Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine and interpret the music of Theodor W. Adorno. I explore and analyze the inner dynamics of four songs according to recognized principles of atonal musical structures. I endeavor to show the design, the core motivic ideas and compositional devices used and how they develop into the basic structure and form of the particular composition. My intent is to find not only the most concrete primary cells, or "inspired ideas," and to analyze each of the composition's constituent parts, but also to reconstruct what happens to those "inspired ideas" and how they shape the composition as a whole. ;The meaning and interpretation of Adorno's music rest on his use of compositional structures, motives and devices that set and explicate the text. Therefore, I examine relationships between the text and the music, the setting of the text in the melody and accompaniment, and other large-scale coherence-producing devices such as through opposition and resolution found in Schoenberg's "musical idea" principle. ;The dissertation consists of a critical commentary on the works selected for analysis and an examination of Adorno's published music as well as any extant unpublished manuscripts. I focus my detailed music analysis on the set of four vocal compositions entitled, Vier Lieder nach Gedichten von Stefan George fur Singstimme and Klavier, op. 7 , completed in 1944. These songs are the last of seven song cycles Adorno wrote between 1923 and 1944 and are representative of Adorno's late compositional style. The four songs are atonal compositions and couple elements of serial technique with other organizational devices. Therefore, my analytical approach will utilize elements of pitch-class analysis with twelve-tone analysis. ;The poems of Stefan George used in Adorno's songs are also examined for imagery, meaning, significance and structure. Adorno's knowledge of George, his poetry, and why Adorno chose to set music to these particular poems is also explored. ;Adorno studied composition with Alban Berg and he championed Schoenberg's music. Adorno's undiscovered music is one of the most original exponents of the Second Viennese School