The Trial of Adorno

"I really must protest, your honour. Digging up my corpse in order to make me stand trial smacks of a medieval attitude towards ideas. The last time this happened was when a Catholic group of heretics reclaimed the body of a dead pope..."

"Mr Adorno, since when did you object to heretical behaviour? You are here to answer the accusation that, through your work, you established an idea of the avant-garde that subscribed to a traditional discourse of art, and privileged the Western Classical Canon. Plus, you were a bit of a racist."

"Objection. Adorno's dislike of jazz and popular music was based on an anxiety that they pandered to audiences, not that they were rooted in any particular racial community."

"Can you explain his rejection of Charlie Parker or Miles Davies without at least wondering why he failed to notice their commitment to rigorous experimentation?"

"If I may speak for myself. You are presenting me with this Mr Goodiepal as an example of how my own enthusiasm for the composition of Stravinsky failed to acknowledge the future possibilities of experimental music. 

Goodiepal's definition of his role - he is an academic and writer, a composer and a philosopher - undeniably fits in with my vision of the erudite musician. That he works in an area that happened after my death hardly negates my position. Could I have been expected to predict the growth of electro-acoustic music? I popped off before Kraftwerk formed."

"But did you not champion the atonal outbursts of the serialists?"

"I am a Marxist. Wouldn't you expect me to like a musical scale in which all notes are equal?"

"But by using electronics, Goodiepal engages with the technology that dominates our lives. By, shall we say, dancing with it, he suggests an alternative practice for us to live with the machines that are becoming our soulless overlords?"

"His altruism is immense. He gave away his goods, and cash. That is not composition, it's conceptual art. And it protects the capitalism model of charity. He is taking cues from Jesus, that old conservative, not Marx. He's the heretic here."

"By defining heresy, Mr Adorno, you recognise your position as the orthodoxy. And that is what we are here to prosecute."

"I wish you'd stop putting words in my mouth."

"Well, until I get access to the University library, don't expect much in the way of footnotes. I'm doing this from memory."

Marxist Aesthetic Funnies

Adorno takes in a bit of Techtonics

"I fucking love Techtonics," Adorno grins. For a man only recalled to a farcical half-life through secret critical rituals, he seems strangely exuberant. "That is what it is about: artists exploring the western tradition, and finding their own voice that challenge the audience."

Of course, Adorno is being selective. During the Saturday evening performance by Thurston Moore and Dylan Nyoukis, he repeated snarled that this was "a facsimile of improvisation," accusing Moore of trading on the same guitar sound that he had developed all those years ago "when Sonic Youth were still a vital, underground proposition."

In truth, he never forgave Sonic Youth for appearing on The South Bank Show. "Lord Bragg? There's an artistic sell-out, preaching a leftist bohemian philosophy while accepting titles from the state. Let's hear it for revolutionary art, eh Melvin?"

Being an undead ghoul hasn't diminished Adorno's enthusiasm for contemporary classical music. He finds the compositions of Georg Fredrich Hass especially enchanting, since he recognises both a considerable skill in working the microtonal and a resistance to the more erudite streams of serialism.

"I am worried that you got that off Wikipedia," I say. He grins again, baring his teeth, stained with the blood he must sup to survive.

"He makes spectral music, which is bound to appeal to the undead." He sniggers. "There is a spectre haunting Europe, and it is me..."

Old Marxists never die, they just become outdated.

Objections to Collage...

You Suffer: but why? Witkin on Adorno (page 185)

Scenes from the battle against the Spectacle....

Theology and Marxism

'Good morning and welcome to Mini-Marxism with Gareth K Vile. Today we have Theodor Adorno on the couch, I mean the sofa, and we are going to be talking about Martin O'Connor's Theology. Good morning, Theo!'

'Good morning, Gareth. I think you have a few questions about how my theories can be used as critical tools?'

'Indeed I do. I hope that you don't feel that I am dismantling your systematic analysis of culture into a series of hammers and screwdrivers to fix up my paltry critiques of performance?'

'You so are, sister. You can't resist misrepresenting me due to your false consciousness.'

'Moving on... I have been pondering Martin O'Connor's Theology. Now, I have to admit that I am a fan of his work. His skill at manipulating language  - using Glaswegian slang as a poetic dialect - and compassionate attitude to this rough old city deserves respect. Beside this, having a crack at the role of religion in contemporary life is genuinely bold. He could have got excommunicated for cheeking the Catholic Church.'

'Or got a kicking off the Rangers fans. It shows how religion has become a control mechanism, than even an even-tempered, careful and witty take on the Mass could lead to spiritual isolation and physical violence.'

'Apart from a few complaints about the homily - it felt a bit sketchy - I loved part 1 of Theology. The choir has a real Gregorian dourness, which makes the lyrics all the funnier. And the dwindling of religious meaning expressed in the call and response is framed eloquently by the imitation of a recognisable ritual structure.'

'Clearly, O'Connor identifies how religious belief, rather than being an inspiration, has become commodified. Throughout, O'Connor expresses an alienation from his childhood faith, and struggles to make sense of the
traces it has left in his philosophy of life.'

'Part 2 is a more complicated experience, however. He goes through some of his classic poems - it is like his greatest hits - set to a soundscape. It's called Govan of the Mind and exposes the frustration - the alienation if you will - of Govan and its residents. It reminds me of slam poetry, O'Connor spitting out lyrics like a rapper.'

'It sounds rather like those nostalgia tours bands do, when they do their new stuff, and a favourite album in full. A mix of past glories and classic tracks. I detect a certain commodification of O'Connor's poetry, here: repackaged and recognisable.'

'It is brilliant, but mainly because O'Connor drops the science at a fair rate. It is a marvellous performance, and the soundscape is deliciously disorientating. It lends his words a new, almost sinister atmosphere.'

'Ah, I see your problem... you are disqualified from critiquing by your own rules! He is infringing on your own art, the post-visual theatre!'

'That is one reason why I invited you along today, Theo. Also, I'd like to say that I set O'Connor's poetry to music ages ago, on the Radio Hour.'

'I don't think you can claim to have invented sound collage. However, I think I see your problem. In part 1, O'Connor offers his audience a critical discussion of religion - especially Catholic - that is ambiguous enough to allow the Christian and the atheist enough to interpret it on their own terms. It is passionate and precise, but is an 'open' performance, provoking discussion.'

'The appreciation of an audience whose sociation and life-world projects resonate with the aesthetic project of the artist, and who can achieve a degree of self-understanding through art, you  might say.'

'I think perhaps Robert Witkin would put it like that. On page 75.'

'Part 1 makes a community of performers and audience, then? They share the experience. The use of the Mass is a pretty smart move. The very structure of the work echoes the theme.'

'Even if O'Connor is anxious about the nature of religion's influence, he recognises it as a binding force.'

'I like part 2 in itself, but had problems with it in relation to part 1.'

'Perhaps you'd care to cut and paste a touch more of Witkin?'

'The enthusiastic appreciation by an audience for whom no such connection exists between the artist's aesthetic projects and their own, and who surrender to the implosive effects of art upon a de-sociated (reified) consciousness?'

'Good boy. Now look up reified...'

'In other words, I am not so connected to O'Connor's vision of Govan? Then it is my fault?'

'Not entirely. The artist can make dramaturgical choices to include his audience, and not just impress them with his skills. Like he did in part 1. '

'But artist and critic do make meaning together - so this is partially my problem?'

'Ah, I am a modernist, my friend. Not a conversation for Mini-Marxism but Peeking at Post-Modernism (with Michel Foucault).