Verso libero, prosa musicale e critica della cultura. Lettura dell’aforisma 142 dei “Minima Moralia”

The essay examines aphorism 142 (German song accords with this) from Theodor W. Adorno’s "Minima Moralia". This text is difficult to decipher not only because of its intricate syntax, but also because of the many and often implicit cultural references that punctuate it. In this dense miniature, Adorno makes history of literature and history of music interact, comparing free verse poetry with musical prose and coming to the conclusion that modern ‘carefully elaborated’ prose – akin to free verse – arises in an attempt to reconcile the metaphysical and sacred charm of verse with the secularisation of language, thus attempting not to fall back into ‘myth’, but at the same time to save modern language from standardisation and commodification.