Pages 205-220 | Published online: 25 Sep 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1080/17570638.2018.1525020
In this article
Materialism and Musical Authenticity
Walter Benjamin and Language
Language as Such and Music as Such
Music as Intention-less Language
Music, Metaphysics, and Theology
Music as Secularized Prayer
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ABSTRACT
In this essay I draw attention to conceptual similarities in Walter Benjamin’s and Theodor W. Adorno’s reflection about language, with special attention to Benjamin’s 1916 essay about language as such, including its theological impulses. In Adorno’s case, I concentrate on language theory as it comes forth in relation to his philosophy of music and the supposed language-character of music. I argue that this particular connection between Benjamin and Adorno is largely unexplored in the literature, and I show that their conceptual affinities have far-reaching consequences for a proper understanding of Adorno’s philosophy as a whole. Music is of fundamental importance for Adorno’s critical theory, and this fact points to an intricate entwinement between materialism and theology, stemming from Benjamin’s theory of language. Thinking of music as secularized prayer means to emphasize that music relates to reality in a way that resembles the logic of Benjamin’s understanding of a pre-lapsarian language of divine names.
Musik ist sprachähnlich. Ausdrücke wie musikalisches Idiom, musikalischer Tonfall, sind keine Metaphern. Aber Musik ist nicht Sprache. Ihre Sprachähnlichkeit weist den Weg ins Innere, doch auch ins Vage. Wer Musik wörtlich als Sprache nimmt, den führt sie irre. (Adorno 1978, 251 )
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished music philosophers of all times, although still a highly controversial one. The verdicts about him vary from “grouchy uncle who doesn’t like any music written in the last 20 years” (Miller 2011), to “the first philosopher since Pythagoras to have something new to say about music” (Hullot-Kentor 2008, 54).1
In this essay I will not concentrate on the allegedly upsetting aspects of Adorno’s thought on music and commercial culture, which are well documented.2 However, in order to go further to the interesting side of his philosophy of music, a few things that stand behind the controversial features of his thought on music will have to be mentioned. First of all: his approach to music is thoroughly normative. Adorno makes clear statements concerning the authenticity and inauthenticity of individual musical works or oeuvres, depending on various factors.3 But he is also normative in the sense that musical expressions are evaluated in a manner that comes close to an evaluation of referential language; they appear to be taken as true or false.
In Adorno’s view, however, music can be neither wholly authentic, nor absolutely logical, nor exactly like signifying language, but its character is, in various senses, similar to language: “Musik ist sprachähnlich” (Adorno 1978, 251) – it has a “language-character” (Paddison 1991). Among other things, this gives music a distinctly cognitive aspect, which demands a serious theoretical reflection that may at lead us towards a more qualified debate about the problem of truth (Bowie 2007, 309–375).
In this context, “the problem of truth” can be comprehended as follows: how do we develop a theoretical perspective on our own time that is critically aware of the fact that we cannot transcend our context and establish a neat package of truth to have at our disposal; and yet – to approach an idea developed further by Michel Foucault in his late lecture series at Collège de France – one that is rigorously focused on the idea of a desirable, empathic truth; truth as something that we do not have at hand and therefore need to strive towards as something that may change us and liberate us (compare with Foucault 2005, 19)? It is against the backdrop of such a question about truth that I will approach the truth-dimension of Adorno’s philosophy of music, by giving close attention to an often-neglected affinity with Walter Benjamin’s early philosophy of language.4
Before I move further into that particular discussion, however, I would like to say something more about the controversial side of Adorno’s music philosophy. What about the music that Adorno generally understands as inauthentic or heteronomous? How is this inauthenticity and heteronomy related to musical authenticity and autonomy? The answers are to be found in Adorno’s materialism.
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