The listener of the chthonic god sand the barroom player: Adorno’s experience of Schubert

• Main Author: Jeremić-Molnar Dragana
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory, Belgrade 2011-01-01
• Series: Filozofija i Društvo
• Subjects: Franz Schubert; Theodor Adorno; Ludwig van Beethoven; romanticism; wandering
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0353-5738/2011/0353-57381102173J.pdf

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.