Beethoven (eBook)

Theodor W. Adorno is the author of Beethoven: The Philosophy of Music, published by Wiley.

Editor's Preface.

1. Prelude.

2. Music and Concept.

3. Society.

4. Tonality.

5. Form and the Reconstruction of Form.

6. Critique.

7. Early and 'Classical' Phases.

8. Vers une analyse des symphonies. .

9. Late Style (I).

10. Late Work without Late Style.

11. Late Style (II).

12. Humanity and Demythologization.

Appendix.

Abbreviations.

Editor's Notes.

Editorial Afterword.

Comparative Table of Fragments.

Thematic Summary of Contents.

Indexes.

"Great works of art, Adorno knew, always resist the attempt to
subsume them under theoretical categories. In the case of a supreme
artist like Beethoven, a lifetime of futile efforts by Adorno to
complete a major philosophical study bore ironic witness to this
insight. The struggle to write his impossible book left behind,
however, a wealth of tantalizing fragments, which have the added
value of revealing Adorno's own process of intellectual production.
Masterfully reconstructed and annotated by Rolf Tiedemann, they are
now available in Edmund Jephcott's elegant translation. In their
very "failure" they demonstrate the abiding power of Adorno's claim
that the dialectic of art and philosophy must remain unreconciled
and negative." Martin Jay, University of California,
Berkeley

"These fragments shed valuable light not only on Adorno's thinking
on Beethoven, but also equally importantly on the sources of
Adorno's philosophy of music. Rolf Tiedemann's sensitive editing
has produced a remarkably coherent volume out of the most disparate
material, while Edmund Jephcott's translation rises magnificently
to a difficult task." Max Paddison, University of Durham