"Great works of art, Adorno knew, always resist the attempt tosubsume them under theoretical categories. In the case of a supremeartist like Beethoven, a lifetime of futile efforts by Adorno tocomplete a major philosophical study bore ironic witness to thisinsight. The struggle to write his impossible book left behind,however, a wealth of tantalizing fragments, which have the addedvalue of revealing Adorno's own process of intellectual production.Masterfully reconstructed and annotated by Rolf Tiedemann, they arenow available in Edmund Jephcott's elegant translation. In theirvery "failure" they demonstrate the abiding power of Adorno's claimthat the dialectic of art and philosophy must remain unreconciledand negative." Martin Jay, University of California,Berkeley
"These fragments shed valuable light not only on Adorno's thinkingon Beethoven, but also equally importantly on the sources ofAdorno's philosophy of music. Rolf Tiedemann's sensitive editinghas produced a remarkably coherent volume out of the most disparatematerial, while Edmund Jephcott's translation rises magnificentlyto a difficult task." Max Paddison, University of Durham