Correspondence 1943-1955 by Theodor W. Adorno & Thomas Mann

Author:Theodor W. Adorno & Thomas Mann
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780745695013
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2014-08-28T12:32:15+00:00

Appendix

Adorno’s Notes and Sketches

for Doctor Faustus

Adorno’s Sketches for the

Chamber Music of Adrian

Leverkühn

O: TS (carbon copy); Theodor W. Adorno Archive, Frankfurt am Main.

For the Violin Concerto: It is a ‘gentler’ piece incorporating the three tonalities of B flat major, C major and D major, the last as a kind of double dominant, the first as a double subdominant, with C major precisely intermediate between the two. The work artfully negotiates these tonalities, the composition constantly suggesting one or other, but never decisively establishing any of them. They are overlaid with one another for extensive parts of the work and C major is only properly established at the very end. The opening movement is marked Andante amoroso and characterized by a certain sweetness and gentleness that constantly borders on the ironic. The leading chord is Adrian likes to joke that this all sounds very French to his ears. This effusive movement is followed by an extremely boisterous and virtuosic Scherzo which allows full rein to the instrument’s technical possibilities. The final movement consists of a series of colourful and vividly contrasting variations on a theme that is derived from the principal subject of the first movement. Before composing his own piece, Leverkühn has carefully studied the violinistic technique of Bériot, Vieuxtemps and Wieniawski and applies it here in a half-respectful and half-caricatural manner. ‘The apotheosis of salon music – it should please the audience, but also leave them with a guilty conscience about it.’ The piece also incorporates a quotation from ‘The Devil’s Trill’ by Tartini.

On the music for three strings, three winds, and piano: this is a ‘roving’ piece with extended and fantastical themes, elaborately developed and never strictly repeated. The whole work is stormy and yearning in character, ‘romantic’ in tone, but executed with the most rigorous modern means and precisely constructed throughout. The first movement is entitled ‘Fantasy’, the second is an Adagio which becomes ever more intense as it unfolds, while the Finale begins lightly and playfully, takes on growing contrapuntal complexity and an increasing expression of tragic gravity, and concludes with a sombre epilogue reminiscent of a funeral march. The piano is never used to provide rich harmonic texture, but treated soloistically as in a piano concerto – effectively echoing the style of the Violin Concerto. The piano part, especially in the last movement, is of extraordinary technical difficulty. The problem of successfully combining the different sonorities throughout the piece is negotiated with enormous subtlety. The winds never drown the strings, but alternate with them and always allow them room to make themselves heard: only rarely do the winds and strings combine as tutti. The whole piece arouses the impression that one starts off on firm ground, but is then gradually enticed into ever more remote regions – everything ends up very different from what was originally expected. Adrian says: I wanted to compose not a sonata, but a novel.

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