Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment

Author(s): Marcus Zagorski

Source: Acta Musicologica , 2015, [Vol.] 87, [Fasc.] 2 (2015), pp. 249-264
Published by: International Musicological Society

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44630612

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

International Musicological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Acta Musicologica

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the
Experiment*

Marcus Zagorski
Bratislava

History ; when presented in the extremely

questionable singular ; has, to put it crudely ;
come to be seen as a fairy tale. . . . History in
the singular . . . does not exist.1

Wha, value do Carl Dahlhaus's essays on postwar serial

music and aesthetics, essays such as the one quoted above, have today? These essays,
after all, have as their topic composers who are all but unknown outside relatively
few music history texts, compositions that are all but unperformed outside spe-
cialized festivals, and a repertory that is increasingly marginalized (even by music
scholars) in favor of popular music and non-Western practices. It is a repertory that
was often made to seem more important than these other musics, in part through
claims of its supposed historical necessity, and Dahlhaus was writing about it be-
fore the shift to relativism came to characterize musicology. As a consequence of
that shift, popular and non-Western musics are now rightly prized for their capac-
ity to reveal the diversity and complexity of the world and the countless histories
that give it shape, depth, and color. Against these many histories, amy singular his-
tory that privileges specific techniques or traditions, such as serialism, can only be
seen as limited: one strand in a fabric of innumerable threads. To the extent that such
a history would claim to be the account of music- of all music worth considering in
a period or a place- it should be dismissed as fantasy. In the words of Dahlhaus, it
should be seen as a "fairy tale."

* I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers of this article and to the editorial board of this journal,
including its editors Federico Celestini and Philip V. Bohlman, for their many insightful comments
on my text. Stephen Hinton also deserves my thanks for reading earlier drafts of my ideas. Research
for this article was supported, in part, through a VEGA-Slovakia grant (VEGA 1/0086/15).
1 "'Die' Geschichte- im Singular: einem äußerst fragwürdigen Singular- ist, grob gesagt, als Mythos
durchschaubar geworden. . . . [V]on 'der' Geschichte- im Singular- glauben wir inzwischen zu
wissen, daß sie nicht existiert." Carl Dahlhaus, "Abkehr vom Materialdenken?," Algorithmus, Klang,
Natur: Abkehr vom Materialdenken?, ed. Friedrich Hommel (Mainz: Schott, 1984), 47-48; also in
CDGS 8, 482-94. References for articles in the Carl Dahlhaus Gesammelte Schriften, vol. 8, 20.
Jahrhundert, ed. Hermann Danuser (Laaber: Laaber, 2005; abbreviated CDGS), are given in paren-
theses after first appearance. Because I cite some articles not in the CDGS, page numbers in sub-
sequent references refer to the original source of publication. Translations are my own unless
otherwise noted.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
250 Marcus Zagorski

The fairy tale about wh

reasons his essays on pos
writing on postwar serial
lar-the very idea upon w
fiction. This and other as
and Dahlhaus' s ideas wil
sic show, among other t
well before such critique
tory in the singular," he
more subject to the susp
up access to historical rea
what were doing the obs
tives upon which their th
of these once-powerful n
musicologist to have seen
tion of a new age for the
If it was a presentiment o
ognized as such at the ti
penned the passages quo
"seems most centrally co
institution of autonom
tory" to be a history in
the capitalization of "His
This is precisely the kind
on postwar music, reject
to him?

Hepokoski's assessment
and Its Extra-Musicologic
tion of Dahlhaus. The f

2 "'Die' Geschichte- im Singu

dacht ausgesetzt, ein BegrifFs
erschließt, sondern versperrt
ziger Jahre: Versuch einer Re
3 Here one is referred back
"'Die' Geschichte- im Singular
durchschaubar geworden. Als
19. Jahrhundert, durch Heg
es historische Zusammenhän
aber von 'der' Geschichte- im
Dahlhaus, "Abkehr vom Mater
Marx, for he also used the ph
Dahlhaus did indeed see Adorn
4 James Hepokoski, The Dahlh
14, no. 3 (1991): 235-36.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 251

Nineteenth-Century Music and its methodological companion

Music History , both of which had appeared in English transla
cus on the nineteenth century, perhaps it is understandable
overlook, or give little weight to, Dahlhaus's short essays on m
specifically, on European serial and post-serial music of the 1
trends that followed in the 1970s). If this is the case, however
his thesis of a Dahlhaus "Project," for it suggests that not all
are informed by one overriding approach, a point to which I
okoski did recognize, and he stressed repeatedly, that even w
examined, Dahlhaus cautioned against the writing of history
such cautions, Hepokoski concluded, applied only to Dahlhaus
ography, not to his practice.6
Hepokoski's conclusion- that Dahlhaus was centrally conc
the history of Austro-German autonomous music- is, like hi
ings on nineteenth-century music), characteristic of the Engl
of Dahlhaus. The impetus for his article came, in part, from ea
Gossett and a subsequent exchange between Gossett and one o
lators, J. Bradford Robinson, which discussed, among other th
tional bias" and flawed central vision (according to Gossett),
appeared in the pages of the journal 19th-century Music , as
later article.7 Other, more recent, publications on Dahlhaus's h
concerned primarily with his writings on the nineteenth cen
of autonomy, even if they contextualize the work differently
The interest in Dahlhaus is due to several factors. First, of
work itself, which applied an extraordinary breadth of know
critical method to music history in a way- and a copiousness
any, other scholars. Also, much of the English-language recep
appeared at the same time that some of Dahlhaus's major work
Century Music , were published in English translation, someth

5 The focus is stated in Hepokoski, "The Dahlhaus Project," 222.

6 Ibid., 235.
7 Philip Gossett, "Carl Dahlhaus and the 'Ideal Type,'" 19th-century Mus
and Gossett, "Up from Beethoven," The New York Review of Books (26 Oc
exchange with Robinson, see 19th-century Music 14, no. 2 (1990): 217-1
8 See, for example, Anne C. Shreffler, "Berlin Walls: Dahlhaus, Knepler,
sic History," The Journal of Musicology 20, no. 4 (2003): 498-525, whic
(specifically, again, Foundations of Music History and Nineteenth-Century
Cold War Berlin and contrasts it with the work of Georg Knepler, a mus
rary of Dahlhaus working in East Berlin. The German-language recept
broader, and there has been much more of it, especially recently. Two co
ular mention, for they include essays on Dahlhaus's writing about twen
they foreground issues of reception: Carl Dahlhaus und die Musikwissensch
tualität, ed. Hermann Danuser, Peter Gülke, and Norbert Miller (Schlieng
the journal issue devoted to Dahlhaus in Musik und Ästhetik 12, no. 47 (2

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
252 Marcus Zagorski

ously attract interest fr

interest coincided with t
that would spur interes
sions reached in Ameri
text particular to the Un
Austro-German canon an
Hepokoski and others in
it fitted what many Am
ernist thesis for their p
(not without admiration
Hepokoski considered D
"Project," writing: "the
German music- more ex
been pivotal in establishi
of the Dahlhaus Project
Beethoven to Schoenber
other words, the "Dahlh
German (and Austrian) c
artistic content was prim
that is, it favored aesthe
ring to this endeavor as
of the text- would like t
like a grand modernist u
The idea, however, of a
ogy used in all of Dahlh
okoski claimed, that "Da
after which he pursued
both to shore it up and
further."12 His writing
ing, and his later writin
the notion of a "Project
ingly that aesthetic auto

9 This is not meant to imply,

but one does not have to be
value-systems that nourishe
of meta-narratives, as his w
between Dahlhaus and "new
und Ästhetik 12, no. 47 (2008
10 Hepokoski, "The Dahlhaus
11 Ibid., 222.
12 Ibid., 239, n. 9.
13 Stephen Hinton also make
in Carl Dahlhaus und die Mus

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 253

discussion of nineteenth-century music.14 He provides, more

ful study of the reasons why Dahlhaus chose this category, re
the fact that the concept of autonomy suited the repertory. S
argued that Dahlhaus was reacting against the rise of Marxis
in German universities at the time, and that he aligned himse
of autonomy and its "culturally conservative" proponents as a
Among those purportedly "conservative" proponents were Gad
and the heritage of German idealistic philosophy and histori
they built.
The emphasis on aesthetic autonomy and the use of ideas f
lectual history could be said to apply not only to Dahlhaus' s
century music, but also to his writings on twentieth-century
postwar period, as this article will show. It would be wrong, n
this considerable body of essays merely to these specific them
more than a means to extend the Austro-German canon beyon
clude later composers, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen. Rather
on postwar music have other qualities that deserve attention
examples that complicate the American English-language r
and they thereby enable a different perspective on his work
this article, for example, taken from an essay on postwar mu
Dahlhaus was aware of the problems attached to conceptualizin
gular. Second, they provide insight into the music and compo
postwar period in a unique way- through the mind of an erud
who wrote much about the music of his time. Dahlhaus, in fac
musicologists who wrote about contemporary music in the p
may have been inspired by the example of Adorno, who also
music. Most writing at the time was done by the composers
Dahlhaus 's writings on postwar music reveal a fascinating te
tory" in the singular and "histories" in the plural: a tension
okoski, and others, conclude about Dahlhaus, and Dahlhaus
history could be, or had become, otherwise.
This last point, about the tension between a concept of his
and a plurality of histories, is one of the most interesting an
exploring Dahlhaus's writing on postwar music. It embeds the
contained therein in a time and place, and reveals how they re
historical context.16 It also shows his consciously chosen meth
tiple perspectives and interpretations simultaneously. The ten

14 Hepokoski, "The Dahlhaus Project," 245.

15 Ibid., 225.
16 Contextualizing Dahlhaus's work in the political, intellectual, and cultu
West Germany is also Hepokoski's and Shreffler's primary concern, whic
ferent ways.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 254 Marcus Zagorski

to the fore in the very t

the Experiment], for exa
aesthetic category of se
pendent upon a singular
category into question b
1980s. Another example
of Material Thinking?],
to "Materialdenken" and
settling both the agenda
find yet another examp
which critically examin
tion of these and other
about postwar music, som
composers (and, in the p
tive in West Germany) a
call into question the int
ing project (Hepokoski) w
outline and assess his pr
in particular on the conc
of, Dahlhaus's work in th
what might be worth k
as outdated.

* * *

The concept, or category, of the experiment is a good place to begi

of Dahlhaus's thinking about postwar music because it was central
standing of the period. Its outlines can be traced in a number of es
are particularly well formed in "Die Krise des Experiments," publi
that essay Dahlhaus argued that "the musical thinking of the post

17 See Carl Dahlhaus, "Die Krise des Experiments," in Komponieren Heute (M

80-94; see also Dahlhaus, "Abkehr vom Materialdenken," and the English
Dahlhaus, "A Rejection of Material Thinking?," in Dahlhaus, Schoenberg and the
Derrick Puffett and Alfred Clayton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 19
see Dahlhaus, "Geschichte und Geschichten."
18 In addition to "Die Krise des Experiments" see Dahlhaus, "Abkehr vom Mate
haus, "Neue Musik und Wissenschaft," in Wissenschaftliche und nichtwissenscha
Ein deutsch-französisches Kolloquium, ed. Kurt Hübner and Jules Vuillemin (Stut
Holzboog, 1983), 107-18; Dahlhaus, "Plädoyer für eine romantische Kategorie
Kunstwerks in der neuesten Musik," in Dahlhaus, Schönberg und Andere: Gesam
Neuen Musik (Mainz: Schott, 1978), 270-78 (CDGS 8, 216-24); published in En
"Plea for a Romantic Category: The Concept of the Work of Art in the Newest
berg and the New Music, 210-19; Dahlhaus, "Vom Mißbrauch der Wissenschaft,"
Andere, 388-98 ( CDGS 8, 67-77).

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 255

was defined by, to a large extent, the category of the experiment."

fying the significance of this point, he considered the concept of
"nothing less than the fundamental aesthetic paradigm of serial an
sic."20 In pointing to the concept of the experiment, Dahlhaus w
of the key terms of the period: Christoph von Blumröder' s articl
in the Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie , for exam
wide usage in the 1950s and 1960s.21 Indeed, one might think that
mentation reflects a respectable scientism that seems neutral and
is in keeping with the ubiquity of scientific metaphors from the p
closer look at Dahlhaus 's description of the concept of the experim
veals features that are more specifically German- and, given the p
also say West German, particularly in their reflection of contem
sitional theory. To see this, it is necessary to examine the severed
Dahlhaus said underlie the concept of the experiment. These inclu
cept of musical material that was indebted to Adorno and the corr
ophy of history behind that concept; second, a related, so-called "p
of composition that unfolded in a way similar to the history of sc
the idea of a "work-in-progress," which challenged an older work
from the nineteenth century.23 These three components are exam
below.

The first component, and perhaps the most essential, is a philosophy of history
modeled on the development of new musical materials. In this conception of history,
new compositional techniques were seen to emerge from older ones not because
of the subjective preferences of individuals, but because of the supposedly objec-
tive dictate of historical progress, the belief in which enabled composers to justify
new techniques as required rather than chosen. Free atonality was said, for exam-
ple, to require the twelve-tone method; the twelve-tone method for ordering pitch
was seen then to expand to the ordering of duration, loudness, and timbre in total
serialism; and, finally, the application of serial methods to these so-called "parame-

19 " [Die] Kategorie des Experiments . . . [eine] Kategorie, von der das musikalische Denken der Avant-
garde nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg über weite Strecken bestimmt worden ist." Dahlhaus, "Die
Krise," 84; my italics.
20 "[D] er Begriff des Experiments, als Gegenbegriff zu dem des Werkes, sei nichts Geringeres als das
fundamentale ästhetische Paradigma der seriellen und postseriellen Musik gewesen." Dahlhaus,
"Die Krise," 84; my italics.
21 Christoph von Blumröder, "Experiment, experimentelle Musik," in Terminologie der Musik im 20.
Jahrhundert: Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie , Sonderband 1, ed. Hans Heinrich
Eggebrecht (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1995).
22 Even Richard Taruskin, not exactly an apostle of Dahlhaus, begins his own account of postwar
music with the claim that "in the immediate postwar period, science and technology enjoyed an
unprecedented prestige," though it was a prestige that was qualified by mistrust and fear; see
Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music, vol. 5, The Late Twentieth Century (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 2.
23 Dahlhaus, "Die Krise," 82-85.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
256 Marcus Zagorski

ters" expanded further

succession of techniques
icallyto European music
composers: John Cage a
the importance of the id
posers, but they would n
mined by, and conceived
rather, this succession o
ically, Hegelian- philosop
Adorno's writings on Sc
Adorno himself was ne
losophy of history he us
technique. He stated ope
of 'objective spirit' to m
which prevails over the
the individual works. Th
His book was widely rea
war musicologists, such
postwar serial music, al
Musik , were also widely
about the history of com
composers in the period
philosophical outlooks, a
similar historical narrat
did Dieter Schnebel in h

24 These stages Eire mention

losophy of history and its r
History in the Aesthetics of
(2009): 271-317.
25 Cage wrote about the idea
Doctrine," in Cage, Silence (
composers, not usually inclu
tion to experimentation; see,
and the Electronic Medium,"
periment" and "experimenta
here in a footnote; see instea
26 Adorno's original article a
is reprinted in Adorno, Gesam
mann (Frankfurt am Main: S
Adorno's Aesthetics of Music
27 For more about Adorno s
Zagorski, "'Nach dem Weltun
Musicology 22, no. 4 (2005):
28 György Ligeti, "Wandlun

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 257

tionen."29 In both cases, free atonality was said to require the

the twelve-tone method, in turn, was said to expand by itself
total serialism then expanded from the organization of micr
ganization of macrostructure in post-serial practices. Luigi No
claimed that an "absolute historical and logical continuity of d
between early twelve-tone music and postwar serialism, and
stages of technique found in the essays of Ligeti and Schnebel
spoke of serialism as a logicali consequence of history, and the
One can also find these ideas, couched in terms of the "cond
of musical material (as opposed to the preferences of individu
Stockhausen and, later, those of Helmut Lachenmann.32
All these composers were, like Dahlhaus (and Adorno), activ
in the 1950s and 1960s, and they were associated with promi
supported contemporary music there. This might partly expla
ilar views of history, despite the otherwise pluralistic comple
deed, their shared view of history was powerful enough to s
ences, and it was only after those decades that Dahlhaus would
the interpretation of serial music as the fulfillment of a kind of
tive historical Tendency of the material' was in fact quite as c
at the time."33 He argued later that such views of history wer
and that seriad music was not a logical consequence of histor
iom which was posited by composers of their own accord."34 A
and reactions against serialism mounted (e.g., in spectralism,
tiche), Dahlhaus discerned a manifest subjectivity replacing th
that masqueraded as objectivity in the 1950s. He also seemed t
historiography should respect both views, for he understood
1950s, no matter how misguided they might seem today, we
force in the shaping of history as later ideas. Thus the 1950s
"defined by" the "fundamental aesthetic paradigm" of the exp
equacy of this paradigm was also made evident by reporting

29 Dieter Schnebel, "Das musikalische Material- Verhältnisse und Akti

Schriften 1952-1972, ed. Hans Rudolf Zeller (Cologne: DuMont, 1972), 2
30 "Zwischen den Anfängen der Zwölftonmusik und ihrem heutigen Sta
torische und logische Kontinuität der Entwicklung." Luigi Nono, "Die E
technik," in Texte: Studien zu seiner Musik, ed. Jürg Stenzl (Zurich: Atlan
31 Pierre Boulez, "Schoenberg Is Dead," in Boulez, Stocktakings from an App
Walsh (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 209-14.
32 See Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Arbeitsbericht 1952/53: Orientierung," in
elektronischen und instrumentalen Musik, ed. Dieter Schnebel (Cologn
see also Helmut Lachenmann, "Bedingungen des Materials: Stichworte z
dung," in Lachenmann, Musik als existentielle Erfahrung: Schriften 19
(Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1996), 35-53.
33 Dahlhaus, A Rejection of Materied Thinking?," 275.
34 Ibid., 276.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
258 Marcus Zagorski

pressure of a different h
picture of history: as Dah
constituted the main cur
ing to the premises of a
in the singular as it is im
perhaps collapses."35 Som
they perfectly capture t
Hermann Danuser has no
such formulations are m
The succession of techn
lined above was described
each new approach was t
and each new approach
proaches for solution. Th
Dahlhaus said underlie th
was modeled after the h
the theory of "normal sc
Scientific Revolutions , w
tion appearing in 1967) a
of the century.38 Accor
tion, during which a new
tronomy, for example, r
normal science. Paradigm
tific achievements that f
munity of practitioners,
achievements . . . that [s

35"Daß die serielle und die alea

den Prämissen der Geschicht
ausging, ebenso plausibel, w
Denken verblaßt und vielleich
lation from the same essay, h
not to divide it into epochs"
nicht in Epochen zu teilen"].
36 See Hermann Danuser, "
(1814-1830) aus Die Musik de
Danuser, it is precisely Dahl
place to multiple perspective
"Wie schreibt Dahlhaus Gesch
37 Descriptions of the "probl
Dahlhaus, "Neue Musik und
393-94; and Dahlhaus, "A Rej
38 Thomas Kuhn, The Structur
1996). For Dahlhaus's compar
39 Ibid., X and 10, respectively

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 259

these definitions in mind when reading Dahlhaus, it is clear tha

was not itself a new paradigm; rather, it was one step, one solu
solutions under a ląrger paradigm comprehending also the twelv
post-serial techniques. If this runs counter to more recent accou
rialism as representative of a "paradigm shift,"40 it is not only b
accounts may not follow Dahlhaus, but also because the very no
paradigm shifts, and normal science is only imperfectly applicab
side of the natural sciences. Indeed, Kuhn himself wrote an essa
point, for he was puzzled by the frequent application of his the
fields, though he did recognize parallels.41
A thorough reading of The Structure of Scientific Revolution
Dahlhaus could not have followed Kuhn' s theory too closely, alt
edly invoked in his writings about postwar music: there are clear
Kuhn's ideas and Dahlhaus's application of those ideas. Kuhn stre
that scientists engaged in normad science typically do not aim to
or novel ideas; but the string of new theories and novel approach
free atonality to the twelve-tone method, to total serialism, and
niques-which forms the basis of Dahlhaus's problem-history, seem
Additionally, Kuhn stressed both that scientific theories aire esse
and that new revolutions in scientific thinking do not represen
some ultimate truth; it was these claims, in fact, that made his b
and influential. Even though Dahlhaus may have sympathized w
nature of theory-formation,42 he certainly could have done mor
relation to his own use of the idea of normal science. He seems to have borrowed
this idea rather loosely when he applied it to the historiography of postwar music.
He then added aesthetic dimensions of a more, so to speak, "specifically musical"
nature to satisfy the demands of his non-scientific topic. This is a crucial point, for
it ties Dahlhaus's ideas about a "problem-history" not only to Kuhn but also- and
even more perfectly- to the composer Stockhausen.
Stockhausen was an exact contemporary of Dahlhaus and was perhaps the
most influential composer and theorist in West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s.
Despite his prominence, and despite the many references to his writings in the
Dahlhaus Gesammelte Schriften ,43 there has been, to my knowledge, no recogni-

40 For example: Anne Shreffler, "Ein 'neues Bild der Musik': Der Paradigmenwechsel nach dem
Zweiten Weltkrieg," in Klassizistische Moderne: Eine Begleitpublikation zur Konzertreihe im Rah-
men der Veranstaltungen "10 Jahre Paul Sacher Stiftung " ed. Felix Mayer (Winterthur: Amadeus,
1996), 187-97.
41 See Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions , 160-63 and especially 208-9, which makes ref-
erence also to Kuhn, "Comment [on the Relations of Science and Art]," Comparative Studies in
Philosophy and History 11 (1969): 403-12.
42 See, for example, his discussion of Krenek in "A Rejection of Material Thinking?," 276-77.
43 There are fifty-eight citations in over thirty different essays of Dahlhaus, as well as numerous other
uncited mentions of ideas from Stockhausen's essays. Most of Dahlhaus's citations refer to Karl-

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 260 Marcus Zagorski

tion of his influence upo

two stem from Stockhau
zur Form-Genese."45 In
arise through a mixture
ery. "Erfindung" is a pro
and finding solutions to
of the 1950s as a series o
with nearly twenty page
hand, is a process of expe
and good composition wa
and "Entdeckung" were d
own writings about post
that fueled the process o
description of a "problem
of "Entdeckung" as exper
historian's claim that the
of the period.
By providing examples from his compositions to support his understanding of
them as solutions to compositional problems, Stockhausen invited readers to inter-
pret his pieces as answers to specific musical questions; the implication is that we
can better understand those answers when we know the questions by which they
were guided. A similar approach to interpretation can be found in another source
from this time, one that Stockhausen probably had not read but that Dahlhaus cer-
tainly knew well: Hans-Georg Gadamer' s Wahrheit und Methode , first published in
1960, roughly the same time as Stockhausen's essay and Kuhn's book. Hepokoski
examined Gadamer' s influence upon Dahlhaus in detail and, although he does not
mention the "problem-history" of postwar music, he did find a similar relation-
ship between problem and solution in Dahlhaus 's writings on nineteenth-century
music.46 Both Dahlhaus and Gadamer were influenced by the question-and-answer
model put forth by the philosopher Robin George Collingwood, according to Hep-
okoski, which holds that propositions can be understood differently according to the
questions they are meant to answer. When this idea was alloyed with Stockhausen's
writings and applied to postwar music, it led Dahlhaus to postulate a seismic shift
in the history of aesthetics: the turn away from the idea of a closed musical work in
favor of a "work-in-progress."

heinz Stockhausen, "Erfindung und Entdeckung: Ein Beitrag zur Form-Genese," in Stockhausen,
Texte I, 222-58.
44 This is likely due to the fact that most of the literature about Dahlhaus has examined his writings
on nineteenth-century music.
45 See Stockhausen, "Erfindung und Entdeckung," 222-58. It is probably no coincidence that among
the many references to Stockhausen in the Dahlhaus Gesammelte Schriften , Dahlhaus refers to this
Stockhausen essay most frequently.
46 See Hepokoski, "The Dahlhaus Project," esp. 231-34.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 261

The "work-in-progress" is the third component of Dahlhaus's ca

periment, and he understood it to be the counter-concept to the n
ideal of a closed musical work.47 It could be seen as direct co
"problem-history" of composition: when new compositions becom
marily as solutions to problems posed by earlier compositions, n
can be considered a closed whole; rather, it is one part of a larger
tions. Like the "problem-history," the idea of a "work-in-progres
least in part, by the writings of Stockhausen and other postwar
essays from the early 1950s, for example, Stockhausen argued for
turn a prior ideal of a closed, perfected work in favor of somethin
as a small part of an ongoing problem-history of composition.48
whether our generation will be in a position to create great, per
wrote, "but whether we are conscious of the specific historical ta
called."49 The fact that Stockhausen saw himself and his generat
to a specific historical task shows the extent to which the idea of
spirit affected some composers' thought and work at the time. Lig
ilar statements later in that decade: in his well-known essay on Bo
he described composing as a kind of research and experimentation
the claim to produce great works, and he argued that all compose
an attitude if they hoped to effect progress.50
Following this turn away from an older work concept, the conc
iment, and the resulting picture of compositional history as a ser
be solved, were seen to be the authorities that determined aesthet
however, hardly the first critique of an idea essential to nineteent
sic.51 It is more accurate to say that the concept of the experiment, w
idea of a "work-in-progress," represented one point in a series o

47 See Dahlhaus, "Die Krise," 83-94 for an extended discussion. Dahlhaus also m
progress in numerous other essays on postwar music, including "Plea for a
and "A Rejection of Material Thinking."
48 See Karlheinz Stockhausen, "Arbeitsbericht 1952/53: Orientierung," and "Zur
(Klangkomposition)," in Texte I, 32-38 and 45-61, respectively.
49 "Es geht nicht darum, ob es unserer Generation vergönnt sein wird, die
Werke zu schaffen, sondern darum, ob wir der eigenen historischen Aufgabe
[uns] bewußt sind." Stockhausen, "Zur Situation des Metiers," 59.
50 "Damit verliert die Komposition ihr Wesen als 'Kunstwerk': das Komponie
Erforschen der neugeahnten Zusammenhänge des Materials. Diese Attitud
als eine negative, 'unkünstlerische' erscheinen- doch hat der heutige Komp
Weg, wenn er wirklich weiterkommen will. Ein so grundsätzliches Experimen
Boulez die Structure la." See György Ligeti, "Pierre Boulez: Entscheidung u
Structure Ia," Die Reihe 4 (1958): 62-63.
51 Kurt Weill and Paul Hindemith, for example, adopted the term "Gebrauchsm
differentiate their work from the tradition of autonomous music, and the co
itself was historicized at this time by the musicologist Heinrich Besseler. For
see Stephen Hinton, "Germany, 1918-45," in Modern Times : From World War

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 262 Marcus Zagorski

conceptof the musical w

Stockhausen and other
autonomy, for example,
argued "work-i that the
for it suggests that ind
solutions to technical pr
"work-in-progress," and
progress" as an importa
therefore able to keep a
In fact, all three compo
thetic and correspondin
composition, and the id
allowed Dahlhaus to ke
seen as an example of
concern: writing history
secondary.53 In these r
work on nineteenth-cen
to be the most appropri
Given the diversity of mu
perspective. It should b
the experiment in an ess
to argue that, although
for serial and post-seria
sequent decades, and thi
words, there is evidence
concepts. If he neverth
limitations, it is worth as
considered outdated.
* * *

Robert P. Morgan (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1993), 83-110. Additionally

of the historical avant-garde movements, such as Zürich Dada, was to create
posed to the concept of aesthetic autonomy.
52 Lydia Goehr, who examines a number of challenges to the work concept, se
Stockhausen' s critique of this concept. The problem-history of composition wa
hausers theoretical writings, but Goehr seems to think it applies to the perfor
work in this case. See Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: A
losophy of Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 263. See also Zago
History," 301.
53 Hepokoski, "Dahlhaus Project," 234-35; see also Carl Dahlhaus, Foundations of M
J. B. Robinson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 129.
54 Dahlhaus, Foundations, 32-33. One could argue that the division between w
that Dahlhaus thought justified his focus on autonomy for nineteenth-centu
more pronounced for much music after 1945.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Carl Dahlhaus and the Aesthetics of the Experiment 263

All components in the category of the experiment lend themselv

of history, especially if one chooses to write history in a way th
in compositional technique of primary importance. Dahlhaus plac
nents at the center of his account of postwar music because of the
potential, but also because the focus on technique must have seem
for a repertory in which the greatest concern was the reinventio
guage-the reinvention of technique itself. The category of the ex
abled Dahlhaus to link the new music composed by his contem
Germany to a larger tradition of German philosophy and aesthetic
favor German intellectual history, he did not openly assert the pri
tradition, nor could he do so given the history of the country in
1950; rather, his focus on German culture might be seen as an eff
that which had been abused and damaged by the National Socialis
crimes and brutality he had witnessed firsthand.55
Dahlhaus' s concern to find a kind of criticism that is (arguabl
his topic is worth retaining, as are his methodological awareness
ethos, all of which can be seen in the writings on postwar music
to say nothing of his other work. These qualities are worth keep
as correctives to any scholarship that would rush to preformed c
as the "vulgar Marxism" that dominated the universities of Dahlh
such cases, some scholars seem to know what they will find befo
and regardless of what they are looking at; or it seems at least t
always subject their methods and conclusions to extensive critica
critique is never outdated, even in periods when it may be unfash
other aspects of Dahlhaus's writing, nevertheless, that rub agains
the present day. His work might be brought more compellingly in
more space were given to that which remains outside the exclusi
thetic autonomy. Were he alive today, one suspects that he would
frequently to the charge that the social relations and biographical
central to musicology remain at the periphery of his work.57 For s
category of the experiment seems limited as an account of postwa
ter 1945 is remarkable for its pluralism, its blurring of the distinc
and low culture, and for the use of non-Western and non-autono
Current scholarship on the period often looks beyond technique in

55 Stephen Hinton mentions Dahlhaus's childhood during the Nazi period and
engagement with Beethoven, Wagner, and Schoenberg could be interpreted as
them from the Nazi appraisal of their work; see Hinton, "Biographie und Met
56 Dahlhaus's reaction to Marxism and "vulgar Marxism" in German universi
1970s is a central theme in Hepokoski's "Dahlhaus Project."
57 For a more detailed consideration of the role of autonomy and biography in r
work and the work of contemporary scholars such as Richard Taruskin, La
others, see Hinton, "Biographie und Methode"; the comparison with Taruskin
page 43.

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
264 Marcus Zagorski

derstand these charact

adequately explain such
about the crisis of the
today might
s consider
ings on this, and any
stimulate questions rat
likely continue to pro
past. The reception of
more about Dahlhaus a
terests of our own time.

58 See Danuser, "Wie schre

This content downloaded from

186.217.251.140 on Sun, 25 Oct 2020 03:28:57 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms