On Bergiana of Theodor Adorno

Abstract

The article is devoted to the review of «bergiana» of Theodor Adorno, which includes a wide range of his articles and studies of the work of Alban Berg, created in the period 1925 –1968. The author considers the main musical and aesthetic ideas of Adorno, including «musical physiognomy», whose task is to search for universal constants of personality and creativity outside the mechanical transmission of music to the music of non-musical. The terms «tone» and «(smallest) link» are analyzed as such constants. The latter was included in the title of Adorno's book about Berg, whose work for Adorno becomes the absolute embodiment of the link from the perspective of history of music and style.

Keywords

Theodor Adorno, Alban Berg, fin de siècle, new music, music physiognomy, tone, the art of the smallest link