‘Material refers to all that is being formed’, writes Adorno in Ästhetische Theorie. As we have seen, however, Adorno insists that ‘material’ is not simply that which is formed and shaped in the compositional process of any particular musical work, as ‘raw material’ (Stoff); musical material is itself already historically ‘pre-formed’. That is to say, musical material is mediated not only because it is shaped, more or less consistently, within the form of the work itself, but precisely because it is already historically and culturally pre-formed before any individual act of composition even begins.

But here lies the ambiguity: Adorno appears to emphasize the general concept of material over that of the particular musical work. It is the ‘progress of musical material’ he seems to see as a manifestation of the ‘progress of spirit’, rather than the individual musical work. One is left to assume that the general progress of the material can exist only in and through its manifestation in particular works, although this is not directly stated.