First, the choice to expound on the Appassionata was my own, but I extended my comment on the passage to it because it fits the piece very well and Adorno mentions this piece semi-frequently in much of his writing. And as I said, I have spent a fair amount of time with the piece recently so it was the first piece to come to mind that directly relates to this passage. As for its "application" in general, I can think of numerous pieces that would serve as illustrative. But as I previously intimated, the idea applies to tonal works in general from Monteverdi to the present. Specifically this "form gaining substance by virtue of its relation to the other" I find is most striking in the transition from the Classical into the Romantic forms, with Beethoven providing the pivot. The play of tension does seem more formalistic at that moment because in previous sonata forms, say of Haydn or Mozart, themes were in the tonic then in the dominant, with both resolving to the tonic as a rule (or if minor, tonic then relative major again resolving both to the tonic). Beethoven follows this resolution schema in the Appassionata of course, but in a different manner, such as with the two recapitulations, one where the second subject in the relative major resolves to the tonic then in the second which resolves to the tonic of the second subject were it the dominant. Regardless of this specific aspect of the Appassionata's first movement, Adorno's first sentence here describes all sonatas as their motion of tensions appear so schematically driven. Perhaps this begins unraveling with Mahler, but not inexplicably.
Clearly this fragment does not describe the play of tension in every work ever written, but it bears insight toward most Western music of the "common practice" and into the 20th century. Even beyond the most common connotation of "form" in music, the concept applies to non-tonal works as well. Tension is structurally engendered in Bartok's string quartets but not out of tonal harmonic progressions. Reading the passage again, I think it captures the experience of tension in Bartok as well. Where there is indeed real tension, it is not as the blind application of formalized structures or harmonic balancing. Upon further reflection, I think it captures an even wider range of music that the above. Even blues and jazz music, for example, accomplishes this routinely, even if not as dramatically as in the Appassionata (to avoid any charge of elitism, the contrast I am making is between the simplistic repetition of I-IV-V without modulation in straight-ahead blues and the structural chromaticism with its multiplicity of sonorities and textures in Beethoven's sonata). -Brian -----Original Message----- From: Derek Allan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 9:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: a suggestion Re: 'The concept of tension frees itself from the suspicion of being formalistic in that, by pointing up dissonant experiences or antinomical relations in the work, it names the element of "form" in which form gains its substance by virtue of its relation to its other. Through its inner tension, the work is defined as a force field even in the arrested moment of its objectivation. The work is at once the quintessence of relations of tension and the attempt to dissolve them.' Suppose you gave this to someone and told them it was a description of a work of art. Suppose you even told them it was a piece of music. Then you asked them to guess which one you were talking about. What are the chances they would guess the Appassionata, do you think? DA -----Original Message----- From: Brian Jenkins [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 19 March 2008 11:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: a suggestion As a rejoinder, though perhaps not in defense of Ranciere as I have not read much of him yet, I quickly open Adorno's Aesthetic Theory. One of the fragments from the Paralipomena serves almost as a thesis regarding Beethoven: The concept of tension frees itself from the suspicion of being formalistic in that, by pointing up dissonant experiences or antinomical relations in the work, it names the element of "form" in which form gains its substance by virtue of its relation to its other. Through its inner tension, the work is defined as a force field even in the arrested moment of its objectivation. The work is at once the quintessence of relations of tension and the attempt to dissolve them. I cannot read this as reductive nor as "killing off" the art it addresses. On the contrary, the last two weeks or so I have been restudying the Appassionata, and perhaps for this reason I chose this passage to quote, I would argue Beethoven's sonata exemplifies this. Without ideological tendencies toward this concept of tension or analytical familiarity with the work, on hearing it this is experienced emphatically. I could certainly elaborate on the compositional techniques that generate this tension (his use the Neapolitan and its structural consequences), but even without naming them, the listener, if really listening, will experience the form gaining substance from its harmonic expansions, the first movement's second recapitulation, the dominant pedal in the first recap (I will refrain from effusions over its expression...it's such a gripping moment). All of the harmonic advancements in the work, its structural chromaticism (really the first piece of its kind) show the music for what music is here and had been as the motivation for diatonic tonal music as such, the play of tension and resolution (or dissolution). The Appassionata is a stone's throw from Tristan (the harmonic core is the same, well, with a different augmented sixth...Wagner just stretches it over 5 hours and endlessly decorates it, but its effect is famous for a reason and not just for Wagner idolaters). Perhaps what "brings art to life" for me is slightly different, but more to the point, good theoretical considerations of music in this case capture essential aspects of that music and its experience. -Brian -----Original Message----- From: Derek Allan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2008 6:45 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: a suggestion Re: 'For more evidence of the profitless straining for topics, read the ASA journal.' For me it's more the deadening affect of analytic philosophy applied to art that makes the ASA journal - and the British equivalent - so painfully tedious to read. Art itself is rarely mentioned and when it is, it seems to wither like leaves under acid rain. Not that continental aesthetics is any better. Witness the Ranciere stuff under discussion at the moment. Which is just one of the reasons I have so much admiration for Malraux. He is the one art theorist of art in modern times who manages to develop a powerful theory of art while also bringing art alive for the reader - instead of killing it off. DA No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1334 - Release Date: 18/03/2008 8:52 PM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1334 - Release Date: 18/03/2008 8:52 PM
