Larson Powell’s scientific contributions

A preliminary examination of Adorno's idea of musical material in the 1920s and 1940s prepares for a look at the tension between different types of material in middle-period Wolpe, centering on his re-deployment of the cadence. The place of the cadence was taken, in Adorno's thought, by the subjective Einfall, or 'idea', concealing the role of tonal and harmonic function. Just as in literature, the reference to history, after the cool objectivity of the 1920s, was felt necessary against fascism, so Wolpe's redeployment of tonal means was in part tactical. As in the historical novel's reuse of older materials, the redeployment of tonality allowed for larger, epic dimensions lost with the end of tonal forms. An element of play in Wolpe's relation to his material—including cliches, quotes, impure elements—distinguishes him from Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Hindemith. Wolpe's musical material never became as 'indifferent' to him as it did to them.