ABSTRACT
This article reconstructs and develops the fundamental elements of Theodor W. Adorno’s theory of dissonance in his philosophy of music. It begins with a brief explanation on the treatment given by historical musicology, with all its self-conscious and constitutive equivocity, to the concepts of dissonance and consonance, in order to reveal the fundamental lines of a philosophical treatment of dissonance. Using the resources mobilized by some theorists of New Music, the article reconstructs the stations of the critical theory of dissonance among denaturation, emancipation and liquidation of dissonance. In its conclusion, it advances the thesis of a dynamic interpretation of the use and perception of dissonance according to given socio-aesthetic contexts.
Keywords:
Dissonance; consonance; new music; modern music; philosophy of music