Towards the Philosophy of Pure Sound : A Study on Music's Resemblance to language

This essay seeks to expand an understanding of the connection between the young Walter Benjamin’s essay “On Language as Such and on the Language of Man” and Theodor Adornos philosophy of music and philosophy as such. The essay attempts to trace how Adorno transforms Benjamin’s theory of the Divine Name into his musical theory of music as pure sound by demonstrating that the connections are visible throughout his major philosophical works as Negative Dialectics and Aesthetic Theory. The main question then becomes how he puts this into action into his philosophy of music by arguing that his book on Gustav Mahler is the main key for understanding the source of pure sound.