Customer Reviews

Essays on Music

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Finally, Adorno's major writings on music are available in a single, handsome volume with expert translations, copious footnotes from the editor, and illuminating editorial introductions. This collection contains the most important and influential essays and although it's not complete, this is probably the only Adorno collection a music student/scholar will need. Of course no musicologist should be without certain books such as "The Philosophy of New Music", but as far as the essays go, this is the big one. I've read some from "Sound Figures" and "Quasi una fantasia" and they're great, but I'd recommend them for hardcore Adorno fanatics or specialists only.

For the most part, the translations are very readable. They may not always achieve the level of Robert Hullot-Kentor's beautiful translations, but they straighten out the dense German prose and provide a good degree of specificity. Adorno is difficult enough without having to deal with awkward wordings. Susan Gillespie has done a great service for readers everywhere.

If you're looking at this, you probably know you're getting into and what to expect. This is essential reading - everyone involved in music should be required to read at least a few of these essays.

Though I can't say I've ever been sympathetic to Adorno's views, he's always been the source I go to when relating music to politics. So-called "free jazz" is enjoying a revival internationally, so much so that the majority of live music reviews that I edit for a jazz website speak glibly and naively about the greater "freedom" of this "new" music (which actually appeared over 50 years ago, or about half-way through the telescoped history of jazz) and as a welcome escape from "the tradition." My role is not to correct or criticize but to teach, and Adorno at least holds forth the possibility of opening minds to the meaning of words like tradition and anarchyl, creativity and invention (they're not the same), and free choice vs. unlimited freedom. Although naivete and ignorance often win the day (it's much easier for a writer to describe the visual choreography of "free jazz" artists than the invisible architecture of a Charlie Parker solo), Adorno has on occasion opened up minds to some important questions about music, culture and politics. When he fails to promote further thought upon the subject, I simply accede to the label that has become my scarlet letter: "he's a traditionalist!" (Thank goodness, there are some of us left. Traditions are the most ephemeral, fragile, deconstructible of all human fabrications. But they're preferable to the alternative, and some of them--like playing notes instead of raw emotions on your horn--still make a lot of sense. Also, traditions assure the academization of a subject (literature and canons, film and auteur theory and, for a while, jazz and race). By contrast, freedom might get you a gig but not tenure.

An outstanding compilation of Adorno's writings on music and aesthetics with very helpful background information and commentary.

I found this text to be of significant value in my research on the topic of Theodore Adorno's criticism of Jazz from the mid 20th century. The quality of the used item was outstanding. The shipment arrived within the time frame promised. I am completely satisified with this and all previous book orders from Amazon.