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THEODOR ADORNO AND ALBAN BERG: THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND MUSIC By MORGAN M. RICH A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Morgan Marie Rich 2 In memory of my aunt, Constance L. Achorn. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Throughout the years it took to complete this dissertation I have been drawn into a web of difficult and unfamiliar ideas, which often seemed impossible to untangle. I owe a large debt to all of the people who saw the potential of these ideas and gave me time to wrestle with Adorno’s philosophical difficulties. The stage for this dissertation was set approximately ten years ago when Christopher Williams introduced our hermeneutics seminar to Alban Berg’s Lulu; I was fascinated by Berg’s aesthetics and drawn to the scholarly literature on the opera. My first doctoral seminar, on Lulu, with Silvio dos Santos opened a door to understanding what kind of musicologist I could be. Words fail to fully express how much I owe to my advisor’s knowledge, support, enthusiasm, criticism, patience, and appreciation of difficult ideas. He has taught me the value of getting the ideas on the page in a reader-oriented manner. But more importantly, I value our lively debates about my ideas once they made it to the page. I am grateful for what I have learned from his research, particularly how to blend source study with philosophical and musical analysis in an interesting way. My committee members have been champions of my professional growth. Jennifer Thomas’s critical questions and reading of my work have been invaluable to crafting this dissertation. I must also thank her for support me as a whole person, and literally cheering me on as I lifted heavy things. Alex Reed’s music theory seminars allowed me to imagine methods suitable for interpreting the music. Eric Kligerman’s understanding of Adorno and German modernism has provided a crucial outside perspective. The musicology department at the University of Florida has supported all 4 stages of this work. John Duff and Kevin Orr, as directors of the School of Music, have supported my research travel and presentations. The archival research necessary for this research would not have been possible without grants from the University of Florida Graduate School, College of the Arts, and School of Music. It would have been nearly impossible to read Adorno in German without an immersive summer language program in Frankfurt, funded by the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS). This fellowship allowed me to begin archival research at the Theodor Adorno Archiv (Frankfurt) and Akademie der Kunst (Berlin). Michael Schwarz at the Akademie der Kunst has offered incalculable help during my four trips to the archive. Also the staff and specialists at the Musiksammlung of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek were of the utmost help during my brief but essential visit. A monumental undertaking like a dissertation would not have been possible without the support of friends and family. I would like to express my gratitude to my parents Michelle Chapman and Michael Rich. Thank you to my sister for the phone calls, talking about life and my crazy-cute niece and nephew; Clover was born when I started this project. To Katie Reed and Sarah Bushey, we started this adventure together, without you both it would have been nearly impossible; thank you for the support! Finally, Navid Bargrizan has helped me translate many complex, seemingly impenetrable Adorno passages (but any mistakes are indeed my own). I would like to thank him for being supportive of my loftiest goals through all of the hard work. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 9 MUSICAL EXAMPLES .................................................................................................. 10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................... 11 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 14 Negative Dialectics ................................................................................................. 17 Adorno’s Berg ......................................................................................................... 21 Approaches to Adorno’s Writings on Music in the Literature ................................... 30 Key Concepts ......................................................................................................... 34 Scope and Methodology ......................................................................................... 40 2 1925, ALBAN BERG AND THEODOR ADORNO IN A PIVOTAL YEAR ................ 49 Adorno’s Musical Aesthetics Before Berg ............................................................... 52 Berg’s Pivotal Year ................................................................................................. 69 Adorno’s Pivotal Year ............................................................................................. 84 3 ADORNO’S NARRATIVE OF BERG AND HIS MUSIC .......................................... 98 Prevailing Views of Berg – The Other Berg Monographs...................................... 107 Adorno’s Analysis of Berg’s Music ........................................................................ 131 4 MUSICAL PHILOSOPHY: ALBAN BERG, THEODOR ADORNO, AND THE FORMULATION OF NEGATIVE DIALECTICS ..................................................... 136 Berg, Adorno, and the Negative Dialectics of Composition with Twelve Tones .... 139 Berg, Twelve-Tone Methods, and the Historical Process ..................................... 154 Composing out his Conception of the Twelve-Tone Techniques .......................... 158 5 NEGATIVE DIALECTICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF NEW MUSIC ......................... 168 Overview of Philosophy of New Music .................................................................. 173 Thought Models in Philosophy of New Music ....................................................... 174 The Hegelian Thought Model ................................................................................ 177 6 Negative Dialectics in Philosophy of New Music ................................................... 184 Critique of the Twelve-Tone Technique ................................................................ 194 6 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................... 202 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 209 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 218 7 LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 List of pieces Adorno composed prior to studying with Berg .............................. 55 2-2 Adorno’s Frankfurt Music Reviews between 1922 and 1925. ............................. 65 2-3 Adorno’s Early Writings on Music, 1921-25. ....................................................... 67 2-4 Formal Outline of the Lyric Suite. ....................................................................... 82 2-5 Theodor Adorno’s writings on Alban Berg. ......................................................... 96 3-1 Table of Contents for Alban Berg: Master of the Smallest Link. ....................... 112 3-2 Adorno’s Writings on Berg before 1937. ........................................................... 113 3-3 List of contents in Adorno’s Red Notebook “Zur Monographie Alban Berg.” .... 119 3-4 Table of Contents for the 1968 Kontrolexemplar of Berg: Eine Retrospektive from TWAA Ts 17193. ...................................................................................... 122 3-5 Contents of Adorno’s Berg monograph, and previous published versions of those chapters. ................................................................................................. 124 3-6 Materials Adorno was Preparing for Publication in the 1960s. ......................... 134 8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 1-1 Illustration of three-step Hegelian dialectical process. ........................................ 20 1-2 General model of Adorno’s negative dialectics. .................................................. 21 2-1 Analysis of Lyric Suite mm. 1-30. ....................................................................... 76 3-1 Adorno’s inscription to Helene Berg in the red notebook. ................................. 117 3-2 Title “Zur Monographie” and the beginning of the first essay “Op. 1 Sonate für Klavier. ............................................................................................................. 118 3-3 Excerpt of “Three Orchestral Pieces” essay draft. ............................................ 120 4-1 Illustration of the three-step Hegelian dialectical process. ................................ 147 4-2 General model of Adorno’s negative dialectics ................................................. 148 4-3 Dialectic