Metaphysics and Music in Adorno and Heidegger This page intentionally left blank Metaphysics and Music in Adorno and Heidegger Wesley Phillips Independent Scholar, UK © Wesley Phillips 2015 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–1–137–48724–7 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Phillips, Wesley, 1976– Metaphysics and music in Adorno and Heidegger / Wesley Phillips. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–1–137–48724–7 1. Music – Philosophy and aesthetics. 2. Adorno, Theodor W., 1903–1969 – Criticism and interpretation. 3. Heidegger, Martin, 1889–1976 – Criticism and interpretation. 4. Wagner, Richard, 1813–1883 – Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. ML3800.P455 2015 781.1(cid:2)7—dc23 2015004273 For Alban This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 1 Melancholy Science as Dissonant System 11 Resignation and the infinite task 11 Language, system, music 14 Melancholy science in Schelling and Benjamin 21 The idea of natural history 30 Heidegger’s melancholy history? 35 Ideas of music and the musical idea 37 Dissonant nominalism 42 2 Twisting Free With/Of Wagner 46 The ‘actuality’ of Wagner 46 Adorno on Wagner 48 Ego(t)ism and love 48 Dialectic of decadence 54 Willing and waiting (I) 62 Heidegger on Wagner 63 Turning Heidegger against Heidegger 63 Aesthetics of willing 65 M usic or poetry? 70 Twisting free as Aufhebung 74 Willing and waiting (II) 80 3 The Dialectical Image of Music 82 Two spheres of musical experience 82 Music as image(less) 86 Schematism, rhythm, temporalisation 89 Fantasy and spectacle 98 Nono’s mimesis 103 Nono’s late fermata 109 Turning around the dialectical image 111 vii viii Contents 4 Invincible in the Wasteland? Music, Space and Utopia 113 Negativity in Cacciari and Adorno 113 The metropolis and tragic negativity 115 Mimesis and rationality 121 Non-place and non-dwelling 123 Intermezzo: of music and space 129 Nono’s spaces of resistance 131 Prometeo and the place of the artwork 134 5 The Expression of Waiting in Vain 142 Adorno 142 The promise of metaphysics 142 After metaphysics? 148 Heidegger 155 Boredom as fundamental attunement 155 World, whole, history 159 Adorno and Heidegger 164 Boredom and waiting 164 Waiting or destining? 169 Notes 175 Bibliography 203 I ndex 213 Preface For various reasons, the current book was a long time in the making, and the author’s research focus has evolved over this time. For an indi- cation of other research undertaken in recent years, a list of the author’s publications may be found in the Bibliography section towards the end of this book. Three subsections have appeared elsewhere in different forms. An earlier version of part of Chapter 1 appeared as, ‘Melancholy Science? German Idealism and Critical Theory Reconsidered’, in T elos, 157 (2011). A musicologically and historically elaborated version of material relating to Luigi Nono, here represented in the third and fourth chap- ters, appeared as, ‘Spaces of Resistance: The Adorno–Nono Complex’, in Twentieth Century Music , 9 (2012). All translations into English are by the author unless stated otherwise in the notes. ix