This was another college paper for Music History II. It was really difficult for me and although there isn't a real resolution it is very interesting in the questions it raises.
Before I start can I ask us all to join in a moment of prayer for mankind. 45 human beings, likely Christian were burned alive by ISIS 5 miles away from where 250 American troops are stationed. The troopes are now surrounded and our gov. has not provided air support. The flip side of this coin of evil is our culture has permitted the disgusting filth of '50 Shades of Grey' to enter our movie theatres and lead the box office. This is a perverted movie which misrepresents love, the problem with the world-rejection of Love(I could go on but I will not in this blog post). When we permit evil it is our shoulders the blame sits on. The world is burning.......it is up to you to put out the fire. !!!!
Timeliness and Lateness
“Everything having no function in the work of art - and therefore everything transcending the law of mere existence - is withdrawn. The function of the work of art lies precisely in its transcendence beyond mere existence….Since the work of art, after all, cannot be reality, the elimination of all illusory features accentuates all the more glaringly the illusory character of it existence. This process is inescapable. (PNM 70)”
At one point in this excerpt, Said writes that Adorno is not easily read in any language. I would definitely have to agree, and add that this whole piece was quite a laborious task to digest. The principles and concepts discussed are deep and uncontained in a way that allows us much freedom to explore their meanings and our own interpretations of them. Although, this is a double-edged sword, for that means that to fully grasp and form an opinion on the concepts we must invest ourselves into the reading, a time-consuming task that is not for the backseat regurgitating student. That being said, these words I have chosen to explore are full of ripe implications.
I will examine them in steps and then as a whole. The first implication we see is the thought of art as more than a representation of true reality, even more so how it cannot be, for the more it tries to represent real life the more it becomes an illusion. Art then, cannot ever be ‘real.’ In this vain of thinking possibly art is never real, for art is always a creation of the subjective or interpretation of creation. This process is dependent on the creator and is therefore subjective and in a way illusory. To take this to the next logical step in my mind is that even historical records….are an art! Beethoven’s work in this light creates the interesting parallel. Some of his works have been held almost as historical biographical documents, ones that serve as records of the composer himself. Adorno sees this as "relegating them (the late works) to the far reaching vicinities of art." We see death and a man who is alienated in Beethoven's late works, yet here Adorno has established that what we feel are only allegories for death and broken representations, not just Beethoven's autobiography but something different and valuable.
Art goes beyond the laws of reality for it has no function besides transcending function. This can be seen as a slight paradox. To accept art as having no function at all is to accept it as meaningless and misunderstood. Interestingly, Adorno views art as something not meant to hide its frills and thrills within the meaning. Tied into the first implication we see this view of art being refined. Now we see art as having a meaning and purpose to rise above reality as its very function, but within this function in reality art cannot and should not try to wipe away its fantastic qualities. Beethoven’s late period work represents this as it represents the idea of Lateness. His work was not a meshing synthesis but an unleashing of energy. This energy is not bound by reality yet is speaking to us almost objectively. This defines art as a function by having no definable one.
The word function seems to complicate this concept. It is different than purpose for its purpose I would contest, is to elevate the moral and social state of man. Its practicality I would say is the outlet of one's emotions and the awakening in another's. Instead he has chosen which ever word translates into the English one of function. This is a more encompassing word speaking to its right to exist. He finds the right for art to exist not in its practicality but in its impracticality. Altogether he did not mean it in this way but Beethoven's Late works put this idea of more impractical art into practice through its stubborn rashness which drove the direction of the future.
A last step I reach before digesting the whole is a conceptual parallel between art and man. If art truly holds this place for mankind, a place of communication without boundaries, it is our highest duty before invoking religions. (Although earlier I had asserted even historical recounts are art.) We find that the closer to man and his core we come and the closer we strain toward the heavens, the more natural, holistic, and sometimes ornamentally ridiculous it becomes. As it reaches deeper illusion it approaches what is most real.
Beethoven’s work was an incredible representation of this thought. His late style was most likely shocking in his time as it affronts our ears even today. It does not follow paths marked out for it. It is beautiful in a foregone way, a lost way, an eccentric way. We see the value of work that swam in contest with the contemporary. It was not a representation of our idea of what is natural or real for a man of his time and age but rather a glimpse into a consciousness living outside of itself. Now this art has meant everything to us, and without it we would lose the foundation of modern music. Beethoven represents this communication, a higher calling, for his creations were beyond yet for himself and they touched a time he did not. This is the greatest illusion or art of all.
Said creates in this excerpt an art of art. He writes linking the natural to the artistic, finding meaning in our body’s condition through the eyes of the art it creates. Together we discover a great rift between timeliness and lateness. He then centers this deciphering around Adorno who writes on the lateness of Beethoven drawing over reaching beliefs through the study of Beethoven.
If we do not really accept art as having the truths stated in the passage I chose, then we lose much of the importance of Beethoven’s Lateness. If art is to have a function, one that is real, one that is beyond just aesthetic pleasure and it achieves this without ornamentation, then his work is nothing but cacophony of a deaf man. To those accepting this it is a monument left for us of art.We do not expect to hear what we do in the Late works as they are not the soundtrack of a peaceful successful man. There is nothing timely about Beethoven's Late music, but when we listen or realize what they have done, there could not be anything more timely about them.
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