Adorno and the Aesthetics of Postwar Serial Music

*Adorno and the Aesthetics of Postwar Serial Music* is the first monograph to comprehensively examine the relationship between Theodor W. Adorno’s aesthetics and serial music after World War II. Adorno’s extensive writings and lectures on serialism, his intimate knowledge of the technique, and his personal acquaintances with leading composers of serial music had a decisive influence on his philosophical work. This, in turn, exerted a significant influence on postwar composers—an influence that is clearly evident in the compositional theories and aesthetic concepts of that era.

The book offers a detailed analysis of these ideas and situates them in their historical, philosophical and cultural context. It enables a deeper understanding not only of serial music and its aesthetics, but also of Adorno and his aesthetic theory. The publication is thus aimed equally at female composers, music historians, philosophers, criticsand anyone interested in the aesthetics of modernism.

contents