The philosopher Karl Popper offers a contrasting perspective. He
was interested in music from the point of view of a critic of the avant-
garde, or musical “progressivism,” as he called it. Whilst he did not pub-
lish papers directly relevant to aesthetics (he maintained that his friend,
Ernst Gombrich, had said everything that he, Popper, might have said
about art better than he could have hoped to do himself), he held char-
acteristically strong views on art and especially music, and he did theo-
rize about it. In fact it appears from his intellectual autobiography
Unended Questthat his thoughts on music had an important influence
both on his philosophy of science, and on his critique of historicism—
that is, the notion that history has a plot or direction, or unfolds under
the influence of historical laws.^2
In seeking a theoretical basis for understanding the development of
twentieth-century music that offers an alternative to conventional ideas
about the natural or logical progress of modern music, Popper’s ideas are
a useful place to start, not because they are necessarily correct, but
because they are intelligent and original. And they are especially inter-
esting because they are informed by direct experience of the Viennese
avant-garde between the wars, through a limited involvement with
Schoenberg’s immediate circle in the early 1920s.
There are then two points of interest in looking at Popper on music.
There is his first-hand experience of avant-gardism from the perspective of
a critic rather than an exponent, and there are the ideas on music he formed
partly in response to that. We can add to these an assessment of them (prob-
lems, implications and application) to see how useful they are for under-
standing the direction taken by the arts in the twentieth century. The
remainder of this paper will be concerned with exploring these three things.- Popper and the Viennese Avant-Garde
Between 1920 and 1922 (that is, when he was in his late teens) Popper
considered taking up music as a career, and went for theory lessons with
Erwin Stein (1885–1958), best known as a writer, conductor and music
editor (he founded Tempo, one of the leading reviews of modern music).
Stein was a strong supporter of Arnold Schoenberg during a period
when Schoenberg was closely identified with musical avant-gardism,
and a controversial figure both in the Austro-German musical world and
internationally.
Stein had studied with Schoenberg ten years before (between 1906
and 1910), and was closely involved with the Verein für musikalische
Privataufführungen—The Society for Private Musical Performances.
98 Jonathan Le Cocq