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This article focuses on the phenomenon of listening to music via radio transmission. In an examination of linguistic findings and media archaeological observations, the specific performance characteristics of mediatized music are worked out using the example of a radio broadcast of a Beethoven symphony. The music-aesthetic and sociological essay “The Radio Symphony: An Experiment in Theory” (1941), written by Theodor W. Adorno during his stay in New York, is subjected to a re-reading. Although Adorno showed the full scope of his cultural conservatism in this essay, his thoughts nevertheless exemplify a function of technically mediated music reception that seems to be constitutive for the concept of musical performance as a whole.

This essay focusses on the relation between timbre and musical logic. I try to draw a connection between Schoenberg’s remarks on »Klangfarbenmelodie« in his Harmonielehre (1911) and the concept of »harmonie-timbre« represented by the spectral composers Gérard Grisey and Tristan Murail in the 1970s. At first glance, this relation between free atonality and spectral music seems far-fetched as Grisey and Murail rarely commented on Schoenberg’s theories. Nevertheless, a detailed investigation shows a parallelism of both analytical and aesthetic problems. Both the free atonal Schoenberg and the spectralists argued for developing sound sequences out of the innermost quality of timbre. Besides, the forming of free atonal and spectral sound sequences cannot resort to a structural preformation of material as in dodecaphonic or serial music. Therefore qualities of listening gain major importance. In order to realize free atonal or spectral sound sequences, it is necessary to apply a wide notion of perception: on the one hand, the composer enters the »inner« world of timbre by eaves- dropping on timbral nuances carefully. This perceptual attitude (»Lauschen«) brings to mind the transient presence and alterity of sound. On the other hand, this fascination with an »inner« quality of timbre should not lead to the assumption that free atonal or spectral sound sequences are unfolding in an »auto-generative« manner. Although composers can surrender themselves to a »passive« perception of sonic nuances, they are also compelled to make decisions about the direction of the music – decisions within the area of timbre, which seems to be resistant against decision-making. These decisions eventually constitute what might be perceived as musical logic. As a result, listeners of free atonal and spectral music are confronted with a fundamental tension between »inner« and »outer« compositional aspects: they perceive an illusory perfect and organic growth of sound (cf. Adorno: »Schein des Organischen«). The idea of a subject which articulates itself within a »pure« sound unleashes a tension between sense and its subversion, between active and passive listening. This tension seems to be one of the reasons why Schoenberg hesitated between sound and musical »sense«, and why he was fascinated by the »futuristic phantasy« to reconcile the apparent opposites of timbre and musical logic.

Im Oktober 2008 fand an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz (KUG) der 8. Kongress der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH) zum Thema »Musiktheorie als interdisziplinäres Fach« statt. Die hier vorgelegten gesammelten Beiträge akzentuieren Musiktheorie als multiperspektivische wissenschaftliche Disziplin in den Spannungsfeldern Theorie/Praxis, Kunst/Wissenschaft und Historik/Systematik. Die sechs Kapitel ergründen dabei die Grenzbereiche zur Musikgeschichte, Musikästhetik, zur Praxis musikalischer Interpretation, zur kompositorischen Praxis im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert, zur Ethnomusikologie sowie zur Systematischen Musikwissenschaft. Insgesamt 45 Aufsätze, davon 28 in deutscher, 17 in englischer Sprache, sowie die Dokumentation einer Podiumsdiskussion zeichnen in ihrer Gesamtheit einen höchst lebendigen und gegenwartsbezogenen Diskurs, der eine einzigartige Standortbestimmung des Fachs Musiktheorie bietet. / The 8th congress of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie (GMTH) took place in October 2008 at the University for Music and Dramatic Arts Graz (KUG) on the topic »Music Theory and Interdisciplinarity«. The collected contributions characterize music theory as a multi-faceted scholarly discipline at the intersection of theory/practice, art/science and history/system. The six chapters explore commonalties with music history, music aesthetics, musical performance, compositional practice in twentieth- and twenty-first-century music, ethnomusicology and systematic musicology. A total of 45 essays (28 in German, 17 in English) and the documentation of a panel discussion form a vital discourse informed by contemporaneous issues of research in a broad number of fields, providing a unique overview of music theory today. A comprehensive English summary appears at the beginning of all contributions.

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