Musica: teoria del film e composizione in Adorno

Abstract

Composing for the Films, written by Theodor W. Adorno and Hanns Eisler in 1947, seems to have been consigned to a fate of oblivion. The reasons could be related to the controversy about the authorship of the work or to the fact that it contains condensed theses that some consider outdated or, again, to the preference given to themes such as dodecaphonic music, fetishism in music, jazz or pop music considered more relevant. On closer examination, however, this essay reveals a tendentially underestimated importance that lies in the fact that it summarizes the theses that Adorno elaborates in relation to mass music (pop music and jazz) and those related to the cultural industry. It is then interesting, fifty years after Adorno’s death, to restore dignity and centrality to Composing for the Films, also by virtue of the attempt, which perhaps elsewhere does not appear with equal sincerity, to mediate between music and technology.