ABSTRACT
Dr Burney certainly puts musical grumblers and croakers in excellent company. One of the most resounding attacks came from Theodor Adorno, a German writer on music of wide international reputation, and a teacher of philosophy and music-sociology at Frankfurt University. In order to put things in the right perspective, it’s perhaps as well to add that over many decades, surprising though it may sound, Adorno has been one of the staunchest supporters of everything advanced in contemporary music. The anxiety motif has grown to proportions that its direct transposition into the language of art is no longer bearable; afraid of being afraid, modern music is allowing itself to grow old. The contemporary confusion in the field of music and the arts is rather what one would expect from a social body deep in ferment and teeming with creative energy.
