Ernst Bloch-The Spirit of Utopia-Stanford University Press (2000)

8/21/2019 Ernst Bloch-The Spirit of Utopia-Stanford University Press (2000)

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PHILHY

"When ts book was rst publshed, t had a pofound effect on majotinkes and atss n Wema Germany. A poetica phlosopcal ease

wth unusua nsgts ino cultue and poitcal commentary, Bloch's bookad te goundwok for hnkes lke Adorno an Benamn, who may

have dsageed w hm bu were stongy nuenced by hs wokThe Spirit of Utopia pays a signican oe in the isoy of

Geman socal, poltcal and cultual nkng

- Jack Zpes, Unesty of Mnnesota

I am W areThat is enough Now we have to start.

Tese are the openng words of Enst Bloch's s major wok, he Spirit ofUtopia, wrien mosly in 1956, pubsed in its rst veson ust after e Frstord ar, repubised ve yeas laer, 923, in te vesIon ere presened for hest me n Englsh anslaton

The Spirit of Utopia s one of the geat hstoric books from e begnnng of the

cenury, but s no an obsolee one n is sye of thnking, a pecula amagamof bibcal, Marxst, and xpessonst turns, n ts analytcal skills deepy infomedby Simmel, takng ts nfomaon fom both Hegel and Scopenhauer fo tegroundwork of its meapysics of music but consstently ntepeting te cultualegacy n e lg of a cean Maxsm, Blochs The Spirit o Utopia s a unqueatempt o enk te isoy of Western cviizations as a pocess of revoutionaydsupons and o reead e atworks, regions, and phlosopies of tis adonas ncentives o connue disupting

The allance between messianism and Marxism, whc was proclamed n thsbook for te s tme wi epc beadth, has me wit moe critque an acclame expessve and baroque dction of e book was consdered as offensve as isstubbon dsrgad for te lms of dscpnes. Ye tee s ardy a dscplnethat ddn't adopt, oweve unknowngly, some of Blocs nsighs, and is pro

vocative associations ofen proved more producve than te saisca accountof socal shfts

I am W are hats hardy anythng.

Bu enoug to start

MERDN: CROSSNG ASTHETS

Ernst Bloch (I88S-977) was one ofthe great philosophers and political intellectuls o twentieth-century Germn

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MERD

Werner Hamacher

& David E. Wellbery

! Edior


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A A N

SanrdUnivrsi

Prss

Sanrd

Calrnia


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H R F UA

Ernst Bloch


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Assistance for the tranlation has ben providedby Inter Nationes, Bonn.

T p Up follows the second editionof the original German text, pubished in 1964 as

G Up: Bb Njgdzw Fg v 92© dieser Fassung Suhrkamp Verlag Frankrt am Main 1964

Stanford University PressStanford, Caliornia

© 2000 by the Board of Trustees of theLeland Stanford Junior University

Printed in the United States of America

elP data are at the end of the book


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I Evg E B-v S J


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C

Objective (9 9)

§ THE SE-EUTE

A Old �itcher

The Poduction of the Onament

The Philosophy of MusicDream 4 On the History of Music 4On the Teory of Music 94 The Mystery

The Shape of the Inconstuable Question

On the Met aph ysics of Our Darkness, of the

No-LongerConsious, th'NotYetConscious,

and the Inconst ruabe WeProbem

§ KA MAX, DEATH, AD THE AAYSE

The Lower Life The Socialist Idea 4The True deo og y of the King d om 4The Countenance of the W ill

aor No

In oNam

7

10

34

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BJETE (1918, 19 3)

I am. We are. That is enough. Now we have to begin. Lfe has been put in our hands.

For itself it became empty already long ago. It pitches senselessly back

and forth, but we stand rm, and so we want to be its nitiatve and we wan to be its ends.hat just was wll probably soon be forgotten. Only an empty, awful

memory hangs n the air. ho was defended? Foul, wretched proteers.What was young had to fall, was forced to die for ends so alien and nimical to the spirit, but the despcable ones were saved, and now they stthere in her comfortable drawing roo. Not one of them was lost, butthose who waved other gs, so muc bloom, so much dream, so muchhope for the spirit, are dead. Th< artists defended the middlemen andkept the home front warm for the nstgators. There has never been amore dismal miltary objective than Imperal Germany's: a suocatngcoercon mposed by mediocrties and tolerated by mediocrities; a trumph of stupidity, guarded by the gendarme, acclaimed by the intellectuals who did not have enough brains to provide slogans.

So of course t has remained, even up to today, as though we had not

bee burned badly enough. The War ended, the Revoluton began, andaong with the Revolution, doors opened. But of course, they soon shut.The black marketeer moved, sat back down, and everythng obsoletedrifted back into place The proteering farmer, the mighty and bour truly put out the re in places, and the panickedpi bouroi helps


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2 Objciv

to enfeebe and encust as aways Nonpoletaian youth itself is moecoase and stupid than youth has eve been; the univesities have tuly be-

come the spiit's buia mounds led with the stink of couption andimmovabe goom. So those who appaenty have been estoed completely eenact what the eaction of a centuy ago auditioned: the slogansabout native soil the taditionalism of rn and that obivious Romanticism that fogot the Peasants Wa and saw ony knights' castles ising into enchanted moonlit nights Once again pedictaby the wite

helps to apply the bake; indeed Expessionism's fome votaiesincineating what they had just ecently exatedush to help incompetent it

eay homesteades patch togethe misepesentations fom the tastefuluins of the past in ode to ba the way fo the vitally fomative consciousness of the tue of the city of the collective; in ode to tansfom potees' lies into ideoogy; in ode to make thei amentabe hygienethei douby imitative Romanticism absolute Meanwhile the West withits milions of poletaians has not yet spoken; meanwhie thee is a Maxist epubic in Russia; meanwhie the etena questions of ou sous of ou

eigious conscience stil bun undiminished unbowed thei absoutecaims unedeemed. Moe than that: we have at least eaned fom thesame outook on eality that came a centuy ago Max thooughy pui-ed sociaist ogic of a simple false disengaged and abstact enthusiasmmee Jacobinism and we wil cetainly not foget the spiit of Kant andBaade above a wheeas the Romanticism of the latest e-action has inheited absolutey nothing ea is neithe objective no en-thusiastic no univesalistic but simply stupid isoated without spiitand without Cist in its pathos of the autochthonous" capabe only ofeiciting the decline of Westen Civilization into animaistic insensibiityand ieligious obliteation faded bud faded bossom and fo today justa civiized enevation a age eet and meely the pessimstic egistationof the continuing passage of histoy as the only goa but fo Euope onyimminent etenal death

This is how bad things coud had to get with us Cetainly : would

sing fo QY suppe But this dance aound the golden cal bette the cafskn with nothing undeneath this still came as a supise It means we have no idea of socialism Instead we have become the pooest of vete-bates; whoeve among us does not woship his bely woships the state;eveything else has sunk to the level of a joke of entetainment We haveonging nd bief knowledge but little deed andwhich aso explains


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ths lackno breadth, no outlook, no ends, no nner threshold, pr�sentently crossed, no kernel, and at the center no gatherng conscence of theAbsolute.2 Here, however, n ths book, a new begnng s posted, andthe unlost hertage takes possesson of tself that glow deep nsde, overthere, s no cowardy as f, no pontless commentary rather, what rsesabove all the masquerades and the expred cvlzatons s the one, the eter-nal goal, the one presentment, the one conscence, the one salvaton rsesfrom our hearts, unbroken n spte of everythng, from the deepest part,that s, the realest part of our wang dreams that s, from the last thngremanng to us, the only thng worthy to reman. Ths book oers an n

troducton to our gure, our blossomng gatherng t already begns torng out through our nterpretaton of a smple ptcher then as the latent theme of all the plastc arts, though t s really central to al themagc of musc then, nally, n the ultmate selfencounter, n the com-

prehended darkness of the lved moment, as ths one thng leaps up and hears tself n the nconstruable, absolute queston, th problem of the Wen tself. Ths s as far as the path can at rst go, namely toward what we cal a selfencounter,the preparaton of the nner word, wthout

whch every gaze outward remans empy, nstead of beng the magnet,the force that draws forth the nner word and helps t break through thefalseness of ths world. In the end, however, ths vertcalmovement may a new expanse appear, the of the soul, the ncton of utopa, mantaned aganst msery, death, the husk-ream of mere physcal nature. Only n us does ths lght stll burn, and weare begnnng a fantastc journey toward t, a journey toward the nter

pretaton of our wakng dream, toward the mplementaton of the centralconcept of utopa. To nd t, to nd the rght thng, for whch t s worthy to lve, to be organzed, and to have tme that s why we go, why wecut new, metaphyscally consttuve paths, summon what s not, buldnto the blue, and buld ourselves nto the blue, and there seek the true,the real, where the merely factual dsappears .


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The SeEncouner

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A Old Pitcher

To Nar !

I a by my slf)That I mov, that I spak: is not thr. Only immdiatly arward

can I hold it up in front of m Ourslvs within whil w liv, w donot s it; w trickl away What rally happnd thr, thn, what w rally wr thr rss to coincid with what w can rally xprinc2 Itis not what on is and crtainly not what on mans.

Slght Bnath

I want to occupy my sl howvr.

Yt, Ia

still bnath th glass from which I drink Insofar as I movit, and nally carry it to my mouth I a abov it th glass srvs m. ButI do not kp myslf in such immaculat plac as th glass which I at last s compltly Whil I stand so nar to mysl whthr I amdrinking or not, that I hav always just bn xprincd, not yt sn.

HE ASS AD THE THE

I am by th pitchr. Thus it lads insid, stands bfor th wall in th

oom3 Th wall is grn, th mirror is goldn th window is black thlamp burns brightly But th pitchr is not simply warm lt alon so inisputably bautiful as othr n old artifacts

Such pitchrs ar now oftn imitatd. Thr is no harm in that buthr ar pniv "bardd man pitchr, bautilly prsrvd, dlib-

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8 he SeEnconter

eate scupted ad eabate uted, with aw ecks, a eat cied head the eck ad a headic shied the be, ad the veshadw

the simpe pitche h ves the pitche, hweve, kws hw supecia the expesive pitches ae, ad pees the cums, bw impemet, with amst eck, a wid ma's beaded ace, ad a sigicat, saishaped sa embem the cuvatue

The cme mai m the RhieFacia aea Pehaps the aeeve Rma at east the ca which the ae ed emids e iexpesive Rma pieces The as ech the Itaic sese m, i muchme muscua, eve sdie, ad the Ndic, caseed Ad s the wadeed m the taverna it the pubic huses the Gema Impei cities, whee w the sta, ed with wie, the sheves ageve wa; hee ad thee, ames such as e sees i Teie's paitigs,

with bad ses, sti wap thei hads aud them S the had tdisappea, as evethig hadcaed has disappeaed What e msttices is the beaded wid ma the be this sid, Nthe atiact With him, a stage thead weaves back t us F the dead ae

thist ad wea, ad the itte pitche buied with them s us dEsewhee, hweve, wid me keep ew pitches, magica pitches ed with the wate ie4 Oe usua meets them e hisides, adeve w, mst i Lw Gema aeas, such paces ae sti diseputabcaed Nbiskug," ad the i the dead is suppsed t ie cse b5The me ted a hed t a m Uds we m which the gde wate ws, ad dubt the diect the sus the dead s that the wit miss the wa hme6 Hece the wid ma hdig a upted pietee i his ha ca sti be see sigs utside is, ad simia,

he kws ad guads the secets the etea teasue, cis ad pa pe cuec Mst e, hweve, e sees him i aegica m, beaig the cats ams Lw Gema as we as Pussia biit Hee,

hweve, u pitche, the beaded aspect the est spiit sti peesut at us; the dak, mist, pimdia ests have sudde daw veea, ad this gigatic t's head adiates his auish, amuetike, a

chemica image The spek t us, these d pitches, m a ime whethe sa the geaed hae cud sti be see dacig with the ema Hessia eds bee ight, ad the peseve the d thigs,ike ames: itea

It is had t d ut what it ks ike iside the dak, spcius be these pitches Oe wud dubt ike t ccup that space he


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h SEncontr 9

Te endess curious cidren's quesion rises gin For e picer iscose kin o e cidike And ddiiony ere e inerior goes onge picer ods nd s is mesure Bu ony e sense of sme cn sideduce rer n perceive is fin rom of ongforgoen bevergesAnd ye woever ooks ong enug e picer soon begins o crry iscoor nd form wi im No every pudde I sep in mkes me gry no

every rirod rck bends me round corner Bu I coud probby beformed ike e picer see mysef s someig brown someing pecuiry orgnic some Nordic mpor nd no jus mimeicy or simpyempeicy bu so I us become for my pr ricer more pre

sen cuived rer owrd mysef by is rifc pricipes inme T is rue of ings ve grown nd ere in drinking picers e peope bored o express eir pesure nd eir deepesense of conenmen o fx emseves o ese impemens of e ouseod nd e pubic ouse Everying ws ever mde in is wy ou of ove nd necessiy eds ife of is own eds ino srngenew erriory nd reurns wi us formed s we coud no be in ifedorned wi cerin owever wek sign e se of our se Here ooone fees onesef ooking down ong suni corridor wi door efr end s in work of r Te picer is no one i s noing of e

work of r bou i bu work of r soud es be ike is in orderrey o be one nd one woud ceriny redy be o


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The Production of the Ornament

THE DAWG

We, however, start from the begiigWe are poor, we have ueared how to play We have forgotte it, our

hads have ueared how to dabble

This is aso more or ess how t was smoothed Al aroud us it ooksas though o oe had ever kow a cra ad bee capabe of passig itdow. But i retur, we pait ike savages agai, i the best sese, i thesese of the primordial, the restless ucocered cocered For this ismore or ess how the mask was carved This is more or ess how primitivema shaped his fetishes, if oly the simpe eed to express oesef shoudagai be the same. Thus the two ceary ad immediatey separate, which

helps us forces us, to realy kil the cod machiery, so oe ca see whatstil remais to be geerousy warmed up agai

TECHGCA CD

At rst, certaiy, amost everythig just looks back at us holowyHow could it be otherwise, ad where would a vita, beautifully made

implemet come from, ow that o oe ows livig i oe place to make his house warm ad sturdy?

Yet tat aoe is ot to bame for the lowier thigs Thei basis is otoly that the cliet has become ufamiliar or aoymous For if we cosider the probem of the ofce the i the worig ma, who oly uses his room i the eveig, to relx, to read or to receive mae guests ad ithe writer or scholar, as the bor occupat of the workroom ad library,

IO


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he Prodcton othe Oament I

conceivable in so o speak Fausian ems, we ae given a leas wo paal lel ses of nees, emans, an esign poblems Meanwhile wha hemake as well as evey esign oes, aleay anicipaing he mile class,emains ieeemably peeemine by he lowes common enominao, he socalle smoking oom One coul ceainly claim, heefoe,ha cusomes ae eay fo somehing ha he inaniy of he availableselecion canno povie I is accoingly no so much he consume buhe pouce who beas he blame fo all his ugly suffan no even healone; ahe, he machine which he opeaes also has his misey an his

pevasive esucion of he imaginaion on is consciencehis man

who has foce evey museum's applie a collecion o en wih he1840S•I knew, he machine, how o make eveyhing as lifeless an subhu

man on a small scale as ou newe uban evelopmens ae on a laescale Is eal objecive is he bahoom an he oile, hese mos inis

puable an oiginal accomplishmens of ou ime, s as Rococo niue an Gohic caheals epesen sucues ha ene evey ohe aobec of hei especive epochs Now vatoraominaes; somehow,

wae uns fom evey wal, an even he mos expensive poucs of ouages inusial iligence now paake of he wizay of moen saniaion, he a pror of he nishe inusial pouc

One shoul ceainly hink bs an economically fo a hile ll hemoe so as we no longe have a choice, fo he ol casmen will no eun n we woul ceainly no choose he new ones; he sigh of hemis so hoible ha nohing moe coul sill be gae ono hem Oen i

is pecisely he iies pett borgeos scounels, wih all he ba quaiiesof a Metand in ecline, geey, uplicious, unepenable, shameless,an sloppy, who as pouces of hanicafs now occupy he ole of hemase casmen Bu if his bale is aleay los, hen a so o speak humanly warm inusial moe of manufacue mus also fail Fo pogessan capialism have ill now consuce echnology, a leas in is inusial applicaion, solely fo puposes of fas unove an high pos, anceainly no, as is so oen clame, in oe o alleviae ou labo, le

alone impove he esuls We coul no say whee he aleviaion was inhe humming of he moen loom, in he nigh shi, in he eible ocion of is invaian oaions pe minue, in he pevenion of a humanbings plasue in wok who has only pieces o wok on an neve a any poin xpiens he oy of seeing he whole, nishe poucwe


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2 h Prodcon oth Oamnt

uld nt kn hat th alviatin as lt aln th impvmnt incmpaisn t th d m cmftab md f manufactu (h a

hus and th nt fa aay a kshp) f a smal quantum f hnstly mad atl as nty dint in th ds a human-istic tchnlgy ud hav t cm and nt f pt and ud havt b invntd f ntiy dint f puly nctinal nds ithutany amatuishnss in th pductin f cmmditis in th pacmnt f gds nc mad ith atistic intntin: if if is t cm butth imit as l th tansfmatin f th mchanica spiits functinafm th appaanc f f puly xpssiv c and llnss ibatd

fm adnmnt fm th d luxuy. l hn t th ndustia Rv-utin bu vything it bught hich is nt puy svicabl andnctonal (such as th lcmtiv th st facty) al th statc junk hich it vmitd up as placmnts il b packd aay n mningand th xpitativ cultualy uinus mans by hich ths placmnts pducd ill b put int th sam pculia musum as thcannn in d t cai th alusins in ctain ancint sagas gain

must suly think b, industiay f in this bathss pac in thisaccatin disquit and xpansin f u sph f activity gat spiitua and intllctu ks a latnt But as fa as tchngy gs thatappis ny t th achin as a functinal alviatin and nt t th factis cavn mass junk lt aln t th fightl dslatin f a total autmatin f th ld

hn f cus hn n isats it in this fashin th cd appliancn lng mains vyh pbmatic hn th il ctainly bpptunitis ·t tun against th machin in ang; h Max il b pvd ight against th syndicaists; h n bhaf f xpssin nalyfd fm til and styistic ncssity n can at last giv thanks t thimmvabl cld t th hv jylss cmft t svicabiity andnctinaity as th machins hnabl futu sl vcatn. Evn if thnd f gd tast th intndd bginning f pimitiv puly bjctivnctin ill nt ad us back int th asthticaly taditina gd ld

days nnthlss nsciusly nctinal tchnlgy can und ctaincnditins ad t a signicant mancipatin f art fm §tylizatinfm bslt styl and n th th hand fm ba nctinal fmF in th nd th achin is n m th dcisiv movns f a mnstustanfmatin f ivilizd visibiity than is th cnsum th p-duc ath th achin is likis just a link in a cha dcin lik


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h Pdcton oth Oamnt 1

hope e hee ely ju he counep o Sp n ee, endngeed,bu pehp o ecped no ge domn; he mchne' condon o

poby, well o pue ppcon, belong ulmey o he ph

oophy o hoy, cloely conneced o he condon o he poblyo n nuxuou xpeonm

UNCTNA AND EXPESSE EXUBEANCE

Ceny, peope e ledy vng hee nd hee on owe eve o e-cpe om he hdne, egebly ' ue goe obecong mu be mooh, ug cube ong neve So one e o ee hng

wh color: nohng my ju be ped on, nohng my be embellhed wh he me mngy o ulceou bomnon beoe, nd ye hbe ecney look hough wee bou o dppe, glzedbck y o concle u, plen v y o ppe hee nd hee, hecoy good e gnded Bu ll h hppen ey now, nd cenly no he gh end Depeed ol beng pned h wll bloompely l wl yed le moe hn one

Fo wh pecey emn doub whehe l c objec, echndvduly, luxuouly decoed, cn eve ppe ound u gn ven hey coulde evey ognc nmon o don h bokeno, e he oce wh whch he mchne nled el nd w conequenceeven ced objec, commody objec, c m- plemen could be poduced beully: h l hdly goe much be yond he beuy o bghy pned concee; eem h even heheoecl exeme, only he slstc mnmm podcly nble

h w dplyed by he ve me ch, po o ny ylcbeuy, nd whch, ccongly, l ppeed cenuy go, Bedemee no ccden h lmo none o ou mny obe nd unmg-nve dmen cn eve go ny he h h Concee cnno bee on e; hehy n n enely ohe ene, nd whou concee we

would hve no ubly moden houe. ven he puden mchne h cen, o p juble mbon o bbeve he pocee whch wee ehecy honoble pecey o he lbooune, o heh Rukn' enchnngly enmen docneogncy, he humnly ghtd expevy One cnno on he ohe hnd one ll gve wegh o uny o conceponone cnno pobly buld n x- peonc houe; would be mpoble o mke gh wndow, el-evo de elephone, nd he ene ecnguly hng wold o


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14 h Prodction oth Oamnt

functona forms excessvey ornamenta to break or outt them wthehmbruck's wth Archpenko's curves he ony pont of contact and

here agan an usory one s oered by the banquet ha the concert haand the theater partcuary where as wth Pzg the budng radatesonto the stage and nto the dscrete magc of ts usonsm; may thecupoa aso reman a permanenty dscrete structure aready a nk toacra archtectur Otherwse however the more recent art n spte of tstemporary Cubstc auxary forms s n no poston to redraw nctonadevces or budngs et aone decoratve to coak them; t woud contradct such art to reaze n emotona terms equpment whose vaue and

postuated essence conssts precsey n the mperceptbty the unemo-tona practce the purey uttaran objectves the happy obvous so-bret of the inssntial he greatest aesthetc attanment st possbe

wth the machne and wth the pure functona forms t has broughtas ong as not every devce has dsappeared and become purey nctonasocazabe equpments thus precsey the return to the Bedermeerthe stystc mnmum at the base and aer the expry of every stye But

even ths na remander whch aer a does not need to be ptit borgois or bucoc nonetheess as one can recognze represents somethngutmatey superuous an embem not set by the neat manner of the mechanca sprt. he achevement of new styes by nctona form thus becomes mpossbe; the constructons of engneers as we as the Bedermeer that may st abrupty expand them must avod the knd of constructona smarty whch the skyscraper attempts to dspay to the BsNmrud and the festve cnema fa


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he Prodcon othe Oament 15

other, n both of them vrbles of the sme exous So let us honestly get to work, n let lfe go only where t lone shoul t hs been stht n oppresse Russn pesnt woul hve to hve been snt n or

er to become ecent person t ll Or, followng Lukcs, tht moern rchtect woul nee t lest the tlent of Mchelngelo just n orer to esgn hnsomely sol tble One must , however, tht, lke chlren or frmers, neey mteur cte by the pressures of le, whose skll oes not compre to even the lest of the l msters,cn stll, n the strnge tmosphere of these tmes, crete nrtstc, unstylsh, but expressve n sgllry rtfcts tht hve nothng n com

mon wth the objets d'art of competent nteror ecorton or even soclle connosseurshp Ths s the wy tht Klee n Mrc wnte to pont out, n t s the sme goess who n crft grnts the nee, ntechnology tremenously successful llevton, n expresson sur

plus: sh of ery n engmtc sgns, suen convergence of everyro on n overgrown, nsgncnt se ro tht ecomes the mnro to humn progress Tht ws lrey the secret tenency, s the Renssnce begn to seculre style, tht let Krlstt, Svonrol, n he

other conoclsts rge n re up gnst euemonst rt: unscrmntng, but for resons of pure lght, forthrght expresson, the emolton of compromse, sprtul rectness My rt henceforth sty frfrom utlty, n renounce the lower vocton of tste, of the luxurousstylton of the lower lfe my great technqe omnte, n unburenng, cool, ngenous, emocrtc luxury" for ll, reconstructon ofths str the erth wth the gol of the bolton of poverty, elegton of

tol to mchnes, cetrlze utomton of the nessentl, n therebythe possblty of leness n my great epresson rule, movng ornmentton nto the epths gn n grntng pure sgns of unerstnng, pure ornments of resoluton to the sounng of our nner crebove the slence of the outer

Ths s the plce, fter th esthetc hs been secure emphtcllyenough gnst consons, compromses, n slppges nto the prctcl sphere, to cll ttenton to correlton wthn hstorcal hncr,

one lrey n ts tme rrttng to every utlty, stll ltent, slvgeble,ecely sprtul menng Of course even n ths nstnce, chr sstll only there n orer to be st on t smply refers to the person t restAn sttue s there n orer to be sen, or rthersnce t s just s nfferent to every other correlton slppng nto the lfe surrounng


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16 he Producon ofthe Oament

tt rests wth tsel tured toward ts ow glor. he shosoallembedded deree betwee aled ad ure hgh art s mmedateldeed b ths haged agle o vso b the observer's ow rotatoal

roess For everthg that s to be used everthg that remas oorad armhar that s oued b a dvdual present exereg

hmsel alls to the ategor o ra whereas reatos that elt the gae that rse u as etablature as a sulture extedg over us other words beome the armhar the shre or the bod o the hgherthe godl are oued solel b the dvdual exereg hmselsymbolical there ad hee belog to hgh art Ad beause rat ob

jets elll surroud us t was alwas desrable that the be omort-abl luxurous mata a elegat ereto ad wear stle as a o-et as muh o taste as o the delberate ostruto arorate to objets drt. It has alwas bee the haraterst o aled art that t arrestserta elemets o orametato ad ostruto rom the exressvemovemet that would overshoot t ad stables them as rhthm ormeasure just as the etre Greek mddle erod ad hal o the modeage that s the moder age o art lassall ramed b the Reassaead the Emre leavg asde the Baroque has aer all suled art as aagreeable but usrtual aomamet to le ot as the allag othe soul's eed ot as the osolator sog o dvdual exresso uoered wth beaut or ugless ot as the ortraal o the hgherstor o redemto brought dow to a huma level here s thus aowerul deree betwee tasteull aoted utoalt ad hghart: t s ot dmshed whe the subjet o osumto a lger

deret laes whe what the avaler emlos as a ratal objet a-ears to the easat as hgh art whe muh o what the Su Kgowed as the most exquste derees o hs ersoal absoluteess adreadl emhased as suh beame ad was see to beome hg art artmerel to be gaed uo as meagl tsel or later eras or whhthe soal the as t were alread ow theologall emhat ot o thedvdual has submerged hat we have to add here what s desve

s ths here s somethg about ad above the old har wh lves whh oes ot rema sml omortable ad lets us lok aross atsomethg more tha the erso who haes to be restg there. Trtium datur: there are Baroque armhars too sgat or ratal usethat make somethg ew out o the strage atttude out o the removedmask o to seak o sttg dow" somethg asuall setral abu


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he Producton othe Oament

los, th most makabl ln No long tast; no long dbat, la-boosly stylzd, atonomosly mmannt fom; ath what mgs hand xtnds nto a sph n whch stands only th ltmacy of

p atan mpsson fom f, ndd, an aady ndcatvly d-scptv foma sgn, a sal of th dpth and of th wakng dam pantd as f to copy th skn, and cavd as f to copy th sklton of a wath, a spt, nn g. In oth wods th pojct of Baoq n-sgna, now my lxos nstad of mystcal, was ony possb nas wh th thon commngld wth th alta, wh psons of statsald a blasphmos bond wth th mtaphyscal, wh sola kngs andth oly Roman mpos thologcal majsty mphaszd, godlk, annty dntly manngf onamntal at. If wth socalsm and -fomaton n o hats w dssolv ths bond n od to thnk th pastas wl as th psnt, w dstoy ths saclg whpon t mmd-atly bcoms cla that ul great hstorcal apped art ast of al sp

pots scla mpmnts and scla pposs as wthy, fda, tho-catc pontcal xy; ath t all th mowth ts xmplay bn-t fo Expsson not havng to os al achtctponts to a

sptal a pror of constcton, of achtct, to a mndanly slssconstcton fo th sak of a gat sal to anoth wold. A thd -mnt ths lvs btwn cha and stat, phaps vn abov th stata hghod appld at" n whch, nstad of a comfotabl, as t wstagnant capt, assmbd fom momnts of stabzaton, a ply lx-os capt fo s, a t capt xtnds, pontng byond, a capt of

p, abstact fom In ths oth knd of appld at," whos adapta-tn wold b, pcsly, Expssonstc, lna, aabsq onamnt ap- pas as a pd, manng pcsly as t capt and p fom, asth mo asly accompshd bt thby xmplay coctv to thtanscndnt fom, to th sal, to th ptd, mltdmnsonal, tan-scndng onamnt of cnt pantng, sclpt and achtct th s no long any dang that dynss, th Egyptan wod of stonthat nvthss mans pat of th constctonal ntnton, wl actExpsson's so complty dffnt sosnss, ts tntatvy xta-

mndan abstacton Rath, a nw xbanc wl appa, naly to gant th Baoq pofand by lxyvn, th backth ceremonal masks, th totems, th carved rooeams, th Gothc sacrstes- dc-sv sha n th mmbanc of mta psychologcal and nonthlssotwad onamnt


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18 he Production othe Oament

THE BACKGROUND OF THE ARTSTC VOLTON

We he nee elly wne nhing b o see oseles openly So we

he wys while since ely imes, woke in woo One i nonee o be skille whee impesse o eeply pine someone wsbnishe wih few sokes, o by js he ngiy of he woo2

B he wek esh cnno sie lone, n eches fo hsk Thshe oo ppee, which h o be hny n comfobe The in wssmoohe jggely, in ohe wos ncionly he cly esse ws neo be esily gippe he meil iself n is inene ncion lone sehe coniions This is picl wol, n i le s incesingly osie, fom he expession of somehing inw ow he sbjecielylien meil In he elies cings, o inne imensions sill inefee, mgniing he legs, he eyes ccoing o he imponce which we h gien hem, n he mgicl oliion pshing pw ley enhese msks o emoe conennce In cons, he elies, meillyconsisen ncion foms ee he ph fom hmn being o wh is hmn sone, scl cliy, in ohe wos somehing incipienly

Egypin n hen gin nl, foces iself ino he lbo of shpinghe Appeal othe Greek

Neeheless, his isic iliy, he only hing one ime , will nocese moing. So weings, piches begn o be coee in sipes ncheely ce ines, les so of spingy ecoie life spng pgin, plyfly geomeizing egliy Aboe ll, howee, hee p

pes, in y il emphy, ssing he fncionl popoions of heconscion he Greek syle, wose ces cn be fon eeyhee een whee hee ws no cl cll nsmission Of cose, he Geeksmile is sill socibe n esine n oes no ye ke p he inne lxince gins he sone inse i wns o be boh liing n sbe, empheic n symmeicl, pinely n chieconic once,hs becoming pe plsiciy" In is mphihees, Geek becomes

simpy hmonize lnscpe, in is empes simply n bne f


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he Production o the Oment 1

so elastc onc cushon s stll lad between the column and the entab- lature But also: ovolo and meander extend ther strcter lne through tall ther as t were norganc character and the sprt o the stone tr

umphs at the very least as symmetry as a harmless nely decoratve sorto geometry On the one hand then Greek orm has such le that Pyg-malon can desre t as hs beloved such that the orm s nderent to whether t s ashoned n vory slver bronze clay mable or even esh.On the other hand however the gure s here so well balanced agan soll o euphroyne and measure that she meets the unty o the slab at least halay; or ths reason the ellenc tors rom whch has been brokeno that whch had to be broken o n accordance wth the sprt o themateral seem better than the orgnals The Venus de Mlo s rst per-ected as a torso; n contrast the damaged statue o Khere whch hadalready ceded everythng to the stone or or entrely derent reasonsnamely ts ullness o le ullness o expresson one o the Apostles statues at Rems that seems to have escaped ts matera em lke shards n

ther condton as tors and do not even permt the exraartstc elegacassocatons that runs do n short: Greece as well as the Renassance oc

cupy the same mpous eudaemonstc unserous and ndecsve place; what so grevously dsturbs us n the proound taannuenced Drerthe combnaton o creased olds angled outlnes wth rghtangled doorsand wals: that the Greek stye attaned by means o a most remarkable at-tenuaton o both ulness and angulart became rctonless a harmo-nous symmetry nte rem n ths way the Greeks escaped ashoned a

world or themselves where they could lve where at any moment theycould evade the terror o chaos but also the serousness o decson ereeverthng s muted n such an Apollonan mxture o the vegeta and thenert that the mld weather o mere beauty could appear a shapelyaade Perhaps only n the very dstant renement that rames the Ch-nese artsts naturally so much more dgressve decsve lelnes doesGreek ophroyne have a relatve as she composes hersel nto orm nto aawless cosmos For Chnese culture to whch wsdom n ts hghestorm appears as lovelness s also dscreet measured and aost and re

duced the ncandescence o ts early herocOrphc phase nto a luxurous bascally ust aesthetc style. ndeed a Greek element surve evennto the Chrstan Mddle Ages beneath all the Gothc ervor n theddle o the most pervasve transcendentalsm: or soon equally beaut-ul uves appeared and as arduous as the paths may be they nonetheless


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20 he Prodution othe Ornament

a come o a peasany fesive end; he congegaion comes a secue,auonomous, secuasaced pois he cahedas ofe Souh exce eachohe in cysaine acey, in owes wihou ues, in hei boad, a-

mos peasan hoizona; homism is emieny aesheic, baances he wod, and ony gives up he Heenic unisubsaniaiy f being, he con-iguousy inegaed, concenic ode, in ode o epace i whhe moedeighfu consuc of a heeogeneous hamony; and so he hisianeap is a oo oen, in he vaied achiecue of he ofcia idde Ages,ansfomed meey ino a ahe Cssica hieachy wihin a spiiua cosmos. Of couse, if we may eun o he Geek coumn and peisye ha

evesed he coonnade of he Egypian inne empe ino a mee show- piece: one canno evade seiousness, neihe in a no anywhee ese, andsince consucion above a dominaes boh funciona fom and he de-ibeae, syizing aisic voiion, Egypian imobiiy, as he dange ofunboken consucedness, awais evey sye" is imi, in he momentorisis when i sabiizes o comes o es.

he Eptian liion to Beome Like Stone

o as soon as we begin o buid, his sucua eguaiy eimposes iseNohing seems inscibed in pase as ievesiby as he powe o make is wods Egypian." And in us his way, even when ife weaky ues and wams he maeia, Egypian igo ies coninuousy nea o Geek mea-sue. his means consucion foms he tertium omparationis beweenfunciona fom, sye and Egyp, abei he deph of is eaion o heespecive ems diffes geay; in consucion a compee exenaiy

emeges, he ecuence of funciona fom, fom as such he absouespii of sone, an uimaey hosie geomey, guing objecivey asEpt as he oa dominance of inoganic naue ove ife Man aso sees his fuue hee, bu sees himsef dying, hides himsef in he gave edeah he aives in he undewod, he and whee he sun shines anigh, o a bes, if he judges nd his ife o have been viuous, eaches paadise, o ive wih he mudeed and ebon Osiis, Lod of he ead.

Nowhee howeve does he depaed, o his gaze ino he beyond, eavehis Qd; even whee such pofound gues as ba h¢soubid, o kahe pesona guadian spii o genius disany appea aways, a nameessfea of deah dominaes evey Egypian image and evey Egypian face,and no ohe means of escue bu he afmaion of deah and he sup- pession of he inne ife, he voiion o become ike sone. he famous


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he Pducto othe Oamet 21

pah ha eads pas rows of rams, sphnxes, or coumns o he hoy of hoes s ruy jus a gude and hus as were a purey pedagogca aar wha remans characersc, as he oa mpresson, as he oal essence of

gypan sacra ar, s feess, gapng sence Ony he coumns ak up vegea mofs, as a whoe hey are geomerca bundes of papyrus or ous sems, and he capa even ceary shows he buds or owers of hsmysca ora, he symbo and he vehce of rebrh. The pyramds, he pyons, he gypan empes, hese houses of God, exend he norgancandscape whn hemseves, fenegang, recnear, cubc, wh a mon-srous fanacsm of mmoby. The nsdes of such srucures abandon

he bossomng, ransen, ye aso neror kngdom of fe a he more: a pyramd, as Hege sad, s a shrne where a dead man ves he hoy of hoes whn he deepes room of he empe s nohng bu a grave, beween whose was he barque, he coossa saue of he god of he un

verse, weghs us down and crushes us ven where he gaze peneraeshrough ever smaer and darker spaces no he mos!uncanny chamber,hs narrowness s no he nerory of he sou, aer a, bu merey pro vdes he conras, or he paradox, o he hereby more absouey m

mense and coossal sun god always vsbe hrough every anmaland human form and every oca god of gyp, n he spr of an absoueasra myhos The mysery of he Chrsan sancuary s of an enrey df-feren naure, and far from accommodang sef o norganc rgdy, oa fenegang, macrocosmc cubsm even he mmense Chrsos Pan-okraor of he yzanne aps bows down over us, s n he mos cenraaspec of hs represenaon a servan, he ord of he human kngdom, whe he mos subme symbo, ony s vsbe as he ny, dsan shapeof he dove of he Hoy Spr, soars away

We had sad ha funcon and sye, however fasey feke hey mayry o seem, ead back n he same way o sony essence. Or, raher, o beconssen n our erms: perhaps no nconal form as a s compeeyarsc, purey negave, ncdena arfac of mecuousness, bu heext hng aer n pracca erms, whch represens aer a snge eap whn he arsc sphere: namey he edermeer sye, us ke he hgh

hng aer n erms of consruconal syscs: namey he rgor andcubcy of gyp, boh aways reman near o Greek sye, sye as such, wch remans beween edermeer and gyp a a eudaemonsc medn Somehng ke he edermeer s aready noceabe n he earesne supures, and draws s nea, pracca nes n Renassance, Re


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22 he Production othe Oament

gency Lous XI nd mpre to nlly remn so to spek t the bse f-ter every style s dsmntled t the begnnng of the nneteenth century; s we sd: s the bsolute stylstc (but for tht reson cpble of beng com

bned wth ny or every style) mnmum The gyptn element rst m posed tself mong the egnetns nd nlly under the mpre wherethe expedton to the pyrmds mde forml nuence possble nd ust s the Bedermeer represents the lower boundry gnst the cond-ton of sheer entertnment forms the upper spce of the trnscendentcorrelton of the Greek style nd thus of style s such. But wht ppersbeyond functonl form tht hs forgotten ts plce nd especlly be-

yond style s the contnung betryl to gypt vodble only s long s lfe s retned nd the ustere trngle of the gble the pure rc of therchchosen out of worldly pety certnly but shped s well by theseverty of dethnd bsolutely the entre ntgonstc symmetry ofGreek nd Clsscl style s conned n tht mprecse homeless shllownonobectve mmnence whch only out of ndecsveness fls to go overto gypt the lnd of wnter of deth the wnter of the world s t sclled n ncent occult wrtngs nd to the plce of the purely norgnc

sphere of vlue For gypt remns the del s well s the fulllment ofunbroken constructedness of meanin l constructedness no longerdctted by the eort of stylzton but by the sprt of the mterl nd bystonemmnence s such Only Chrstn lfe truly breks through thestone; here even exteal ace cn become Gothc nd the nnunctonn the chor of the Church of St Lorenz n uremberg ws creted ust norder to sng the spce where t hngs n order to mke ths spce sng

nd by hngng n the mddle to concentrte n tself the nner song ofths sptl complex Wheres even n Romnesue or Byzntne styleeven n the horzontl Gothc ever where where grvty nd order ppers the essence of gurton n other words nl sngulr potentl ofgypt reppers trnsposed from strology nto overt mystcsm

he Gothic Vlition to Become Like the Reuection

But the nner lfe movng towrd tself only res up gn more stronglyIt mk ts forms tngled ngulr sets one n front of other nd plesthem l up Here one should keep erly mn n mnd nd thnk n termsof whttlng Wood s the medum; the nner essence no longer to be ttened no longer wlled up n stone breks free; nd the fncful the effervescently nmted the oursh becomes ts plnest expresson


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he Prductin the Ornament 2

Inee his ial ace aleay bens upwa owa us fom ha place whee no one ye is I is he same foce expesse in laa in ho leahown ino col wae in he eining of woo an aboe al in hewiching bleeing agge o pecuiay compace fom of inena o

gans. he Neges hae unil now kep hei gos of life cae accoingo he woo ansmiing is ialiy hough hanles ales beamshones an iols hei magical oliion hei nee o ansfom hemseles o push ino he uppe ccles of poceaion bough abou hemask aboe al which eeaes hem emonically o he animal ancesoo he always bsacly oganic oem an aboo i beas he likeness of

o emoe counenance bu Chis oes no ye shine only he blazingemon of life ominaes hese eam pogeny hese ak plasic sysemsof feiliy an powe an hen only ineniely Bu Noic man in pa-cula ike he Oienal emembee he alutum of caing of wooof he spii of life in he a of he mass migaions an mos eepy inhe Gthic, hee occue a NoicOienal symbiois hee oganic

psychological longing was uly aaine in he fom of onamen We aefamilia wih he wining snakes an seahoses he winne agons of

Noic line wok an nohing can compae o his uncanny pahos which is incoecly aibue o an animaion of he inoganic If salaion is now een possible beyon he iscae obsoee syles i can occu only hough he esumpion of hese amos compleely fogoen o ganic ines Eeyhing ha wou bossom an be abunan mus leanfom such peGohic aifacs an hee is no spia no igession anno achiecual powe wih he eeply oganic laws of his igessieness

ha oes no aso beahe wih is hea in he wi clouy amosphee ofhis oganiciy so lle wih ueings musica inimaions inniies.ince Woinge's felicious an suggesie pesenaion hee can be nooub ha hee in his onamenal ism of inewoen bans an animalsis gien he sece Gohic wihin he Baoque an afe

ee howee in a fashion no a al Geek he foiage closes in hemos peculia ecoaion coes eey suface an cawls oe he walls obeak hem up We hae seen: Greek line capue life only in is ouwa

manifesaion as ha oganiciy isible o eeyone wihou ysey epiemal an is ligh aseful hyhm eemine by an inne animaeequilibium We hae seen: he Epan line nows absouey only igoan sphrne suenly becomes geomey insofa as only sone an noes is being hough wihin he sone consisen wih he spii of he


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he Proucion ohe Oamen

whh s h spr of h dsr or h alpn landscap and ofIg naurs monsrous mausoum. For h Egypans gudd byhe for of h son h way lads ouward mysrous whou mysry: n hs rna modl for vry absolu archcur of consrucona longforgon groundwar rss foldng back h avs uncolng -slf so o spak, a gran and asral fah, such ha a sor of hghrordrmnralog crysalzs n h ralm of ar a sor of naura phlosophysuspndd abov h soul Gohic ln, on h ohr hand conans ll hsagaon whn sf hs ln s rslss and uncanny k s forms: h proubrancs h snaks h anma hads, h srams a chaoc nr

nng and wchng whr a warm amnoc ud and h ha of ncubaon sands, and h womb of all surng, al dlgh a brhs and allorganc ags bgns o spak only h Gohc has hs r a h cnr,ovr whch h dps organc and h dpr sprua ssncs brnghmslvs o fruon. Such a hng could no b mor forgn o h f-bl Grk lf and a h sam m h mos compl conras o Egpas h masry of dah, as h gaz o whch God appars as a wal rahrhan as and as h land no whch osph was sold as a slav as h sprof h dpopulad asral myhology whch h ws l bhnd n ordro s h gra vnyard of anaan Egyp sras h Gohc brngsforh Egyp modls h worlds srucur, h Gohc s symbolcay producv n h drcon of h mbrac h angular world of h soulEgyp son comprhndd s h spr of h omb h spr of com pl form, compl consrucdnss for maral rasons s h consum-maly dscrpv formal sgn for a consumma aln clary, h cary

of opprsson and dah h arsc quvaln of h world of h dadof asral mh. Th Gohc n conras comprhndd lf s h spr ofh rsurrcon, h spr of h hlpful formula rducd, fragmnaryconsrucdnss as a sll mrly lowr obcv drmnaon s h un-consummady preive -dscrpv iil i for h unconsummadmysry of h W and of h ground, for a sponanously anmad un-consummad funcona n slf sll symbolc ornamnalsm and sym-

bolsm; s h arsc suggson of lvng spac [ebenraum] of h prob lm o h W ashng lk lghnng as of vry approxmaon of hmyhos of h ogos No h brghly and vnly arculad Grk lnbu h ssnally advnurous farsghd funconal Gohc ln aon scompl lf h nally pur kngdom abov nconal form he eepiri o he ve movemen oexpreion and only n aanc wh hs ln


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he Producion ohe Oamen 25

could Egyp, conruced one, be broken hrough in hoe epoch ha were above yle hereby he Romaneque, Byzanine, ArabicIndian,Gohic, and, ignoring i acually improper ylizaion for he momen,

he Baroque repreen hi organic exuberance' progreive riumph overhe cryl.In oher word: he inner human being can wan nohing bu he end

le line, wihou cheaing himelf of himel The fore wander ino hedeer hrough hi line, ino he cryal, reducing i o merely a long ex-inguihed auxiliary The endle line, in i r Nordic manifeaion,bloomed and grew everywhere wihou knowing where o go only a

Gohic line did i become rue, no merely organic bu organicpiriualrancendence, in he ene ha above i urging ide he ar of he Sonof Man could rie ha lly deermine i The medium of he one habur, he compleely formal, he meaninglly, aboluely conrucionalelemen ha been demoed, i now merely a reinforcing, echnically up poring formula (vemen, cluered column, croaul, or a mo aform, a he prius of he foreground in he oberved Gohic obec (ecaic dienion, denauralizaion of he model, angular ligree. The

deepe obec dominae, expreed foremo in organically abrac igillary ign, wih he meaning ha Gohic ar (and everyhing remoelyconneced wih i make an exodu expreive wihin exernal maerial,a oherwie only muic can

In oher word omehing ir and eehe here in hee one, ryingo bloom a we do, o have he life we do For one imply canno omioneelf when one i building wih he energie of he Son of Man inide

oneelf The law ha never ye made a grea man, bu freedom breed herue coloi and he rue exremiie Thu even Egyp, in paricularahe model for he ecre ockpiling of he fale godlead o hoe con-ruc where, nally, he once again organic, he organically abrac recur In no oher way can exernalized inerioriy occur, and herefore a higherlevel organiciy, he ornamen in exce and he ' quie reunion wih he I who will be on a he Gohic enelechy o alne ar Man,and no he un, no geomancy or arology, bu man in hi very deepe

inwardne, a Chri, here became he alchemical andard of everyhingha i buil f one u gaze ino hi owering and i developmen, onecan ee one' inmo oul owing here, changing, ranforming ielf o ward ielf. ere dominae ha beauiful warmh where he living ouldo no uocae he warmh of he beloved and he ligh ha radiae


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he Production othe Ornament

from the ower, from the lucerne of every maden, the beautl warmthn whch the lvng soul s vaushed by humlty and devoton and takennto the arms of the Gothc Vrgn lke the very Chrst chld hmsel heGothc wll to ender the chor and ndeed the entre nteror ever moretransgured, the Gothc's upward tendency n ts fullness demateralesall mass now the obsessve llustratons have room; the laces and tendrlsof an unprecedented mason's art shoot up nto the crockets and captas,and mngle lgree and rose nto the glowng wndows; vaultng, and notsmply vaults, rses nto the nave and nto the chor's depths; sn andatonement, a gltterng satanc beauty and the kngdom of the mld, hum-

ble, and patent soul all meet most closely n these vast cathedrals of gures, makng them a fossled processon on the Chrstan uest But nthese stones ight also races and prolferates and burns, n ths statue, ths

house of the human heart; nowhere are we dsavowed, the trbute to theenclosng power of the materal remans no moe than reexve, the wall

has been broken through, the brghtly colored wndows lead nto unmapped domans, we stand n the mdst of love, surrounded by the heav

enly host, even the robes and the countenances of the sants assume all power to enclose space, t s a shp of stone, a second Noah's ark yng toGod, the tower's spre transforms nto te na as the mystcal larynx thatreceves the word of the Son and above all these wondersHow far 'm

led wth every strde hat s the deepest mystery, / What once wastme, s space nstead3above all ths endless chaos of lne smles theVrgn, so sweet, so wse, as f the graves were lghtng up, as f the dstantmystcal chambers were beng prepared and the restitutio in inumstood llumnated before the lowlest of us Certanly much s dspropor-tonate about these cathedrals, these domed structures n huan form,but t s the dsproporton between our heart and our world Here, nother words, the breakthrough wl aso succeed the constructs of theonly, the organcally, the metaphyscally edetc art stll to come presentthemselves and culmnate together n the lneaments of the secret humanform; the now stll loose and owng ornamentaton and sgnature of the

mmedate human beng s ts sole, foundatonally a priori object

HE MAGE F HE NERM HAPE

hs may be the drecton home, and ust for that reason t seeed desrable not to formalstcally obscure the pont where the new, clorful serousnes s to take eect. May t also not be further obscured by anothr


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he Production othe Ornament 2

kind of rigor by an a too ndscriminate negect of the agitaton withinour own Impressonist heritageits mpatience and ts neverteess aready achieved oosening of forma totaity ts at any rate aready avai

abe even if oen inferior and sti reexive inexpressive subjectivation ofthe image of the word. Modernitys paths the irreversibe eruption of itsmystica nominaism have to be foowed through to the end or Egyptor perhaps the equay obsoete coherence of the historica as opposed tothe apriorstc Gothic wi agan be enthroned

For there is one thing that separates us from it powerfuy and precsey We have become more individua searching homeess; we are

formed more owing the sef of us a rses up cose by. Thus the ifebood of the new artistc statements springs much ess than before fromthe mediums sources from the forma energy. Form s no onger the onymeans one requires to speak to draw attention; in fact it is no ongereen a means that one especaly needs

Thus even c% r paintngs proper ambitionto!create with coortranspose into coor mode through coorhas retracted somewhat.Certainy one woud ike to see cearly and if possibe airessy. Sti that

is not decisve since Kokoschka pnts with gray brown dark vioet andevery other earth tone d when Marc and Kandnsky take up purercoors the tter indeed aming at a theory of coor harmony and f ngenera the fashion is to reve in cear skness ocal coors instead of anatmospheric bur then here one is no onger taking peasure in coor assuch; rather it is the capacty for excitement for whose sake here ony thepurest crassest uminosity is seected and assembed t is that pecuiar

emotiona value accruing as much to the individual coors as to theircomposition hate fervor anger ove mystery in order that the entireaura in which this psychoogica andscape ies can be rendered ThusDuberc say of such coors: "Thrusts of intense yeow reach into bueinevitabiities.4 That is the power of coor and at the same time the mitof its appointment for here coor must serve as never before Coor canbe broken any number of times in its own peasure its own forma energy and the purey paintery which many Impressionists are vaguey

proud of having redscovered retreats before the drive toward expression.On the other hand drawing certainy drves s powery forward again

s we No more vsua devoton to nferior cursory impressions. d itnnot be dened that this is more than ust a consoidation that sinceMa�es thnking n terms of drawing the new beingthoughtof in terms


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he rducio oh Orame

of surfaces seems to strve even more deeply. What s beng sought s notlne n tsel any more than color n tself unless the lne does notsmoothly outlne and s dense and expressvely compacted when nRousseau or Kandnsky tremblng or rdng appears as a short strkngcurve or the desre for revenge as a agged arrowshaped formaton orbenevolence as a blossomng ower. The outlne sharpens and charges tothe same degree n Archpenko or n Boccons strdng statue as Dublertranslated t nto words that s no longer the person at rest who ncden-tally can strde forth but strdng as such whch domnates the bodytakes shape as corporealty The ankes want to break out the soles drag

space behnd them the breasts symbolze mcrocosmc man slppng hmself between the constellatons n our heads we roll an entre worldthrough our orbts an overabundance s man but by our movements webreak contnuously nto anmated geometres on our shoulders andshanks we convey as yet unexpressed crystallzatons of space nto therhythm of our strde. Beyond ths logc a planar logc ths new beng-thoughtof n terms of cubes and curves also seems to tend most mmed

ately deeper mmetcally and Cubsm s the consstent expresson of thsnew newold spatal magc. It began by smply dsassemblng thngs foldng ther unseen surfaces nto the vsual plane Thus an early pantng byPcasso stll bears the telltale ttle: Dsmantled Voln but soon suchgames such experments became actua experence; the strange charm offered by the dvded plane such as one can sense n ste plans and arch-tectural blueprnts became apparent. The appeal of the actve mysterous

parttonng the way the weghts are equlbrated as on a scale and thebare actve creature of lne tself; the delberate volton to renstate evenaganst the slghtly subdued surface arabesque the awareness of mass volume and weght the awareness of that secret gravtaton order and statcs that regulates space as an assemblage of quadratc and cubc equlbratons Stll other more frutl possbltes appearfar from mere func-tonal form from engneerng or from the ultmate false remnder of theEgyptan hall of the deadand drects us upward not only Maes notonly Czanne n hs famous dctum about sphere cone and cylnder n theconstcton of form already suggest artsts who thnk n spatal terms; ndeed even the Sstne Madonnawho seems surrounded by dstantlysoundng spatal relatonshps along wth so to speak heavenly spataltesthat are partly conveyed to usleads somethng of a Cubstc lfe wthnspace s Paul Fechter boldly and rghtly ponted out d certanly t s


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h roduction oth Ornamnt 29

not smply eectve placemet that makes somethng Cubst, snce everymage from the past, and especally from absolute epochs of style, couldthen be represented as Cubst; rather, t s the remarkably heterogeneous

Raphael who claes ths ssue far more than the othewse so much moresgncant Leonardo Now thngs do not merely exst n space, but spaceexsts wthn thngs, and space can certanly buld a foundaton wthoutequal, as n the Roman Pantheon or even n Gohc catedrals.

But of course much else lags behnd, and besdes, draing must stll berokn Drawng can and must renforce, so that the fugtve aspect of agreat feelng, gong beyond the gaze to resound far and wde, wll have a

physc support. t can also sgn a lower objectve determnaton, lkeany other meanngful formalzaton But all too oen somethng, alreadyobvous has quadratcaly moved n, walled tself up, and obstructed tsbanal world wth boxes, chests and cubes from whch lttle can be unpacked, no matter how deeply they seem to ple up. Moreover, whleKokoschka or Pcasso break through the earler fath!n mere color, theFuturst movement, wth ts addcton to ecstasy, dynamsm, and allpervadng contemporanety, and, partcularly n the Cubst work, ds-

turbs the crcles of a vacuous or sterle structuraton5 Movement, buteven more the most unexpected allegorcal meanng rses up wthndrawng, wthn lne, and, as the strongest reacton aganst every knd ofpantng seemng to rest wthn tself, seems mmetc n tself, aganstevery "absolute pantng, reduces even Cubst or any other usel statu-ary to a medatng, stablzng formula, or at best to a form of lower ob-ectve determnacy n the seres of Expressonst selfshapngs, selfpro

ectons n addton, f one otherwse has the mpresson that certan fa-lar remnants, an eye, a volns tunng peg, or even just a numeral,ave been caught so to speak aganst ther wll n the Cubst pantng,hen Braque, Drain, and other, younger painters from the Pcasso schoolre ust the ones to show that one wants to encounter these objectve al-usons throughout all Cubsms msdrectons, that s, not only at the be-nnng as the nal wtnesses of an emotonal goodbye to the world, notnly n artworks subject, but precsely n ts most abstract predcate: so

a these pecular mages can be comprehended as the most tortuousuxlary constructons, whose concentrated abstracton wll n turn relve tself nto a newly acheved objectve corrrelaton and objectve sym-bolsm So f one should want to make a more deeply mmetc form out u pntng nwrd, pntng nto the spat stllness, whch the Cu


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0 he Pdcn he aen

bists have cultvated aganst Impressionism's agitation and naturalism, theattempt wll be completely mpossble by Cubism's denition as pure,pictorial composition in terms of surfaces and weghts, and in a largersense conceivable only insofar as a cube as ornament is no ornament atall, that is, no broken one, but is rather the one whch most helpfullyreaches across toward the ge eaning. In accordance with a formaltransparency that only ensues with the formal actualization, wthout co-inciding with it or beng even somewhat contnuously accompanied byts stylization, by the constructional pleasure still available in Impression-ism and once again totally geometricaly hypertrophed in Cubsm

But is it even still possible to build, to vault upward Here our introduction of a hgher artsanal logic must prove itself, as was shown by ourearlier example of the Baroque chair. t is probabe that, in accordancewith the extraordinary search for expression, certain artisana and thensculptural and archtectonc realizations will triumph over the till nowpurely panterly element. Whereby in other words, under the aspect ofthe future, beyond applied art in its narrower, socially subservient sense,

in the stylistic sense, beyond ornament in its unilinear, untranscendentsense, a Sheraton chair or the unearthly curve of certain Baroque cabi-netry could contain more aesthetic character and signicance than thelovelest Perugino or even more famous hstoricist illusionisms Much already points in this direction, and much that had long been forgotten ornever understood at all is now reemerging: thus the ceremonial masks,the totems, the carved beams, the banding, the sacristies; thus the notionof a sculpture carved from the nside out as well, whether of Negro,Nordic, Gothic, Baroque type, the nameless body of a sculpture architecture Because of all ths, the architecture now so threatened by barrenness and functonalism, by which it may indeed even have been lost, canalways be explored as the interior of the space of home, which art mustfurnish and approximate well With paintng, sculpture in an increasingly anthropomorphic space of construction that must repeatedly, andtoday more than ever, be broken as the anticipatory expression of a a

a asi "Thou art it to6 the selfencounter within painted obectsand wth them; and music, no longer frozen, nearb

OUR SERE SGNAURE N AR

S we seek the artist who lets us approach ourselves purely, encounteourselves. His novel gaze molds unrecognizable new shapes and moves


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he Production othe Ornament 1

lik a swimmr lik a cyclon through th givn Thr is somthingbautiful about owing watr an old tr vn a dark lvatd apinlak It sucs to possss all this in natur howvr whr on can alsonoy what art cannot rprsnt such as air cacuabl physica distancsand so on bttr than any of th plasurs of art apprciation vr coulddo n any cas th cinma now provids an xmplary substitut; on canvn say that for anyon who would lik th imprssion of natur with-out any dformations through th mdium of th imag th cinmato-graph is th bst portrait allry th substitut for all th worlds gratgnra art xhibitions. Evryon should kp this in mind who dmands

to know of an Exprssionist imag what it rprsnts by what mans inothr words hll can shrivl down to a strt cornr bfor thir yswhich rsmbl mr photographic plats For things hav bn dirntvr sinc van Gogh; w ar aso prsnt in th painting and prcisly thisprsnc is what is bing paintd; tru thr is still visibl turmoil stillrailings subways girdrs brick walls but it suddnl� pculiarly undr-cuts itsl th rctd cornrston striks sparks all at onc and th l-nt within al apparanc which was arady drawn which is incompr-hnsibly akin to us lost to us nar far th Saislik quality of th wordsuddnly mrgs into th light in van Gogh's paintings as it othrwisdos only in Strindbrg8 n Czann as wll though mor latntly andconcald somwhat undr th mor powrful purly paintrly fa


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, 3 h dutin the Onament

muk. "o the deformed denaturazed manner of secret teeotrops uman nteror and the word's sh together. Suddeny I seey s my ears my state: I mysef am ths drawer and these sh I amse sh of a knd that es n drawers; for the drence vanshes thedstance s between the artstc subject and the artstcay representedobject that s to be reborn to a dfferent materaty than a mere thng'sreborn to ts essence the nmost prncpe of ts potentaty of a ourpotentaty My dance my mornng stars sng and everythng so trans-parenty formed attans the same ndvdua structura horon as we

'

the same subjectve ornament of ts enteechya trace a sgn of the ma

anthps, the sea of ts mysterous gureto be of the sou's Jerusaemconceaed from tse

Here there s nothng more to be borrowed from outsde; the sou needno onger accept aen dctates. ther ts own need s strong enough toattract whatever husks and markers t needs for support and magesbecome just our wn reemergence but at another pace If van Goghguded us out of ourseves f thngs s speak n hs work however em-

phatcay apparenty jus of themseves and not as echoes of man thenwe suddeny hear ony ourseves echo back from them; then converseyafter Expressonsm man has ony a Kaspar Hauser knd of nature thatuses objects soey as keepsakes of ts neradcabe neage or as pontngmarks for keepng and conservng ts progressve anamness.10 Thngsthus become ke the nhabtants of one's own nteror and f the vsbeword seems to be crumbng anyway to be ncreasngy emptyng sefof ts own sou becomng uncategora then n t and through t thesounds of the nvsbe word correspondngy want to become pctora-ty: vanshng obverse ntensng funess a becomngtheforest an nux and reux of thngs nto the sef's crystane forest creatve deepestoutburst pansubjectvsm wthn the object beyond the object as objecttse so that the externa object dsappears to the extent that t returnske one of the 500 detes n the forbdden tempe of Canton Here thepctures strangey famar can appear ke magca mrrors where we

gmpse our future ke the masked ornaments of our nmost shape kethe ny perceved adequate fument sefpresence of what has eternay been meant of the I of the We of the tat twam asi, of our gory vbratng wthn mystery of our secret dvne exstence. Ths s the same the ongng to nay see te human countenance and the ony remanng dram streets even for the magca pture w b tose were


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he Prouction othe Oament

Seeheim' experece of rdig toward himef coud occur ad oother objectve correato but oe hat mrror throughout the word themyterou oute of the huma couteace ad thu coect themot abtract orgaicty with the ogig for our ow heart, for the fue of the mafetato to oee 1 1


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he Phlosophy of Musc

Drea

We hear ony oursevesFor we are graduay ecoming ind to the outsideWhatever ese we sti shape eads ack around us It is not eacty as

readiy individua not eacty as hazy hovering warm dark and incorpoea as my feeing of aways eing just y myse aways just consciousIt is a stu an aien eperience But we wak in the forest and we fee weare or coud e what the forest dreams We wak etween the tree trunkssma incorpore and imperceptie to ourseves their sound whatcoud never again ecome forest or eterna day and perceptiiity We donot have ita that this moss these strange owers oots stems and

shas of ight are o signiecause we ourseves are it and stand toonear to it this ghosty and ever so nameess quaity of consciousness or ofecominginward. But the note ares out of us the heard note not thenote itsef or its forms Yet it shows us our way without aien meansshows us our historicay inner path as a ame in which not the viratingair ut we ourseves egin to treme and throw o our coats

On �e Hisory of Mscow do we hear ourseves at rst?

an endess singingtoonese and in the danceBoth are sti nameess They have no ife in themseves and no on

persoay gave them form Where one encounters them they posse

34


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he Phisoph oMusi 5

appeal of every orgnary begnnng But one had to go through somethng else n order that expresson be amply and securely equpped.

BGNNNGS

Ths onl began gradually. Of the earlest melodes, very lttle s knowneven now. Not even the Greek songs have been preserved to any extent.

What has come down to us s mostly charmless and empty One canust as lttle form a favorable mage of the sound of Greek or early medeval ensembles All the players had to conne themselves to the samemelody. The most that was permted was to sound the root and the h,

lke the bagppes drone, and to let them sustan Hymnody also remaned wthn the strats of monophony To be sure, t began qute earlyto be structured by the congregatons responsoral Thus n ts nsstentpsalmodzng ts numerous artculatons and jublatons of the Ambrosan and Gregoran psalter, ts ornamentaton of a smple, ne melodc lne, and not least n these chorales' truly bas/can soldty, hymnody may have meant more to the congregaton than one can stll relveoutsde of relgous ecstases

For as a whole these assets have entrely deprecated. It s not muchdfferent for the later polyphonc musc of the Mddle Ages. Only thetravelng mnstrels begn to nnovate. They are untraned, n the addtonal sense that they are the very rst to dare to devse polyphonc settngs. At least a stroke on the harp was permtted to a troubadour evenn ras of the strctest monophony. In addton, because the harp s unsuted to free embellshment as a dscretely audble guraton of the

melody, t leads by nature toward chordal blendng. Thus not only freermovement and expressve need dwell here, but also, ndependently andfar more decsvely than n the merely ratonal attempts of the harmonsts who had banshed the troubadours from the schools, a clearlyognzable approxmaton of major, mnor, and the modulatons toome Nonetheless these benets have been lost, or were obvated by theatr related, but n all respects more magncent Italan masters of can-tilm. As for the contemporary attempts at polyphony, on the other

nd (and they occurred only n European musc), even n he musc of late Mddle Ages these essentally do not go beyond a merely theol grondwork outsde of the properly artstc atttude toward techqu Evn f learned monks dscovered all knds of thngsucbaldn h ntuon h dfferent notes could be sounded tgether,


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he Philosoph oMusic

Gudo ofArezzo and the begnnng of exact notaton, Franco of Cologneand the men ural notaton derved from the cutom of ngng everalnote n the decant agant oneh all reman academc tu hoentrnc mert can no longer be aeed, a empath nto the objectveproblem of that tme mpoble, and n an cae t actual arttr,even n a theoretcal ene, a far exceeded b the ucceedng, alreadmodern epoch of the Flemng.

But th them, too, the outook tll dmal One thnk here pr-marl of the gncant oqun. There are certanl maller pece bhm that are full of urprngl heartfelt eect, completel relant on

vocal anmaton But ho dr become the bread henever t becomemore determned to nourh u ho evere reman the voce leadng,ho unongful, nexpreve and unmelodc Dufa and Ockeghemartful and mpreve ettng tll are The text mpl there, thoutan nuence, and the mave ntellectual effort reman barrenl cloedn on telf t a pencl that ould perform calculaton on t on, anda nuou gure 8 leadng nohere t a tud core of unprecedented

rank, hch mght not have lacked a certan laborou poer on hearng,but eentall repreent onl the techncal provon for the entreldfferent Baroque Here a puh from belo a needed for thng to be-come mple, and gude the core pontle calculaton back to the teof prtual and textual necet Onl thu could Luther judgment"The other had to do hat the note anted, but Josquin mater overthe note the had to do hat he antedbe fullled n the beautful,

antformal ene.The ne nuence came from folk ong Where t a ung n threeto x voce, t appeared a the madrgal. Snce t remaned lght,motl erotc n content, the orgnall ongful element hed tronglnto the melodou upper voce. Shortl thereafer, the ancent modebegn to be hromatcall embrodered It a the Flemng Wllaert, un-der talan nuence gncantl, ho rt rote chromatcall andthn the ne dtncton beteen major and mnor chord n place of

the once delcatel ntereavng voce, he put a chord clearl dened aounng multaneoul and thu dcovered hat the Venetan calledthe aurum potabile that , the ne potental for a harmonc muc nthe mddle of a tll purel contrapuntal age. Soon aer, Haler broughtthe ne harmnc ound to German, n order to adapt t plendor tothe polphonc treatment of Protetant hmn Her t ng mov


50/319

he hisphy Music

dcisivy to th surfac that is , th cntus rm us, which had prviousyn sung y th tnor, a midd voic, shid to th upprmost voic,thus suordinating th rmaining voics, which cam innr voics,

vr mor dcisivy to th dscant as th songfu principa modys vhic. t rst this occurrd in th most xpdint way, as th accompanying voics movd as rguary as possi in stp with th uppr voicin simutanous harmony, instad of vry voic, ex cntus rmi un vcepures ciens, going its own way as dmandd y imitation, invsion,rtrogrssion and th othr canonica and contrapunta rus nd so,ginning with Ornd di ss compt fdom has n won. H is

th mastr of th drinking song no ss than th somnity of his dpyaffcting enitenti sms; vrything is rady for xprssion to throadst xtnt, th tona dic has n uit, th rang, th prspctiv, th ranscndnc of th tona spac, a truy and propry musica for th rst tim, ar thr in prototyp. Th contrary modic Itaian and contrapunta Fmish stys fus togthr, pviding th rsuting xprssion, ony attaind with passion and diat sujctivity,th dsird mans. Now a th harshnss, imaanc, and indcision isgon: th sujct Orando has sttd th conict twn truver andcnstruer for a ong tim, so compty and dcisivy that from now onvry voic sings, and touadour and acadmy ar unitd. Thus othth rst mnt, mody (which hr coms prpondranty from thsca and not from th chorda nrgy, and so onc again dmands notso much harmony as th mutiinarity of contrapunta writing), as was th scond mnt, countrpoint itsf, this ancint cominatoria

cacuus, onc so unconcrnd with th auty of its mismatic and thmatic matria, undrgo thir compt unication in th joy of makingmusic. f y th way Orando had a Rmrandtian natur, thn estrin was Raphaian. In his work th nots hav com quitr, andmov with th most gorious incination toward grat choda convrgnc and rpos. Th way that a sma numr of human voics argroupd togthr, now, in th Roman choras, ading ack to th mostntimat hamonic simpicity thn again, as his Stbt Mter and vnmor his famous Miss pe Mrcei show, into th spatia powr of thots movmnt, ach imuing itsfhomophonicay a this is aradyso xtaordinariy harmoni, not harmonicdramatic, ut rathr haronic in a sti arhythmic, sraphic sns (a carpt for Brucknr andt t Wagnr) such that now ony chorda istning is vaid for an ad


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The Philosophy ofMusic

equte grsp of these compositions, in other words, kind of heringtht coordintes erticlly below nd horizontlly only boe, where thetotl melodic effect occurs Thus did Orlndo di Lsso nd Plestrin, sthe rst musicl geniuses, refute cdemicist construction for its ownske The melodic expression, the melody, hs been eleted to the solecontent of counterpoint: in Orlndo dncing pssiontely, predominntly linerly; in Plestrin more pious, held together predominntlychordlly

H RCDUR

From now on one my no longer be nrrow For eerything techniclmoes into the second rnk The sound stnds rm, the forge hs beenbuilt Wht is to come will not be ccomplished just by technicl mstery. One my be diligent composer, nd nonetheless eerything remins lifeless, becuse the mere crftsmn gets confused by preciselywht rst mkes crft worthwhile

Progress in Cra

There is lso something else forcing us to become ery itl Clerly nothing detrcts from een the more importnt rtists s bdly s inserting orxing them into some succession of deelopments in cr, into historyof merely mediting, reinforcing, technicl formule How boring Ho-mnn's Undine hs become to nyone who does not know this, nd perhps een more so to nyone who does, since Weber did the sme thing

so much better in the Freisch howeer much he my he lerned instrumentlly from the erlier work Yet how disgreeble Weber's hrmonies, the most noel of their time, cn sound, prtiulrly in Euanthe, to the extent tht the listener fils to repress the ngging but bsurdsuspicion tht here is plgirism from Lohengrin! Once something hsbeen discoered, lter periods he no interest in it or empthy for it s technicl problem or fresh innotion, if it relly ws no more thn technicl problem; the true prticulrity [Sosein] of the gret composers isthus not dened by the history of musicl technique Otherwise predecesso would be tht min ide tht they do not contin, tht they onlpregure in terms of forml nlysis, but fil to explore fully The mortht gret msters owe to existing rules, the less new is their crft s opposed to its highly prticulr ppliction Should one speciclly sy haMozt is inconceible without the Mnnheim orchestr nd opra b


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Th Phisohy ofMusic 39

Is t the rules tht mke Gluck so superor to Florentne nd French oper,or s t not fr more wht he mkes of the rules? Must one stll dd howBch clung to the old wys, how clery he turns wy from the eer moremnnerly Nepoltn hrmones n order to study the old Flemsh ndItn composers nsted of Scrltt? In ny cse hs lso occurred ongsde the preserton of certn bl cato; he dnces nd chnsons ply lrge role formlly; nd when t comes to the other ssue, themtc technque, where Bch returns to the pst n knd of recton most remnscent of Brhms, he exceeds the old msters' contrpuntl erudtononly n the mnner of pplcton nd hrdly n hemtc technque Wth

Beethoen, whose new mnner s not t ll new technclly, thngs lookeen more peculr. For mny nuences conerged n the sont, ndthough Hydn my he nented ths multthemtc structure s work,t remns er ll most nstructe ht precsely ths objectely trnqulcomposer les on s the fther of the reoluton, to the precse extent ththe loed techncl experments fr more thn Beethen dd WheresBeethoen hmsel Hydn's student, encountered nothng technclgnst whch he would he hd to reolt on the grounds of hs prtculr muscl mnner

There s thus nothng here to clss or to ssemble somehow "progressely. Gret ndduls re ncomprble, nd truy born to somehng better thn the lesh of technque One hs only to recll Hnslcksspteful chtter bout Gluck, gnst whom he plys o Mozrt, or boutMozrt, gnst whom he plys off Rossn, or bout Rossn, gnsthom he plys o Meyerbeer Then one wll comprehend how ths wy

of plyng one composer o gnst nother just n techncl terms prodes the formul for bseness nd the most shllow knd of dsrespect,rtculrly where, s n Hnslck, the crtc suddenly hts the brke tt pont where eerythng becomes the most decdedly modern, otes the prncple of bnl progress, nd remnng consstent only wths own bseness, reches outsde of hstory n order to wn hs gme. Ifo o chrcters sng t the sme tme n he Rhigo there re rens for t tht occur nowhere else, nd ista n ts essentl spects noore goes bck to the old Florentne homophony thn Do Giovai s ddlng muscl drm Others were not much better, nd when onee hw the shbber Wgnerns lked to rnk ll the old msters ofe nd aioso oper s more or less untlented predecessors of nern le th mde een nd especlly the Nnth Symphony su


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peruous, hen one wil recognize by one's disgus ha a hisorical cassi-caion in erms of craf or echnique breaks down before everyhing essenial in he sory of music, indeed ha i even makes he incomparabiliy of he individual life mediaing iself hrough echnique even moreforcefully obvious han woud have been possible wihou he aemp aa purely echnicalformal heory of progress

The Sociologicl Context

Wha is far more imporan here is o consruc for every ruly grea composer an individual house where he can live for himself as a paricular

sae even beyond his alens In here he is free brings in only his ownsoul This is selfevidenly somehing diren again from wha circulaesamong people, wha unies hem in mere conemporaneiy Here, aerhe echnical approach has faied, i is hopeless o ry o advance by consrucing inks, by former similariies, or oher comparaive acics Onycomposers of he ower and middle ranks have cerain arisic or poeiccolleagues, who live alongside hem as such and say he same hing in

oher ways Perhaps Nicola Piccini is Rococo, bu i would be superciao caim ha Guck coexiss wih Louis Seize, or Mozar wih he usrian Rococo, or Beehoven wih he Empire, or Wagnernow who orwha could fully coexis wih Wagner? Niezsche sensd his a leaspary when he augh Of all he ars ha grow on a paricular culuralsoil music appears as he as plan Indeed, someimes music ringslike he language of a vanished age ino an asonished, modern world

and comes oo lae Only in he ar of he Flemish composers did he souof medieval Chrisianiy achieve is complee resonance Only in hemusic of Handel did wha was bes in he soul of Luher and his kind naly resound, ha mighy, ewishheroic endency ha creaed he enireReformaion Ony Mozar repaid he age of Louis XV and Claude Lorrain in rinng gold Only in he music of Beehoven and Rossini did heeigheenh cenury sing ou: he cenury of enhusiasm, of ruined ideasand eeing joys Exernal circumsances may cerainl have supporedsuch 4eep hisorical nonsynchronisms: for Bach is cerainly o be sciologically comprehended on some lower evel in erms of a Germany dlayed in comparison o he Wes, for example, and even he bindings ofhis volumes, wih elegan Renaissance and even Rococo formas alaround, reain heir medieval, foliolike appearance; and so, despie hriumph of he concertnte, homophonicaly individua emancipaed in


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The Philosophy ofMusic 4

ge oice, for long time oice leding, orgnic rticultion, com-pressed, inconspicuous linerity, nd lte Gothic piety persisted s thelight of Germny Menwhile, pecisey, ll this "eplining from theoutside in remins ultimtely supercil, nd does not mke Bchs totmnifesttion, his profound historic isoltion, his socioogicly unin-olbe lee of eistence comprehensible, not to mention tht eenwhere Nietzsche grsps musics historicl nonsynchronism, music becomes fr too much mere reennt, relted too historicly to thepst, insted of being iluminted from the direction of the future sSpirit in utopian deee, which ccordingly, in the middle of history nd

sociology, buids ony its own house, the frmework for its own discoer-es of inner leels of eistence, lbeit with countess electie nities ndfree dpttions t remins strnge enough fct here, nd the relnomly within the philosophy of history, tht the Greeks nd the me-diels remined nerly mute, nd then suddeny Bch ppered in thedys of Wtteu nd Tiepolo s the egtee of 7 yers of history, somber opulent, bewildering, in mny plces Gothic mster nd thtmusic, so ery young, persistent syncope een in modern history, quiteclerly obeys nother rhythm thn tht of its corresponding morpholog-icly, sociologiclly gien cultur whoe Beethoen eoes ony outof himself, just s Mhler, een supercilly, creted his Eighth Symphony to certin etent for nother society, so so did Wgner inent nd the people on the Festil medow, selfppointed Byreuth,posited by the rtist himsef s n inspirtion nd utopi, remote fromll of contemporry sociology, its contents nd its oition to form n

other words, if composer cn feel so independent of the will of hispoch (nd there is something gret nd mysterious in the fct tht theneteenth centurys two gretest composers ere reoutionries), thent is surey not the essence of the musicwht lies beyond Schumnn,endessohn, nd the merely formlwhich cn be economiclly ndsociologiclly ctegorized Howeer benecil a economic perspectieght be in ll other cses, or ny such perspectie, whoeer wouldotlize it in respect of music, errs Wter will not fuel re; it cn een th sme force tht dries eerything upwrd in the economy, in pol-s which wreks one disster fter nother in technique s such. Who- disgrees, nd would like to hrness the gretest riety to the smestoicsociologicl pce, in order to be ble to drie lrger tem, nd hnss nonsynchronous, indeed sphericlly incomprble elements


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wihin one epochl uniy, will become more supercil, nd he moreGod forsken, he more energeiclly he subjec mer responds o isinernl impulses nd he more surprisingly hose movemens seem oreciproclly elucide ech oher h hd pssed so homogeneously inohe geneicpolyhisoricl, universlhisoricl, or morphologicosynopicconcep We hus sser h neiher he single, negive, h is, inconclusive nd wih respec o conen cuslly ineecul economic conexsof deerminion, nor he inerpersonl relionships objecied only inpoliics nd resriced o ll hose incessn "sociologies of none ofhese cn offer ny periodiion or sociology of music h expresses

somehing bou he cul developmen nd objeciviy of music, undersood s discree sphere I is only possible o explin somehing insocil erms, le lone compleely encompss i, where he inerpersonl,h is, he socilly ineresed poin of view, coincides wih is objec,such s morliy s n ongoing relion beween persons, or economy,lw, nd he se s forms of relions beween persons here hings reno so, where i is impossible o conclude wih he se nd homogenie

oher vlues such s r, religion, science nd philosophy s is firesowers, wh is essenilly inended remins differen, riculed s surplus, living only so o spek before is a priori udience, nd for isgre represenives, hemes, nd works, demnds the olita hitoricaleccenic ypicion ccording o a priori eecive nd meril problems Cerinly no even he isoled civiy of genius is fully undeducible bu h is somehing differen hn he sensibiliy of group ofpeople unied by more hn jus conemporneiy, when, s occsionllyhppened in Greece nd he Middle ges, he will of he ge nd he willof genius ccord s hough by secre compc; when gre individulssuddenly nd hemselves following he peculir rise nd fll of he smeline; when bove hem whispering is percepile, which heir inner selfobeys, nd rnsindividul dispches h deermine heir work's designwhen genius's deerminion hus nd no oherwise rnsforms ino sign for suprhisoricl cnonicl diapaon; when in oher words cor

relive series ppers, in he rue sense of he philosophy of hisory, remoeom ny economicsocil prgmics or morphologicl synopicsin which gre individuls become cegories, nd he enire sequence ofgeniuses, foremos hose of music, begins o pss ino sysem of cegories hving o do wih our consciousness of ourselves,

Ernst Bloch-The Spirit of Utopia-Stanford University Press (2000)

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Transcript of Ernst Bloch-The Spirit of Utopia-Stanford University Press (2000)