We are thrilled to welcome Professor David Levin (Jan. 21, 4:30–6:00 p.m., Logan 801), who will present a paper on “Adorno’s Spectacles: Stravinsky and the Place of Dialectics.” Professor Levin writes:

“In the course of his critique of Stravinsky, Theodor Adorno famously argued that Stravinsky’s music denied the musical subject a basis from which to engage the rhythmic displacement that so forcefully and so thoroughly characterized his music.  Unlike the modernist practices which Adorno celebrated, the rhythmic strategies of Stravinsky’s music purportedly stood in for a compositional practice that canceled meaningful critical engagement.  The question that I propose to pursue in this paper involves a dimension that Adorno, in his critique, tended to disregard, namely, the role of mise-en-scene in the disposition of Stravinsky’s work.  What happens when the auditor is also a spectator, when the composition in question is staged, its musical discourse supplemented by embodied action?  And given the range and diversity of productions of The Rite of Spring, could one imagine a choreographic practice that displaces the displacement?  What would such a practice entail?  And what would be its consequences?”

We look forward to what is sure to be a stimulating and indeed spectacular talk!