For a Materialistic Concept of Musical Time. The Theory of Types in the Fragments of Adorno on Beethoven

Abstract

This article analyses the fundamental elements of Adorno’s theory of Beethoven’s types, as developed in his Beethoven-Fragmente. This theory, as a thought-model, reveals the criteria which prompt Adorno’s interpretations of musical temporality in his subsequent musical writings, such as the Essay on Wagner, his monographs on Mahler and Berg, his critical essays on Stravinsky, his conferences on post-Webern serialism. In fact, the theory of types would cover the different modalities of the “relationship of music and time in general”. This article presents also a technical analysis of some of the Beethoven’s works commented by Adorno, such as the 1^st movement of Beethoven’s 3^rd Symphony, a piece that would establish in musicis Adorno’s model.