586 Notes to pp. 395–397inseparable from a consideration of the listeners’ responses’ (Eichel, Vom
Ermatten der Avantgarde zur Vernetzung der Künste, pp. 197 and 188).
140 Adorno to Helms, 12 September 1960, Theodor W. Adorno Archive,
Frankfurt am Main (Br 588/64).
141 Eichel interprets this personal note as a function of the logic of Adorno’s
imagination. He ‘unfolds the elements of his philosophy in images and
metaphors as in a microcosm. They not only render visible the epistemo-
logical content of the music, but also situate the music within a spectrum of
the arts and works of art. This takes place through the medium of analogy’
(Eichel, Vom Ermatten der Avantgarde zur Vernetzung der Künste, p. 197).
142 Adorno to Gehlen, 2 December 1960, Gehlen Archive, TU Dresden.
143 Adorno, Mahler, p. 146.
144 In the context of a discussion of the Fourth Symphony, Adorno remarks:
‘After the development, at the dictate of the fanfare, has dwindled away,
masking the beginning of the recapitulation, the music is swept from the
scene by a general pause, until suddenly, the main theme continues from
the middle of the restatement; this moment is like the child’s joy at being
abruptly transported from the forest to the old-fashioned market place of
Miltenberg’ (ibid., p. 54f.). The relation between the childhood of Adorno’s
imagination and his view of Mahler’s music is even more intimate when
he observes that ‘Mahler’s music passes a maternal hand over the hair of
those to whom it turns’ (ibid., p. 29).
145 Ibid., p. 154.
146 Ibid., p. 39.
147 Ibid., p. 46.
148 Ibid., p. 22.
149 Ibid., p. 125.
150 Ibid., p. 56.
151 Adorno, ‘Mahler: A Centenary Address’, Quasi una fantasia, p. 85f. The
Mahler monograph was the basis of a commemorative speech that Adorno
had given in June 1960 at the invitation of the Mahler Society in Vienna.
As he remarked, the text aimed to facilitate access to Mahler’s works.
152 Adorno, ‘Vers une musique informelle’, Quasi una fantasia, p. 282.
153 According to Mahnkopf, ‘Vers une musique informelle’ is the ‘metatheory
of the Philosophy of Modern Music whose rationalizing diagnosis anti-
cipates the problems of serialism in so far as serialism generalizes the
structure of dodecaphonic thinking about the row.’ Mahnkopf sums up
Adorno’s intentions with the comment that ‘musique informelle seeks a
way out from the techniques of dodecaphony, serialism and aleatorics, all
of which refuse a return to free atonality’ (Mahnkopf, ‘Adornos Kritik
der Neueren Musik’, pp. 259 and 261).
154 Adorno, ‘Vers une musique informelle’, Quasi una fantasia, p. 288.
- Ibid., p. 292.
156 Ibid., p. 318ff.
157 Mahnkopf, ‘Adornos Kritik der Neueren Musik’, p. 266. Mahnkopf con-
cludes that even today ‘Vers une musique informelle’ is a text that will be
among the first that the philosopher of music will wish to consult. At the
same time, he recommends a ‘deconstructive reading’ (ibid., p. 276f.). See
also the interesting interpretation in Günter Seubold, ‘Die Erinnerung
retten und dem Kitsch die Zunge lösen’, p. 141ff.