Klarinet Archive - Posting 000134.txt from 2008/12

From: "Peter Gentry" <peter.gentry@-----.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Beethoven Nine and Meaning
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:37:46 -0500

To my mind the search for "meaning" in music is time wasted. Music can
amplify emotions, the famous Shostakovitch string quartet as an example. It
has meaning only inasmuch as beauty has a meaning it inspires a part of us
that finds no outlet in the daily trials and tribulation of life. It helps
us transcend being in a special way but "meaning" hmm. Look too hard and you
will never find it.

regards
Peter Gentry

-----Original Message-----
From: Alexander Brash [mailto:brash@-----.edu]
Sent: 29 December 2008 07:11
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: [kl] Beethoven Nine and Meaning

I'm looking for an article and my googling skills have failed. I
remember once reading what I thought was rather famous argument about
where meaning lies in a musical work. Someone (I think it was Adorno?)
had a thought experiment where he argued that Beethoven 9 didn't
actually exist, since you couldn't point to where it existed (not in
the score, a single performance, etc), along with some other
ramifications. Does anyone know what I'm referring to? It's driving me
bonkers. I might have read it in the Stravinsky Poetics of Music, but
he was definitely quoting someone else...

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