Dr Mark Abel, University of Brighton

Adorno has no time for the idea of music as a language of emotions or of the soul, nor does he believe that music has universal grammatical and syntactical rules. Yet, he claims that music has language characteristics, and is also a form of cognition. So what does he mean? In order to get to the bottom of it, we need to know how he understands language. This paper will examine how Adorno's view compares with the Marxist theory of language and consciousness developed by Valentin Voloshinov, and will explore the extent to which approaching music from this direction can shed light on the thorny question of musical meaning.

Mark Abel's research aims to make a contribution to the development of a Marxist musicology. He is a saxophonist and pianist, and teaches politics and philosophy at Brighton University. His recent book, Groove: An Aesthetic of Measured Time, is now out in paperback (Haymarket, 2015).

Free admission