Research On Adorno’s New Music Thought

Theodore W·Adorno is an important representative of the Frankfurt School,famous for his serious philosophical thinking and profound critical consciousness.Adorno was also a senior music fan with deep insights into the "new" changes in the development of music in his time.To do this,he wrote a book named The Philosophy of the New Music wherein the concept of "new music" was mentioned,through which the coordination between his philosophical ideas and music art was practiced,featuring both an extension from its the philosophy of "negative" to the filed of aesthetics and an enlightenment of the realistic evidence of the ‘new music’ being a powerful supplement of his philosophy thought.This paper is mainly to study Adorno’s works on the theme of "New Philosophy of Music".Adorno combined music and philosophy and clearly demonstrated the physical self-discipline and social nature of the new music.In terms of musical performance,Adorno appreciates the music in which the composer responds to reality.Adorno completely rejects the cultural industry.He believes that if music is commercialized,it cannot be an art.Of course,Adorno’s trend toward tradition is not worth mentioning.In terms of the characteristics of music,he showed a dialectical understanding of subjectivity and objectivity: if empirical facts cannot be traced back to the social structure,it is subjective opinion.This paper is divided into five chapters to further study on Adorno’s works on the theme of "New Philosophy of Music".The first chapter discusses the source of Adorno’s new musical thoughts,and holds the view that the formation of his new musical thoughts is not only a reflection of the philosophical development trend of his era,but also a requirement of musical art practice since the 20 th century.The second chapter is to appreciate Adorno’s new musical thought through his music creation method.It’s believed that in Adorno’s opinions,the so called "newness" of new music is mainly reflected in the "material",the way of creation and the characteristics of the new music——negativity.The third chapter starts with some basic characteristics of new music thoughts to better understand the philosophical connotation of his works,which mainly reveals the dialectical,negative and critical characteristics of his new music thoughts.The fourth chapter is to analyze the inner tension of its new music thought from the perspective of aesthetics,and holds the view that its new music thought is the dialectical unity of the music self-discipline and heteronomy and the disintegration and completeness of music works.He tried to prove that modernist music conforms to the inherent stipulations of the work by keeping the music works away from the needs of cultural and industrial arts,and thus it is a progressive art that reflects the spirit of the times.The fifth chapter is to explore and evaluate the philosophical significance and aesthetic value of Adorno’s new music thought,with a view to comprehensively and objectively learn the contemporary significance and future influence of Adorno’s new music thought.This paper believes that Adorno clarified the reasons caused by Schoenberg and Stravinsky’s different evaluations,demonstrating the negative dialectics in music works from both positive and negative aspects.And its negative music view has significant enlightenments for the development of modern arts: to get rid of ancient ideas,develop new ideas,and create works in an unfettered atmosphere.