Expression and Adorno's Avant-Garde: The Composer in "Doktor Faustus"

Author(s): Justice Kraus

Source: The German Quarterly, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Spring, 2008), pp. 170-184
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Association of Teachers of German
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27676163 .
Accessed: 14/12/2014 17:06

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wiley and American Association of Teachers of German are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to The German Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Justice Kraus
Harvard University

Expression and Adorno's Avant-Garde:

The Composer inDoktor Taustus

Thomas Mann prefaces Die Entstehung des Doktor Eaustus: Roman eines
Romans (1949) with an excerpt from Goethe's Dichtung undWahrheit. Here,
Goethe contends thatworks having an immediate impact on their contempo
rary cultures and works treating issues of national culture become ineffective
as time passes. His solution: "Deshalb ist es billig, ihnen [solchen Arbeiten]
einen historischen Wert zu verschaffen, indemman sich ?ber ihreEntstehung
mit wohlwollenden Kennern unterh?lt" (qtd. inMann, Entstehung 145). Initi
ating a discourse about a work, Goethe says, will endow itwith historical
value. By beginning his account with this quotation, Mann suggests that
Doktor Eaustus (1947) runs the risk of being forgotten, a risk that legitimizes
the need for a novel about the genesis of his novel.
Theodor W Adorno is a prominent figure in this partial autobiography of
the years Mann spent writing Doktor Eaustus in Los Angeles. In fact,Die
Entstehung des Doktor Eaustus makes ithard to overestimate Adorno's impor
tance to Doktor Eaustus. Finding himself unable to take on his challenging
project completely on his own, Mann is glad to find this other exiled intellec
tual living just up the street: "Der Helfer, Ratgeber, teilnehmende Instruktor
wurde gefunden,?nach seiner ausnehmenden Beschlagenheit im Fachlichen
und seinem geistigen Rang genau der Richtige" (172). Mann needs Adorno for
his knowledge ofmusic, in particular. He not only reads Adorno's books, but
also meets with him regularly to discuss specific passages fromDoktor Eaustus.
Several of themajor ideas thatAdorno formulates in his Philosophie der neuen
Musik, which he brought toMann inmanuscript form at this time, resurface
inMann's text. It is clear, then, that a good portion of the theoretical commen
tary on music inDoktor Eaustus comes fromAdorno. However, the philoso
phies ofmusic articulated in the novel often part ways with Adorno's. One
concerns the role of the composer inmodern
especially important divergence
music. Adorno claims that composers' subjective contributions are far less
important than in the past. The historical development ofmusic, he asserts,
leaves little or no room for composers to make subjective decisions or to
express ideas. Mann's novel, in contrast, the subjective
subjective emphasizes
aspect of expression, even where Adorno denies its possibility most vehe

TheGermanQuarterly81.2 (Spring2008) 170

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 171

mently: with regard toArnold Sch?nberg's method of twelve-tone composi

tion. For both Mann and Adorno, then, inquiring into the status of themod
ern composer entails
inquiring into the nature of artistic expression. In this
article, I describe how Mann's Doktor Faustus maintains a rather traditional
view of artistic expression despite accepting some ofAdorno's modern ideas.
This resistance to Adorno, I argue, is consistent with both Mann's and
Sch?nberg's views ofwhat artists do.1
Questions about expression are not only crucial to the philosophy of art in
general, but are also central both toMann's novel and toAdorno's philosophy
ofmusic. Scholars have paid considerable attention to connections between
Doktor Faustus, Adorno's work, and Sch?nberg's compositional techniques.
Indeed, recent scholarship has recognized that the philosophy of music in
Doktor Faustus warrants further attention. The has not
literature, however,
focused on the differing figurations of expression presented inDoktor Faustus
and Philosophie der neuenMusik.
Early scholarship focuses mainly on listing the parallels between Mann's
novel and Adorno's Philosophie der neuenMusik to demonstrate Adorno's in
fluence on Mann's book.2 These studies are devoted to explaining Adorno's
views and Mann's passive reception of them. One early argument related to
Adorno and Sch?nberg concerns the novel's structure. InDie Entstehung des
Doktor Faustus, Mann writes: "Ich f?hlte wohl, da? mein Buch selbst das
werde seinm?ssen, wovon es handelte, n?mlich konstruktive Musik" (187).
Here, he establishes a direct, albeit vague, correspondence between
Sch?nberg's twelve-tone method and the formal characteristics of his novel.
Several scholars have taken it upon themselves to explain the particulars of
this correlation.3
Michael Neumann has argued that several aspects o? Doktor Faustus that
seem to come fromAdorno and
Sch?nberg actually have more to do with
Mann's reception ofWagner. Also, Hans Rudolf Vaget's recentwork offers de
tailed and insightful discussions of the idiosyncratic nature of the relation
ships between Mann, Adorno, and Sch?nberg. Vaget, in fact, covers much of
the same material that Angelika Abel addresses in her book on these three.
Vaget and Abel both recognize that Mann's and Adorno's texts formulate
essential differences between twentieth-century music and themusic preced
ing it.However, neither scholar takes into account that these differences in
compositions entail differences in composers' practices. This question about
composers is important inDoktor Faustus, though, and it is one thatMann7s
two protagonists, Serenus Zeitblom and Adrian Leverk?hn, answer differ
ently than Adorno.
While there are different perspectives on exactly how Adorno and Sch?n
a
berg fit intoDoktor Faustus, at plainly empirical level the relations between
are
the three uncomplicated. Some of the formulations inMann's novel are
virtually identical to passages fromAdorno's Philosophie der modernenMusik.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 172 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

Adorno's basic theory about the historical development of artistic technique,

for instance, appears repeatedly in the novel. According toAdorno, particular
compositional theories become inauthentic and useless as time goes by.
Adorno calls this "die Tendenz des Materials": "Der fortgeschrittenste Stand
der technischen Verfahrungsweise zeichnet Aufgaben vor, denen gegen?ber
die traditionellen Kl?nge veraltet und unzeitgem?? w?ren" (40). True com
posers view traditional methods as taboo, he determines. They seek to de
a break with tradition rather than
velop original ideas that emphasize solving
technical riddles posed by tradition. InDoktor Eaustus, meanwhile, Adorno's
satanic equivalent tells Leverk?hn: "JederKlang tr?gt das Ganze, auch die
ganze Geschichte in sich [...] Es kommt dahin, da? seine Kompositionen
nichts mehr als solche Antworten sind, nur noch die Aufl?sung technischer
Vexierbilder" (322). Building on this relationship between history and aes
thetics, Adorno discusses "die Ersch?tterung des Werks"?the end of the
work of art as defined by idealist aesthetics and conventional wisdom. He
remarks: "Die einzigen Werke heute, die z?hlen, sind die,welche keineWerke
mehr sind" (Philosophie 37). The topic of the changing nature of artworks
makes up a significant portion of the conversation Leverk?hn has with the
devil. The devil claims: "Aber so steht es,mein Freund, dasMeisterwerk, das in
sich ruhende Gebilde, geh?rt der traditionellen Kunst an, die emanzipierte
verneint es" (DoktorEaustus 321). Also, Leverk?hn's explanation of his new
theory of composition restates part ofAdorno's interpretation of Sch?nberg's
twelve-tone method (258). The historical contingency of aesthetic conven
tions, the end of the traditional artwork, and the theory of twelve-tone com
position are just some of the theoretical ideas shared by Adorno and Mann's
characters. Kretzschmar's lectures on Beethoven make use of Adorno's
on Beethoven, for example (Chapter 8), while Adorno's analysis of
thoughts
"Schein" and "Spiel" figure prominently in a discussion between Leverk?hn
and narrator Serenus Zeitblom in Chapter 21.
There is no disputing thatAdorno's philosophy ofmusic is indispensable
to a complete understanding ofMann's text.However, Adorno's thoughts on
music are far from the only ones on which Mann draws. As Die Enstehung des
Doktor Eaustus demonstrates, he gathers information from a wide variety of
sources4 and uses these sources in very Mann uses Adorno's
specific ways.
work to develop his own theoretical program within a fictional framework
rather than to confirm Adorno's statements about the nature of music. Doktor

Eaustus is full of intertextual references that have this functional purpose.

With this inmind, Mann writes: "Das Zitat als solches hat etwas spezifisch
Musikalisches, ungeachtet desMechanischen, das ihm eignet, au?erdem aber
ist esWirklichkeit, die sich in Fiktion verwandelt, Fiktion die das Wirkliche
absorbiert, eine eigent?mlich tr?umerische und reizvolle Vermischung der
no surprise, then, thatMann
Sph?ren" (Entstehung 166). It should come as

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 173

deviates fromAdorno's philosophy to suit his narrative, a narrative that takes

a
particular position on the question of expression.
Adorno proposes that the aesthetic conventions ofmodern music are very
different from those of earlier eras. Changing aesthetic conventions, in turn,
prompt changes in the compositional practices and theories of the creative
individuals who interactwith these conventions. In other words, Adorno's
a new
analysis ofmodern music leads to understanding of composers aswell.
In his estimation, composers no longer enjoy the creative freedom they once
did: "Damit aber wandelt sich zugleich das Bild des Komponisten. Es verliert
jene Freiheit im Gro?en, welche die idealistische ?sthetik dem K?nstler
zuzusprechen gewohnt ist. Er ist kein Sch?pfer" (Philosophie 42). "Idealist
aesthetics" invoke the belief in the transformative power of individualism and
of individual works of art. But in the commodified twentieth century, the
"expressivity" associated with such individualism vis-?-vis society is no
longer possible. The idea that themodern composer lives inside the sheer "ob
jectivity" of his discipline's technical advancements recurs throughout Philo
sophie der neuenMusik. Adorno writes: "Was er [derKomponist] tut, liegt im
unendlich Kleinen. Es erf?llt sich inderVollstreckung dessen, was seineMusik
objektiv von ihm verlangt" (42). This is perhaps an unrealistic description of
the composer's role in the compositional process, and surely one with which
Sch?nberg disagreed. Is it really believable, after all, that the expression of
subjective thoughts and feelings is so insignificant? Adorno immediately
attempts tomitigate the force of such an objection with a quick rhetorical
flourish: "Aber zu solchem Gehorsam bedarf der Komponist allen Ungehor
sams, aller Selbst?ndigkeit und Spontaneit?t. So dialektisch ist die Bewegung
des musikalischen Materials" (42). Calling the development ofmusic dialecti
cal is accurate enough. To be sure, historical development inmusic occurs as a
consequence of the interdependencies of composers and compositions. But
the interdependency Adorno formulates here is hard to understand. He
asserts that the composer has to obey his "material" while simultaneously be
ing independent of it.How do composers achieve this coexistence of submis
siveness and radical insubordination? How does this dialectic function from a
practical standpoint? As Iwill discuss shortly, Sch?nberg provides a much
different view on these problems than Adorno. Curiously, Adorno refrains
from subsequently characterizing composers as independent and spontane
ous. Of course, the proposed dialectic between composer and technique re
mains intact throughout the text. However, Adorno almost exclusively
stresses theminimal role of the composer.
Returning to the dialectic between composer and technique, Adorno
writes: "In immanenter Wechselwirkung konstituieren sich die Anweisun
gen, die das Material an den Komponisten ergehen l??t, und die dieser ver
er an active compo
?ndert, indem sie befolgt" (Philosophie 40). While there is
nent to the composer's existence, then, this limited activity arises only as a

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 174 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

consequence of an enforced passivity. Later formulations emphasize the com

poser's passivity more forcefully. This emphasis is most pronounced in
Adorno's comments on twelve-tone
composition:

Wie inderZw?lftontechnik das eigentlicheKomponieren, die Produktivit?tder

Variation, insMaterial ward, so es der Freiheit der Kom
zur?ckgeschoben ergeht
ponisten insgesamt. Indem sie sich in der ?bers Material verwirklicht,
Verf?gung
wird sie zu einer Bestimmung des Materials, die sich dem Subjekt als entfremde
te und es ihrem Zwange unterwirft. (68)
gegen?bersetzt

The composer is not totally unimportant, then. He is necessary formusic to

come into existence. However, Adorno views him solely as amedium
through
which historically determined stylistic changes express themselves. There is
no trace of the composer's subjectivity here. Adorno continues on in this vein:

Aus den Operationen, welche die blinde Herrschaft des Stoffs der T?ne brachen,
wird durchs Regelsystem zweite, blinde Natur. Das Subjekt ordnet dieser sich
unter und sucht Schutz und Sicherheit, indem es verzweifelt an der
M?glichkeit,
von sich ausMusik zu erf?llen. (69)

He concludes: "Die neue Ordnung der Zw?lftontechnik l?scht virtuell das

Subjekt aus" (70). This is the image of the constrained composer that con
frontsMann inAdorno's Philosophie der neuenMusik. The position Adorno
takes here is relatively consistent with the ones offered in his previous and
subsequent writings on the status of the artist. There are significant shifts in
however. In Adorno's on twelve-tone
emphasis, general, writings composi
tion from before Dialektik derAufkl?rung allow the composer a greater degree
of artistic freedom than the ones that follow this text.An example ofAdorno's
earlier,more lenient attitude toward the composer's subjective side is "Der
dialektische Komponist" (1934), essentially a defense of Sch?nberg's twelve
tone method. While subject and object, composer and
compositional tech
nique, are still thought of as mutually constitutive, Adorno sees Sch?nberg's
work as atypical. Sch?nberg's creative expressions destroy compositional
techniques rather than using them: "[...] die Antwort vernichtet die Frage und
das Material, aus dem sie hervorging, und setztwahrhaft neue Musik" (199).
In "Warum Zw?lftonmusik?" (1935), Adorno unexpectedly assigns the com
poser traditional characteristics:
Sie [dieZw?lftonmusik] ist eine bestimmte Anordnung desMaterials: mit ihr
wird nachdem sie ist, beginnt erst das mit
komponiert; vollzogen Komponieren,
allerNot und allem Gl?ck, das der Komposition von je innewohnte. (115)

In these two instances, then, there is an emphasis on the subjective compo

nent of composition, on the composer's contribution, that vanishes in
Adorno's later
interpretations.
In contrast, ?sthetische Eheorie, one ofAdorno's last texts, is just as fervent
in its emphasis on the limitations of subjective input as Philosophie der neuen

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 175

Musik. In the former Adorno remarks: "Durch diese Situation aber wird
Kunst, als ein Geistiges, in ihrer objektiven Konstitution zur subjektiven
am Kunstwerk ist selbst ein
Vermittlung gezwungen. Der subjektive Anteil
St?ck Objektivit?t" (68). Here, Adorno voices the same idea about the expres
sion of subjective elements that he does in Philosophie der neuenMusik. The
subjective exists only as a medium for the objective. Composers are only
necessary to reflect the constraints created by compositional technique. Once
again, the expression of subjective thoughts becomes impossible because of
the overbearing demands ofmaterial, technical constraints: "Im Gebilde ist
Subjekt weder der Betrachter noch der Sch?pfer noch absoluter Geist,
vielmehr der an die Sache gebundene, von ihr pr?formiert, seinerseits durchs
Objekt vermittelt" (?sthetische Theorie 248). Anything subjective in the tradi
tional sense becomes completely impossible.
Ifmodern artists do not express subjective ideas and feelings, one might
ask what it is thatmodern artworks express. Indeed, inPhilosophie der neuen
Musik, Adorno singles out Sch?nberg's new approach to the question of ex
pression ("Ausdruck" or "Ausdrucksgehalt") as themost important part of this
on the
composer's work. In keeping with his emphasis tyrannical nature of
music's historically determined material constraints, Adorno views expres
sion as a confrontation with thismaterial, that is,with the conventions of
composition:
Es Leidenschaften mehr imMedium der Musik un
sind nicht fingiert, sondern
verstellt leibhafte Regungen des Unbewu?ten, Schocks, Traumata registriert.
Sie Tabus der Form an, weil diese solche Regungen ihrer Zensur unter
greifen die
werfen, sie rationalisieren und sie in Bilder transponieren. (44)

Adorno repeats this claim in various ways m ?sthetische Theorie:

?sthetischer Ausdruck istVergegenst?ndlichung des Ungegenst?ndlichen, und
zwar derart, da? es durch seine Vergegenst?ndlichung zum zweiten
Ungegen
zu dem, was aus dem Artefakt
st?ndlichen wird, spricht, nicht als Imitation des

Subjekts. (170)

Thus, music's technical and stylistic developments have all but eliminated
from the of musical works and as a
composers production have, consequence,
created a form of expressionism devoid ofmeaningful subjective elements.
Concerning questions of subjectivity, it is important to note the close rela
tion between Adorno's writings on music and his more specifically culture
oriented work, especially the relation between Philosophie der neuenMusik and
Dialektik der Aufkl?rung. Adorno himself draws attention to the immediate
proximity of these texts: "Das Buch [Philosophieder neuenMusik] m?chte als
zur 'Dialektik der
ausgef?hrter Exkurs Aufkl?rung' genommen werden" (11).
By establishing this direct association, Adorno situates these writings on
music within the same theoretical framework as the cultural analyses which
he and Horkheimer offer. Like the essays in Dialektik der Aufkl?rung,

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 176 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

Philosophie der neuenMusik stresses the historical contingency of subjectivity

and describes capitalist society's annihilation of traditional forms of subjec
re
tivity.However, inDialektik derAufkl?rung, Adorno and Horkheimer also
mark on the possibility of a post-capitalist subjectivity, a notion that does not
appear explicitly inPhilosophie der neuenMusik, though one might discern it in
"Der dialektische Komponist" and "Warum Zw?lftonmusik?" Adorno and
Horkheimer contend that the tyranny of objectivity over subjectivity charac
means permanent. In "Begriff der Auf
terizing capitalist culture is by no
kl?rung" they write:

So setzt sich in der Herrschaft das Moment der Rationalit?t als ein von ihr auch
verschiedenes durch. Die des Mittels, die es universal verf?g
Gegenst?ndlichkeit
bar macht, seine f?r alle, bereits die Kritik von Herr
"Objektivit?t" impliziert
schaft,als derenMittel Denken erwuchs. (Dialektik54)

The ability to criticize capitalism's dominance suggests, in turn, the possi

bility of subjectivity free from such dominance. With this inmind, Adorno
and Horkheimer foresee that the machinery of capitalism will come to
co-exist with some forms of freedom and subjectivity:

In der Gestalt der Maschinen aber bewegt die entfremdete Ratio auf eine Gesell
schaft sich zu, die das Denken in seiner als materielle wie intellektu
Verfestigung
elleApparatur mit dem befreitenLebendigen vers?hnt und auf die Gesellschaft
selbst als sein reales Subjekt bezieht. (Dialektik 55)

neuenMusik share many

Though Dialektik derAufkl?rung and Philosophie der
salient theoretical tenets, this sort of reserved optimism about the future of
neuenMusik.
subjectivity is hard to find inPhilosophie der
Adorno's thoughts hom Philosophie der neuenMusik on the artist's limited
role in artistic expression are the ones of interestwith regard toMann. In
short, they do not cohere with the dominance of the artist's subjectivity in
Doktor Eaustus. Several peripheral parts ofDie Entstehung des Doktor Eaustus
to the artist in the
already demonstrate the importance thatMann ascribes
creative process. In discussing Franz Werfel, Mann notes how much he
admires Werfel's work, "obgleich es zuweilen k?nstlerische Selbstkontrolle
vermissen l??t[...]" (190). Mann also recalls an anecdote that Sch?nberg re
lates during one of their frequent meetings. Sch?nberg tellsMann that the
success of one of his most recent compositions rests on the incorporation of
autobiographical information (290). Part of this conversation with Sch?n
berg, in makes
turn, itsway intoMann's novel. Even these simple comments
on Werfel and Sch?nberg suggest thatMann thinks of creative agency and
as salient elements of artworks. His interpretation of his protago
subjectivity
nist's final composition, "Doktor Fausti Weheklag," indicates the privileged
position of the artist, too: "Das Ganze chorisch, historisch bezogen auf das
Lamento des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, Durchbruch aus der Konstruktion
zum Ausdruck" (293). Here, Mann's idea of expression could not be more

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 177

different fromAdorno's. According toAdorno, the goal ofmusical construc

tions is to express something about musical conventions. This form of expres
sion is objective. Mann's artist, meanwhile, expresses himself by ridding
himself of constructive elements. So, even while adopting some ofAdorno's
terminology, Mann has a different view ofmodern composers and, conse
on the nature of
quently, takes a different stance expression.
Other formulations of Mann's from the late 1940s echo this stance.
Throughout Die Entstehung des Doktor Faustus, Mann refers to his readings of
Friedrich Nietzsche in preparation foran essay he plans towrite: "Nietzsches
Philosophie imLichte unserer Erfahrung." In his description and evaluation of
Nietzsche's work in this essay,Mann pays particular attention to the connec
tion between sickness and inspiration, a connection of central importance
regarding both Nietzsche and Leverk?hn. Mann discusses in detail the inspi
ration?the "Erleuchtungen, Entz?ckungen, Elevationen, Einfl?sterungen"
?that sickness instantiates inNietzsche (682). In otherwords, Mann focuses
on the subjective experiences that shape thewriter's work. During and after
thewriting o?Doktor Faustus, then,Mann's conception of the artist's role in
the production of artworks differs significantly fromAdorno's.
Mann's earlierwork is relevant in this context aswell. InDie Entstehungdes
Doktor Faustus, he connects his reading of Philosophie der neuenMusik to his
novella Der Tod inVenedig: "Ideen ?ber Tod und Form, das Ich und das Ob
jektivemochten dem Verfasser einer f?nfunddrei?ig Jahre zur?ckliegenden
venezianischen Novelle wohl als Erinnerungen an sich selbst gelten" (174).
This comparison is quite strange, though, as the similarities between this
earlier text and Adorno's treatise are far from obvious. One major incongruity
concerns the image of the artist that these texts offer:Gustav von Aschenbach
ishardly comparable to the artists thatAdorno envisions. Contrary toAdor
no's on the minimal function in the creative
emphasis composer's process,
Der Tod inVenedig figures subjective thoughts and feelings as the source of cre
ativity.Admiring Tadzio's body on the beach, for example, provokes an anal
ogy between the power that created this body and the force driving
Aschenbach's writing: "Der strenge und reineWille jedoch, der, dunkel t?tig,
? war er
dies g?ttliche Bildwerk ans Licht zu treiben vermocht hatte, nicht
ihm, dem K?nstler, bekannt und vertraut?" (83) This idea that art derives,
firstand foremost, from themystical depths of the artist's psyche recurs regu
larly in this text, often in connection with von Aschenbach's experience of in
tellectual intoxication.5 There appear to be few points of similarity toAdor
no's text, especially with regard to the question of artistic expression. Instead,
likeDie Entstehung des Doktor Faustus and theNietzsche essay, the earlier text
towhich Mann refers also stresses the primacy of the artist's subjective con
tribution to the artwork.
The composer's subjective contribution to his composition is also signifi
cant in Doktor Faustus, despite Mann's reliance on Adorno's manuscript.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 178 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

According toAdorno, twelve-tone composition excludes the possibility of all

subjective sentiment. The literary depiction of Leverk?hn's twelve-tone
composition, however, significantly dilutes the severity of this theoretical
a
impulse.While Adorno's general idea of dialectical relationship between the
composer and his compositional techniques remains central, the theoretical
analyses inMann's text make the composer much more important than
Adorno's texts do. The novel's narrator, Serenus Zeitblom, explicitly refers to
the problems surrounding the new status of the composer. At the end of the
novel, his interpretation of Leverk?hn's twelve-tone composition "Dr. Fausti
Weheklag" stresses the subjective component of expression rather than the
importance of technical constraints. With this concluding analysis, the con
ception of themodern composer and the idea of expression articulated in the
novel move away fromAdorno's thoughts and toward Sch?nberg's. Focusing
mainly on the relation between fascism and music, Evelyn Cobley has written
thatMann accepts Adorno's view of the composer. To establish this view, she
refers toKretzschmar's lectures from early in the novel (58). Referring mainly
to these chapters, however, ismisleading because it obscures the fact that
Zeitblom and Leverk?hn think differently than Kretzschmar about compos
ers. In another attempt to equate the ideas expressed inMann's text with
Adorno's theories about the elimination of composers, Cobley claims that
Mann's text does not relate Leverk?hn's work to genius?an inherently sub
jective idea?but to historical conditions: "Instead of attributing Leverk?hn's
breakthrough to the 'genius' of the individual artist,Doctor Eaustus dramatizes
Adorno's conviction that aesthetic accomplishments and historical events
must be understood as responses to specific material conditions" (53). The
subjective aspects of composition is emphasized early in the novel, however.
Its first sentence calls Leverk?hn a "geniale [r]Musiker" and Zeitblom soon
after provides further comments on the nature of genius to explain Lever
k?hn's work (8).
Serenus Zeitblom draws attention to the question of expression by re
counting his discussion with Leverk?hn about the status of composers using
the twelve-tone method. This discussion occurs inChapter 22, a narrative se
quence best known for the fact that it includes Leverk?hn's elucidation of a
new compositional theory that he has developed?essentially Sch?nberg's
twelve-tone method. Zeitblom, however, objects to several different facets of
Leverk?hn's new theory.One of his objections concerns the place of the com
poser inhis friend's theoretical framework. Right before explaining the specif
ics of his method, Leverk?hn tries to establish a conceptual relationship
between being free and obeying strict laws:

"Aberdie Freiheit ist ja ein anderesWort f?r Subjektivit?t, und einesTages h?lt
die es nicht mehr mit sich aus, irgendwann verzweifelt sie an ihrerM?glichkeit,
von sich aus zu sein und sucht Schutz und Sicherheit beim Objekti
sch?pferisch
ven. Die Freiheit neigt immer zum dialektischen Sie erkennt sich
Umschlag.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 179

selbst sehr bald in der Gebundenheit, erf?llt sich in der Unterordnung unter Ge

setz, Regel, Zwang, System?erf?llt sich darin, das will sagen: h?rt darum nicht

auf, Freiheit zu sein." (255)

Adorno's influence is obvious here. But this exchange between the narrator
and the composer is far from over. Zeitblom immediately voices an objection:
"'IhrerMeinung nach [...] Soviel siewei?! Aber inWirklichkeit ist sie doch
dann nicht Freiheit mehr, so wenig wie die aus der Revolution geborene
Diktatur noch Freiheit ist'" (256). The dialectic of subjectivity and constraint
does not make sense to Zeitblom. His resistance prompts Leverk?hn to qual
ifyhis statement: "'[...] das Subjektive schl?gt sich als Objektives nieder und
wird durch das Genie wieder zu Spontaneit?t erweckt,? "dynamisiert," wie
wir sagen; es redet auf einmal die Sprache des Subjektiven'" (256). Here,
Leverk?hn has provided the subjective with much more creative force than
Adorno does in Philosophie der neuenMusik, a text that denies any aesthetic
authenticity to the language of the subjective. In a sense, Leverk?hn has
become the defender of subjectivity and genius, while Zeitblom's denial of
subjectivity brings him closer toAdorno's stance. After Leverk?hn describes
the technical aspects of his new compositional theory toZeitblom, the narra
tor expresses the same reservations as before. in turn, his
Leverk?hn, repeats
response by stressing the importance of the composer's subjective side (260).
The two quarrel on until Leverk?hn's headache brings the conversation to an
inconclusive end.

Both Leverk?hn and Zeitblom make use ofAdorno's rhetoric in this scene.
However, Leverk?hn's insistence on the active and forcefulnature of the com
poser distinguishes his assessment of the composer fromAdorno's. The fact
that Leverk?hn and Zeitblom argue about this question of the composer high
lights this difference between Leverk?hn's and Adorno's views. While Lever
k?hn and Zeitblom do not reach an agreement right away, there is an implicit
agreement by the end of the novel. By this point, Zeitblom, too, recognizes the
fundamental creative contribution the makes to a twelve-tone
composer

composition. This new attitude becomes clearwhen Zeitblom comments on

"Dr. Fausti Weheklag," Leverk?hn's twelve-tone composition. By aligning
Zeitblom with Leverk?hn, the text achieves a relatively coherent position on
the question of themodern composer.
"Dr. Fausti Weheklag" is a product of its composer's subjective thoughts
and feelings in the most basic way: it is a musical expression of the pain
Leverk?hn's pact with the devil causes him. Even the twelve syllables corre
sponding to the Grundreihe (basic set) of the composition?the collection of
twelve tones that the composer systematically manipulates throughout his
piece?reflect the inseparability of Leverk?hn's work and life: "Ich sterbe als
ein guter und ein b?ser Christ." Zeitblom remarks on the close ties between
this twelve-tone composition and Leverk?hn's expression of subjective senti
ment: "[...] die Klage des H?llensohns, die furchtbarste Menschen- und

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
180 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

Gottesklage, die, ausgehend vom Subjekt, aber stetsweiter sich ausbreitend

und gleichsam den Kosmos ergreifend, auf Erden je angestimmt worden ist"
(640). Apparently, then, Zeitblom no longer doubts the possibility of subjec
tive expression in a strict compositional system. Soon after,Zeitblom recog
nizes in thework

die Rekonstruktion des Ausdrucks, der h?chsten und tiefsten des

Ansprechung
Gef?hls auf einer Stufe der Geistigkeit und der Formenstrenge, die erreicht wer
den mu?te, damit dieses Umschlagen kalkulatorischer K?lte in den expressiven
Seelenlaut und kreat?rlich sich anvertrauende Herzlichkeit Ereignis werden
k?nnte[...]. (640)

Rather than being skeptical about the composer's freedom of expression as he

was in his earlier conversation with Leverk?hn, Zeitblom has adopted
Leverk?hn's emphasis on the power of the composer over the demands of
compositional technique. Zeitblom makes several subsequent statements to
the same effect (641,643,644). While he does not neglect tomention the rigor
ous compositional demands posed by twelve-tone composition, he accentu
ates the centrality of the composer's contribution. By doing so, he contests
the claims that Adorno makes inDie Philosophie der modernenMusik. Both
Leverk?hn and Zeitblom adopt a view that distances them fromAdorno.
In fact, their view represents a departure fromAdorno in the direction of
Sch?nberg. Mann's references to Sch?nberg's twelve-tone method inDoktor
Eaustus aie just as apparent as his references toAdorno's writings. As almost
every piece of scholarly work on the relationship between Mann and
Sch?nberg mentions, Mann's use of twelve-tone composition upset Sch?n
berg,who was particularly afraid thatMann would mistakenly go down in
history as the architect of this compositional technique (Vaget, Seelenzauber
386 and "Thomas Mann" 204). To assuage Sch?nberg's fears,Mann added a
disclaimer to the novel, citing the twelve-tone method as Sch?nberg's intel
lectual property. Despite this gesture, it is clear thatMann sees Sch?nberg's
contention as absurd. In his open reply to Sch?nberg in the Saturday Review of
Literature (1949), Mann describes his surprise at Sch?nberg's discontent, espe
cially considering the fact that the two had corresponded privately and amia
bly about the issue at hand before Sch?nberg voiced his anger publicly. Mann
also points out how well known it is that twelve-tone composition is Sch?n
berg's invention as opposed to his own. This somewhat negative portrayal of
Sch?nberg ends:
Es ist schmerzlich anzusehen, wie ein bedeutender Mensch, in nur allzu ver
st?ndlicher ?berreiztheit durch ein zwischen Verherrlichung und Vernachl?ssi

gung schwebendes Dasein, sich beinahe willentlich einw?hlt in Ideen des Ver
und Bestohlenseins und sich in Zank verliert. er sich doch
folgt- giftigem M?ge
?ber Bitterkeit und Mi?trauen erheben und im sicheren Bewu?tsein seiner
Gr??e und seinesRuhmes Ruhe finden! (685)

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 181

care to criticize
While noting Sch?nberg's greatness, then,Mann also takes
Mann chooses a different line of argu
Sch?nberg's behavior. Oddly enough,
ment when recounting his disagreements with Sch?nberg inDie Entstehung
des Doktor Faustus. Here, Mann maintains that his novel's depiction of the
twelve-tone method endows the method with qualities that differ signifi
cantly from Sch?nberg's original ideas (168). From this perspective, Sch?n
berg's intellectual property claim ismisguided, Mann suggests. Despite the
differences thatMann has inmind here, though, the theory of expression that
Zeitblom and Leverk?hn come to agree on is
much closer to Sch?nberg's than
to Adorno's.

Adorno and Sch?nberg think very differently about the philosophical

nuances of twelve-tone composition. In general, Sch?nberg finds reading
Adorno's texts frustrating. In "Glosses on the Theories of Others" he writes,
"One is for ever having to go back and think [...] in order to find out what he
[Adorno] means, and then one fails to seewhy he does not say it straight away,
since it's so simple" (315). It also becomes clear that Sch?nberg does not agree
with much ofwhat Adorno has to say. Regarding twelve-tone composition,
as a
Sch?nberg's main point of contention is thatAdorno refers to his theory
of twelve tones" while it is a "method of with
"system actually composing
twelve tones." Vaget explains this objection: "The fine line between the two
formulations was of the utmost importance to Sch?nberg, for it underscores
the crucial element of creativity?the creative use of a particular method"
new
("Thomas Mann" 205). Describing the compositional theory as amethod
implies that the composer is active and creative, characteristics thatAdorno
denies the composer. Thus, it is precisely the status of the composer that
divides Sch?nberg and Adorno in this context.
For Sch?nberg, the keystone of any composition is the composer's idea.
His essay "New Music, Outmoded Music, Style, and Idea" begins: "The first
three of these four concepts have been widely used in the last twenty years,
while not somuch ado has been made about the fourth, idea" (113). While
style is a transient feature of the artworld, Sch?nberg contends, "an idea can
never perish" (123). Even considering the constraints instituted by twelve
tone composition, the composer's expression of his transcendental idea de
fines thework: "Imyself consider the totality of a piece as the idea: the idea
which its creator wanted to present" (123). It is clear that this view of the
modern composer clashes with Adorno's and has much more in common with
Leverk?hn's and Zeitblom's.
Sch?nberg articulates this view consistently. In "Twelve-Tone Composi
tion" he summarizes the basic theoretical drive behind his new approach:
"Whatever sounds together [...] plays its part in expression and in presenta
tion of themusical idea in just the same way as does all that sounds succes
sively [...] and it is equally subject to the laws of comprehensibility" (207).
Musical compositions, asserts Sch?nberg, express the composer's idea. They

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 182 Ehe German Quarterly Spring2008

do not, in other words, draw attention to the state of com

contemporary
positional technique without the composer's volition. Over the course of a
piece, Sch?nberg continues, "[...] the relationship of the twelve tones to each
other develops, on the basis of a particular prescribed order (motive), deter
mined by the inspiration (the idea!)" (208). The idea, of course, is
inherently
subjective. In "Composition with Twelve Tones" Sch?nberg specifies that a
composer "must believe in the infallibility of one's own fantasy and one must
believe in one's own inspiration" (218). The composer's subjective contribu
tion dominates the constraints of the compositional method as it
always has.
Indeed, Sch?nberg does not notice anything revolutionary about what mod
ern composers do. In Tone-Rows" he discusses the advice he
"Sch?nberg's
gave his students after revealing his new method to them: "You use the row
and compose as you had done before" (213). Taking these stark
philosophical
differences into account, itmakes sense that Sch?nberg and Adorno did not
get along.
The two protagonists ofMann's novel, Leverk?hn and Zeitblom, share
Sch?nberg's view ofmodern composers. Like the real inventor of twelve-tone
composition, they acknowledge themethod's constraints while stressing the
ability of the composer to express subjective ideas. It is likely that Sch?nberg
acquainted Mann with this view of twelve-tone composition during their
shared time in Los Angeles. Mann notes several instructive encounters with
Sch?nberg. He recalls: "Gesellschaft bei Sch?nbergs. Holte ihnviel ?berMusik
aus [...]"
und Komponistendasein (Entstehung 163, see also 178, 189, 290).
Judging by his theoretical texts, it is hard to fathom Sch?nberg's discussing
composers without taking recourse to his ubiquitous notion that composi
tions rely on the expression of a creator's subjective idea. In any event, the
conception of themodern composer inDoktor Faustas is consistent not only
with Sch?nberg's writings, butwith the image of the artist thatMann formu
lates in the late 1940s and before. However, this conception is inconsistent
with Philosophie der neuenMusik. Mann's use ofAdorno is selective, then. In
this sense, Mann's famed moments of agree
montage technique produces
ment and of fundamental resistance.

Notes

1
Rieckmann has addressed this tension between traditional and avant-garde aes
thetics in the novel, but only very briefly and without Adorno at all.
mentioning
2 In
his essay on Doktor Faustus Hansj?rg D?rr concludes: "Damit aber ist
derWerdegang Leverk?hns festgelegt, nicht Thomas Mann, sondern Adorno
setzt den Ma?stab f?r die Darstellung des musikalischen Geschehens[...]"
(296). In a footnote, D?rr describes his study as one that complements Bodo
Heimann's earlier efforts (289, n. 22). Heimann also lists congruencies be
tween Adorno's and Mann's texts.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 KRAUS: Adorno andMann 183

3
Wolf-Dietrich F?rster, for instance, stresses the importance of "Themen
bildung und Organisation des Materials nach Erfordernissen desWerkes vor
dem eigentlichen Kompositionsvorgang" forboth Mann's novel and twelve
tone composition (700). He also claims thatDoktor Faustus is "undynamisch"
and "entwicklungslos," traits the novel supposedly shares with Sch?nberg's
method (700). The firstclaim ismuch too general to support the connection
F?rster is looking for, while the second claim is plainly an expression of subjec
tive bias. He also makes the bizarre claim that the extreme compositional
constraints of the twelve-tone method ("keine freieNote") mirror constraints
on Mann ("kein freiesWort") (710).
imposed
4
Vaget rightly stresses Mann's eclecticism and his independence from
Adorno with respect to ideas about music. See Seelenzauber 392 or "Thomas
Mann" 208.
5 See also
Mann, Der Tod inVenedig 86, 88.

Works Cited

Abel, Angelika. Musik?sthetik der klassischen Moderne: Thomas Mann, Theodor Adorno, Arnold

Sch?nberg. Munich: Fink, 2003.

Adorno, Theodor. ?sthetische Theorie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp. 1973.
-. "Der dialektische Gesammelte Vol. 17. Frankfurt:
Komponist." Schriften.
Suhrkamp, 1982. 198-203.
-. der neuenMusik. 12. Frankfurt:
Philosophie Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. Suhrkamp,
1975.
-. "Warum 18. Frankfurt:
Zw?lftonmusik?" Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. Suhrkamp,
1984. 114-17.

Adorno, Theodor, and Max Horkheimer. Dialektik der Aufkl?rung: Philosophische Fragmente.
Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 3. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1984.

Cobley Evelyn. "Avant-Garde Aesthetics and Fascist Politics: Thomas Mann's Doctor Fau
stus and Theodor W Adorno's ofModern Music.7" New German Critique 86
'Philosophy
(2002): 43-70.
D?rr, Hansj?rg. "Thomas Mann und Adorno: Ein Beitrag zur des Doktor Fau
Entstehung
stus.77 Literaturwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch im der 11 (1970):
Auftrage G?rres-Gesellschaft
285-321.

F?rster, Wolf-Dietrich. "Leverk?hn, und Thomas Mann: Musikalische

Sch?nberg,
Strukturen und Kunstreflexion in Doktor Faustus." Deutsche f?r
Vierteljahrsshrift
49 (1975): 694-720.
undGeistesgeschichte
Literaturwissenschaft
Heimann, Bodo. "Thomas Manns Doktor Faustus und die Musikphilosophie Adornos.77
Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift und Geistesgeschichte38 (1964):
f?rLiteraturwissenschaft
248-66.
'An die Saturday Review 11. Frank
Mann, Thomas. of Literature." Gesammelte Werke. Vol.
furt: Fischer, 1960. 683-85.
-.Doktor Faustus: Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverk?hn, erz?hlt von einem
Freunde. Frankfurt: Fischer, 2002.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 184Ehe German Quarterly spring 2008

-.Die des Doktor Faustus: Roman eines Romans. Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 11.
Entstehung
Frankfurt: Fischer, 1960. 145-301.
-. "Nietzsches im Lichte unserer Gesammelte Werke. Vol. 9.
Philosophie Erfahrung."
Frankfurt: Fischer, 1960. 675-712.
-. Der Tod in Venedig. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1999.

Neumann, Michael. "Zw?lftontechnik? Adrian Leverk?hn zwischen und

Sch?nberg
Jahrbuchim
Wagner.11Literaturwissenschaftliches AuftragederG?rres-Gesellschaft
43 (2002):
193-211.

Rieckmann, Jens. "Zeitblom und Leverk?hn: Traditionelles oder Avantgardistisches

Kunstverst?ndnis?"TheGermanQuarterly52 (1979): 50-60.
Vaget, Hans Rudolf. Seelenzauber: Thomas Mann und dieMusik.Frankfurt: Fischer, 2006.
-. "Thomas Mann: Pro and Contra Adorno." Sound Figures of German Mu
Modernity:
sic and Ed. Jost Hermand and Gerhard Richter. Madison: U ofWisconsin
Philosophy. P,
2006. 201-31.
Arnold. with Twelve Tones"
Sch?nberg, "Composition Style and Idea: Selected Writings of
ArnoldSch?nberg.Ed. Leonard Stem.Berkeley:U ofCalifornia P, 1984. 214-49.
-. "Glosses on the Theories of Others." Style and Idea: Selected Writings ofArnold
Ed. Leonard Stein. Berkeley: U of California P, 1984. 313-16.
Sch?nberg.
-. "New Music, Outmoded and Idea."
Music, Style, Style and Idea: Selected Writings of
ArnoldSch?nberg.Ed. Leonard Stein.Berkeley:U ofCalifornia P, 1984. 113-24.
-. Tone-rows."
"Sch?nberg's Style and Idea: Selected Writings ofArnold Sch?nberg. Ed.
Leonard Stein. Berkeley:U ofCalifornia P, 1984. 213-14.
-. "Twelve-Tone Composition." Style and Idea: Selected Writings ofArnold Sch?nberg.
Ed. Leonard Stein.Berkeley:U ofCalifornia P, 1984. 207-09.

This content downloaded from 147.91.1.45 on Sun, 14 Dec 2014 17:06:22 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions