adorno to Helene Berg 1935-1949.

Appendix II: Other Correspondence.

Bibliographical Listing.

Index.

Rezensionen

"These letters provide us with a unique overview of the period and
offer interesting and enlightening perspectives on even mundane
aspects of daily life, as well as bringing us closer to the
characters in question by allowing us a special insight into thir
peculiar foibles and eccentricities."

Musical Times



"Major composers who befriend major philosophers, and
vice-versa, are hardly numerous in the history of Western culture.
Alban Berg's relationship with Theodor W. Adorno as teacher and
colleague ranks with that between Richard Wagner and Friedrich
Nietzsche, with the difference that Berg's and Adorno's genuine
affection for each other, and their magnificent insight into each
other's work, remained constant to the end. Their
correspondence is one of the landmarks of the early twentieth
century and its music - a beacon of light in desperate
times."

John Deathridge, King's College London

"Sensitively translated and skillfully edited, the Adorno-Berg
Correspondence represents scholarship eminently worthy of this
extraordinary collection of letters between two twentieth-century
intellectual-artistic giants. Adorno's composition lessons with
Berg lasted for only a few months, but the impact transformed his
understanding of modern music in particular and aesthetics in
general. Berg, in turn, respected his pupil's abilities as a
composer, just as he clearly benefited, both intellectually and
emotionally, from young Adorno's profound insight into his
master's music. Though separated in age by nearly two
decades, the two men formed a relationship born of deep affection
and still deeper shared respect that lasted until Berg's untimely
and sudden death. The collected correspondence makes available for
the first time in English a body of texts that will add
significantly to our understanding of Adorno and Berg as well as
their breathtaking accomplishments."

Richard Leppert, University of Minnesota

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 5.11.2014
• Übersetzer: Wieland Hoban
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Musik
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Allgemeine Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Adorno • adorno already • AIM • Alban • Berg • Beyond • Birds • contemporary social theory • Control • Desire • Knowledge • language • LESS • March • musical composition • Old • one claim • Philosophie • Philosophy • Remain • Sociology • Soziologie • stay • Study • twentyone • Vienna • World • years • Zeitgenössische Sozialtheorie • Zeitgenössische Sozialtheorie
• ISBN-13: 9780745692555 / 9780745692555