Re: [microsound] Adorno redux

[vze26m98 <vze26m98@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Mitchell wrote on 1/20/05:

> Here's what I wrote, as a reminder:  "Adorno was far too subtle to
>simply look for a justification for his own tastes.  that would be an
>unbelievably dumb reading of Adorno."

I have to agree with Bill.  As much as you may not like it, it's a
critique of an action, not a person.  There's a big difference between
saying:

"That was a dumb thing to do."

and

"You're dumb."

(Which wasn't what Bill said.)

>To imply that someone would be offended by a 'misreading' is just 
>utterly preposterous.  I said from the outset that Adorno was simply 
>justifying his own tastes.  It seemed to me that, regardless of the 
>larger social agenda he had, he was simply speaking a lot of nonsense 
>about the music while not dealing with the music at all.  If someone is 
>offended by my actually saying that, well, then, they can get over it!

Well, "offended" might not be what I'd offer, but "uninterested in
continuing the conversation" is pretty close.  Adorno did deal very
explicitly with the music of his time.  Sadly, most of us are too lazy
to discover/understand what the music of his time was.  For those with
some energy try:

J. Bradford Robinson, "Jazz Reception in Germany: in Search of a Shimmy
Figure" in _Music and Peformance during the Weimar Republic_, edited by
Bryan Gilliam, Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice 3, Cambridge,
1994.

Best,

Tad


<vze26m98@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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