Filozofija i drustvo 2011 Volume 22, Issue 2, Pages: 173-190
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1102173J
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The listener of the chthonic god sand the barroom player: Adorno’s experience of Schubert
Jeremić-Molnar Dragana (Fakultet muzičke umetnosti, Beograd)
In this article the author is reconstructing the complex picture of Franz
Schubert created by Theodor Adorno in his numerous references to the Viennese
composer, but mostly in his 1928 article “Schubert”. In the late 1920s Adorno
experienced Schubert as the tragic composer whose music dwells in the realm
of chthonic gods, but nevertheless reveals the joy of “traveling folk,
jugglers and tricksters”. It remained, however, unclear how this joy could
survive in the hellish landscapes of Schubert’s chthonic music. Later, Adorno
recognized Schubert, due to his “habitus”, as the barroom player as well,
never mentioning “traveling folk, jugglers and tricksters” any more. This two
images of Schubert - Schubert as the Listener of the Chthonic Gods and
Schubert as the Barroom Player - proved to be an interesting pair, worth of
further theoretical elaboration, which Adorno unfortunately never bothered to
undertake.
Keywords: Franz Schubert, Theodor Adorno, Ludwig van Beethoven, romanticism, wandering