Il soggetto e la società in forma di musica. Composizione per variazioni su Theodor W. Adorno e l'intrigo ineffabile del jazz

In this essay the author takes into consideration some critical characteristics and particular thematic configurations in the form of problematic “variations” on the relationship between philosophy, music and society as they emerged in the intellectual itinerary of Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969). Adorno, "philosopher and sociologist of music", central figure of the so-called Frankfurt School, admired by Jürgen Habermas (the most authoritative contemporary German philosopher), is the author of the famous Philosophy of modern music and of the Introduction to the socio-logy of music, essential works to understand, philosophically and socio-logically, not only the metamorphoses and the destiny of contemporary culture but also the meaning, the function and the role of Western music and its technical reproducibility in modernity and in our society. In this contribution, Antonio De Simone pays particular attention to the positions of Adorno with regard to the musical and social phenomenon of jazz, also considered as an aesthetic experience, that is, for the “perturbations” it generates on the “experiential modes of contemporaneity”