Crisis of Expression

In Stanley Cavell’s “Philosophy of the Unheard,” a short lecture on Schoenberg given at a Harvard conference in 1999, two remarks in particular stand out. First, there is his suggestion that there is a relation between the Schoenbergian “row” and the Wittgensteinian “rule.” Second, there is the comment he makes, on the strength of his reading of Schoenberg’s Letters, about the extent to which Schoenberg was preoccupied with being understood. They stand out because they constitute Cavell’s most explicit and direct attempt to comment on Schoenberg’s work. For the rest, there is much of interest, but the relation to Schoenberg in much of the lecture is indirect or oblique, a factor also significant for the present discussion. The two remarks provide a welcome initial orientation for what I want to say in the present paper.