Immediacy and the mediations of music : critical approaches after Theodor W. Adorno

Adorno believed that a circular relationship was established between immediacy and mediation. Should we now say that this model with its clear Hegelian influence is outdated? Or does it need some theoretical integration? This volume addresses these questions by covering the performance of music, its technological reproduction and its modes of communication – in particular, pedagogy and dissemination through the media. Each of the book’s four parts deal with different aspects of the mediation process. The contributing authors outline the problematic moments in Adorno’s reasoning but also highlight its potential. In many chapters the pole of immediacy is explicitly brought into play, its different manifestations often proving to be fundamental for the understanding of mediation processes. The prime reference sources are Adorno’s __Current of Music__, __Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction__ and __Composing for the Films__. Critical readings of these texts are supplemented by reflections on performance studies, media theories, sociology of listening, post-structuralism and other contiguous research fields. "Adorno believed that a circular relationship was established between immediacy and mediation. Should we now say that this model with its clear Hegelian influence is outdated? Or does it need some theoretical integration? This volume addresses these questions by covering the performance of music, its technological reproduction and its modes of communication - in particular, pedagogy and dissemination through the media. The book's four parts each deal with different aspects of the mediation process. The contributing authors outline the problematic moments in Adorno's reasoning but also highlight its potential. In many chapters the pole of immediacy is explicitly brought into play, its different manifestations often proving to be fundamental for the understanding of mediation processes. The prime reference sources are Adorno's Current of Music, Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction and Composing for the Films. Critical readings of these texts are supplemented by reflections on performance studies, media theories, sociology of listening, post-structuralism and other contiguous research fields"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures List of Contributors Preface 1. Popular Culture and Post-Traditional Arts: Debates and Controversies During Adorno’s Exile in the USA PART I: The Dynamics of Musical Mediation 2. The Logic of Judgement-less Synthesis: Theodor W. Adorno on Vermittlung and the Language of Music 3. Beyond Mediation 4.Media, Mediation and ‘Bildung’ in Adorno’s Current of Music PART II: Notation and Performance 5. ‘Every written note is the image of a beat’: Rethinking Adorno’s Critique of Notation 6. Towards a Practice of Musical Performance Creativity 7. Exploring the Text-Performance Continuum in Music: Reflections on Immediate Mediation PART III: Music on Screen 8. Instrumentalizing Music for the Movies: Comedy, Portability, Labor, Critique 9. Composing for the Films in the Age of Digital Media PART IV: Recorded Sound in Changing Environments 10. Adorno and Jazz: A Dialogue with the Philosopher from an Audiotactile Perspective 11. Adorno, the Jitterbug and the Becoming Insect of Music Index