108 Part II: A Change of Scenevarious issues of the Musikblätter des Anbruch in 1928. One of these
aphorisms may well have reflected his own experience of composition.
‘The child trying to pick out a melody on the piano provides the para-
digm of all true composition. In the same tentative, uncertain manner,
but with a precise memory, the composer looks for what may always
have been there and what he must now rediscover on the undiscrimin-
ating black and white keys of the keyboard from which he must now
make his choice.’^46 In another aphorism he surprisingly leaps to the
defence of sentimental kitsch music with the no less surprising argu-
ment that it is ideal as an accompaniment to imaginary catastrophes in
the theatre or film: ‘Where the tap-dancing is at its most assured, the
boiler threatens to explode. On the basses of Gern hab ich die Frau’n
geküßt [How I’ve loved kissing women], the listing Titanic presses down
like a shadow from which there is no escape.’^47
What is noteworthy here about the prose of the 25-year-old Adorno
is its striking use of metaphor. Similarly, his ironic tone is pervasive, as
can be seen in his comments on Stravinsky. In the same way, he strives
constantly to discover the right aesthetic language with which to do
justice to the musical objects he describes. This explains the sometimes
artificial nature of Adorno’s early prose, and its tendency to degenerate
into monologue.^48
In the Musikblätter des Anbruch Adorno had published not just a
collection of aphorisms but also numerous music reviews. Further, he
developed a comprehensive, detailed plan to revitalize the periodical,
which had been founded in 1930 and was published by Universal Edi-
tion in Vienna. Four years previously, Hans Heinsheimer had asked
Adorno to join its editorial staff. The snub he had received was, if
not forgiven, at least overlooked. After all, Adorno was a regular con-
tributor to its pages. So even before the summer holidays had begun,
he started to think enthusiastically, and perhaps not too diplomatically,
about changes he would like to introduce in the Musikblätter.^49 His idea
was to use the journal to champion the cause of radical modern music
even more strongly, starting with Mahler and proceeding via the
Schoenberg school down to Kurt Weill and Ernst Krenek. As far as
organizational changes were concerned, he proposed that decisions about
content should be taken by a largely autonomous editorial committee,
making decisions on a democratic basis. This would ensure that the
journal would cease to function as advertising copy for other publica-
tions by Universal Edition. It should aim at an aggressive and polemical
style of criticism, but on the foundation of a solid grasp of composition
and music theory. The target of such criticism would be what he called
‘stabilized music’. By this he meant the reactionary music of Pfitzner
and the later Richard Strauss as well as the new classicism of Stravinsky
and Hindemith.
The journal should also welcome the new media: it would publish
reviews of recent gramophone records, radio concerts and film music.
By this, Adorno had in mind the entire complex of popular music, from