By a “Totentanz der Prinzipien,” one might mean a dance in which the principles dance themselves to death, or a dance in which something dances between principles, much as human beings are said to dance their final death dance suspended between life and death, time and space, body and spirit. Focusing on points of contact between the work of Theodor W. Adorno and Arnold Schoenberg, this essay explores the idea of the Totentanz to develop a philosophical theory of Schweben (suspension) that captures the particular way Adorno believed music could be significantly philosophical and philosophy itself musical.