Abstract

In the context of his thoughts on the relationship between music and time in his Musical Writings, Adorno refers often to the above quoted thesis. This paradoxicality, attributed to particular symphonies of Beethoven, tends to become a fixed idea in the context of his thoughts on musical time. Adorno adopts Hegel’s understanding of time as process of permanent overcoming of instants. He finds an analogy between instant and musical motive, based on the common, in Hegel’s and Beethoven’s systems, notion of the working-out of an idea and of a musical structure respectively. He then tries to include in the process of becoming extended and reappearing formal parts, such as themes and expositions. How could he find a convergence between permanent formal growth andpersistence of formal parts, which distinguishes a musical work from an improvisation? In order to transcend this immanent antinomy, he applies Hegelian logical principles.