Kallenberg: Specters of Kranichstein
What was the Darmstadt School?
56 pp., pb.
The Specters of Kranichstein invoke what has been repressed in the history of the Darmstadt Summer Course: the spirit of criticism. The Darmstadt School was distinguished not by a particular style of composition, such as serialism, but on the contrary by the ruthless criticism of any particular style of composition. For a short period, Darmstadt was thus the scene of music’s self-criticism in production and reflection, theory and practice. On the basis of this temporary historical possibility of musical self-criticism, Theodor W. Adorno articulated the “Kranichstein idea”. It has since been repressed and forgotten, and lies buried under the triumphal procession of the culture industry. This brochure follows the traces of the repressed and summons the ghostly voices of Adorno, Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, as well as Summer Course founder Wolfgang Steinecke, representatives of the possibility of a Darmstadt school of criticism.
Middle of July
