SCHÖNBERG, PIERROT LUNAIRE AND ADORNO

Abstract

The present article intends to analyze the musical production of the composer Arnold Schönberg, particularly his Pierrot lunaire, op.21, from 1912, using the philosophy and aesthetic theory of the philosopher Theodor Adorno. They both were composers and musical theorists, Schönberg having had a great influence on Adorno – who wrote a great deal about his work and regarded it in the highest praise –, particularly in his musical writings and the Aesthetic theory. We do not aim to show the entire influence and connection between Schönberg and Adorno, but only some aspects based on the referenced bibliography, highlighting Adorno’s analysis on the social division of labor in capitalist society and how Schönberg’s music subverts it and place the listeners in an active relation. For this purpose, we saw as necessary to do an overview of the great transformations in the history of music contemporary to the viennese composer, from his precursors in the development of atonal language in the later half of the XIX century to the work of Schönberg himself and his pupils in the XX century.