Abstract

The musical and critical experience of Edward W. Said is strongly connected to his political point of view. We can surely say that all the fundamental terms of his aesthetical thought derive from the musical language: “counterpoint” is a word that alegorizes the coexistence between different people, with the result of an inclusive new humanism. To explain his ideas about the cultural situation of the music, Said’s view is influenced by Adorno’s essays and elects the experience of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould as a symbol of a possible resistance to the consumer society. This essay underlines the conceptual ground of this political and critical proposal.