Towards a Theory of Musical Reproduction (ePub)

At the beginning of his career in the 1920s, Adorno sketched a plan
to write a major work on the theory of musical reproduction, a task
he returned to time and again throughout his career but never
completed. The choice of the word reproduction as opposed to
interpretation indicates a primary supposition: that there is a
clearly defined musical text whose precision exceeds what is
visible on the page, and that the performer has the responsibility
to reproduce it as accurately as possible, beyond simply playing
what is written. This task, according to Adorno, requires a
detailed understanding of all musical parameters in their
historical context, and his reflections upon this task lead to a
fundamental study of the nature of notation and musical sense.

In the various notes and texts brought together in Towards a
Theory of Musical Reproduction, one finds Adorno constantly
circling around an irresolvable paradox: interpretation can only
fail the work, yet only through it can musics true essence be
captured. While he at times seems more definite in his
pronouncement of a musical scores absolute value just as a book is
read silently, not aloud his discourse repeatedly displays his
inability to cling to that belief. It is this quality of
uncertainty in his reflections that truly indicates the scope of
the discourse and its continuing relevance to musical thought and
practice today.