Phenomenology, Physiognomy, and the “Radio Voice” Brian Kane Current of Music, comprising papers, drafts, and memoranda written in English during Theodor W. Adorno’s time at the Princeton Radio Research Project (PRRP), marks the beginning of his so-called years of exile in Amer- ica. 1 As a volume, it sheds light on the New York period (1938–41), which has always been something of a lacuna despite the popularity of certain essays such as “On the Fetish-Character in Music and the Regression in Listening.” Adorno’s own refections on the period, published in “Scientifc Experiences of a European Scholar in America,” are Janus-faced. While this late essay answers some questions about the signifcance of Adorno’s work at the PRRP, it leaves just as many open. For example, before the publication of Current of Music, it was nearly impossible to assess the veracity of Adorno’s tantalizing claim that “the Princeton project . . . contained the core of the Philosophy of New Music”—a claim of great musicological interest. 2 “Scientifc Experi- ences” presents a critique of American sociological method, in particular Paul Lazarsfeld’s methods of “administrative research,” and a qualifed affrmation New German Critique 129, Vol. 43, No. 3, November 2016 DOI 10.1215/0094033X-3625385 © 2016 by New German Critique, Inc. 91 I want to thank Peter E. Gordon, Alexander Rehding, and Michael Rosen, the organizers of the con- ference “Adorno: Music and Modernity,” for their invitation to present this article at Harvard Univer- sity, October 25–26, 2013. I also want to thank Lydia Goehr, Chris Hasty, Martin Jay, Gundula Kreuzer, Max Paddison, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments and suggestions. 1. Adorno, Current of Music. 2. Adorno, “Scientifc Experiences,” 228. New German Critique Published by Duke University Press