512 Notes to pp. 113–115
13 In September 1988 an evening concert devoted to Adorno’s compositions
was given in the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main. In addition to the Six
Short Orchestral Pieces, op. 4, the programme included the Two Pieces
for String Quartet, op. 2, the Three Poems by Theodor Däubler arranged
for four-part women’s choir a cappella, Two Songs with Orchestra from the
Singspiel ‘The Treasure of Indian Joe’, and also Kinderjahr, six pieces from
Robert Schumann’s op. 68, arranged for small orchestra. The music was
performed by the Buchberger Quartet and the Frankfurt Opera and
Museum Orchestra, conducted by Gary Bertini. The concert was recorded
and a CD has been issued (Wergo 6173–2).
14 In a letter of 8 April 1929 to Berg, he remarked that the flop of the pre-
miere of his song-cycle in Berlin almost robbed him of the courage to finish
his orchestral pieces. However, encouraged by Kurt Weill and the con-
ductor Walter Herbert, he finally completed the score in Berne in February
- He dedicated the work to Herbert, who conducted the premiere in
Berlin. On this occasion, the performance was a success. See Adorno and
Berg, Briefwechsel 1925–1935, p. 200.
15 See Walter Levin, ‘Adornos Zwei Stücke für Streichquartett, op. 2’, p. 83.
16 See Martin Hufner, Adorno und die Zwölftontechnik, p. 38; Martin
Blumentritt, ‘Adorno, der Komponist als Philosoph’, p. 16f.
17 Adorno discussed this concept in theoretical terms in the essay ‘Zweite
Nachtmusik’ (GS, vol. 18, p. 50), published in 1937. The principle of com-
plementary harmony states that the antagonism between consonance and
dissonance is not absolute. There is a complementary relationship between
the tension and resolution of harmonic functions.
18 Adorno defended the George Lieder against criticism after the failure of
the Berlin premiere in a concert given by the International Society for
New Music. Moreover, he continued to think well of them, placing them
higher than his instrumental works. In the mid-1930s, two songs from
the cycle were performed – successfully, incidentally – in a programme
devoted to contemporary music. On that occasion, Adorno put in a plea
for the work to be performed in its entirety since he thought of it as a unity,
‘in the choice of texts, a kind of lyrical requiem, motivically through the
head motif of the first song, admittedly subjected to countless transforma-
tions, or, rather, through the basic shape consisting of seconds and thirds
(or vice versa); and as a form, since this amounts to a sonata for voice
and piano; the first movement appears to me to be clearly sonata-
like, the second an intermezzo with trio, the third an adagio, the fourth a
rondo. Of course, I would be delighted if the songs could be performed
altogether, just as they were conceived’ (Adorno and Krenek, Briefwechsel,
p. 60).
19 Hufner writes of the ‘compositional anarchy’ of Adorno’s songs for piano,
and goes on to say that ‘the continuous formation of variations on the
minutest musical ideas... and the absence of large thematic complexes
erodes the distinctions between free atonality and purely technical atonality’
(Martin Hufner, Adorno und die Zwölftontechnik, p. 78).
20 On this point, Adorno wrote later, ‘Musicians are usually truants from
maths classes; it would be a terrible fate for them to end up in the hands
of the maths teacher after all’ (‘Vers une musique informelle’, Quasi una
fantasia, p. 269).