Putting Music into Political Categories
Milan Kundera on Theodor Adorno’s readiness to interpret music in terms of political categories:
"What irritates me in Adorno is his short-circuit method that, with a fearsome facility, links works of art to political (sociological) causes, consequences, or meanings; extremely nuanced ideas (Adorno’s musicological knowledge is admirable) thereby lead to extremely impoverished conclusions; in fact, given that an era’s political tendencies are always reducible to just two opposing tendencies, a work of art necessarily ends up being classified as either progressive or reactionary; and since reaction is evil, the inquisition can start the trial proceedings." (Testaments Betrayed, 91, as quoted in Uncommon Readers by Christopher Knight).
June 29th, 2009 at 5:01 PM
Help me out here:
“…extremely nuanced ideas[...]thereby lead to extremely impoverished conclusions…”
How is this true? Do some ideas represent themselves exclusively as nuanced?
June 30th, 2009 at 10:59 AM
My take: Kundera was praising Adorno’s subtle understanding of music, criticizing the methodology…the logic…used to draw political conclusions… I suppose it might be logical to conclude that the Nazis, indeed any political/military force might, for example, choose to use inspiring, Wagnerian works to accompany their platform, to help enhance their messages and claims… but this is not nuanced… placing specific works, for example, into particular categories does, I think, strain credulity…