Music Criticism and Compositional Practice 113Beethoven. Nevertheless, we cannot speak of a retrograde step since
‘the musical material has become freer and brighter and has been liber-
ated from the mythic bonds of number, of the harmonic series and tonal
harmonics, for ever.’^9
The essay on ‘Reaction and Progress’ arose out of a controversy with
Ernst Krenek, and did not appear until 1930. Another essay, on the
question of whether ‘Music can be cheerful’, owes its existence to a
disagreement with the music critic Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt.
Stuckenschmidt had accused Adorno of equating modern music with
pessimistic music. Adorno reacted to this with a brief statement in which
he set down some of the postulates of his theory of art, and music in
particular. Once again, in opposition to the romantic notion of spon-
taneous creation, he emphasized the rational and material nature of the
process of composition and the constructive aspect of art. Mozart’s works,
he argued, did not just arise because the Muses smiled on him, but
because he was able to put in the labour of shaping the natural musical
material. And as for cheerfulness, ‘there was no objective reason for
it’.^10 This cryptic sociological comment links up with a sketch entitled
‘Stabilized Music’ that he wrote in 1928, although he neither wished nor
was able to publish it at the time. Put simply, he derived stabilized
music from the society of the imperialist epoch that was in the process
of achieving economic stability. He distinguished between two types of
stabilized music: would-be classical music and folklorist music, each
of which he ascribed to a particular social interest group. The playful
nature of would-be classical music was a response to the needs of the
new bourgeoisie for luxury goods, while the variants of music based on
folklore were exploited by nationalist ideologies.^11
How successfully did Adorno put into practice in his own composi-
tions the insights and postulates which were now beginning to give
a sharper definition to his own philosophy of music? Following his
studies with Berg, he had determined to place composition at the top of
his own priorities. The cycle of Six Short Orchestral Pieces, op. 4,
was perhaps intended to apply in practice the theory that he had been
publicizing. These pieces were his first attempt at testing his theory
through the medium of a full orchestra.^12
What characterizes these orchestral pieces?^13 At first hearing, or glance
at the score, you register three lively movements alternating with three
quieter ones, two of which have the traditional names of Gigue and
Waltz. Some of the movements are very brief; two have only twelve
bars and the waltz has twenty-nine. The influence of both Schoenberg
and Berg is obvious. Nevertheless, Adorno does not always adhere
strictly to the rules of twelve-tone technique. Alongside a rather free
use of the tone-rows, what characterizes the pieces is their concentrated
density, the reduction of the musical material to its smallest elements.
The first, highly dramatic piece attracts the listener’s attention with
the ‘forte’ entry of almost all the instruments. This eruptive climax is