Schenkerian analysis

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Schenkerian analysis refers to methods of musical analysis based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. In general, such an approach is characterized by a generative view of musical structure: Schenker understood musical compositions as complex elaborations of basic musical formulae. A Schenkerian analyst thus typically seeks to "reverse engineer" a composition by "revealing" the successive layers of elaboration. However, it is important to note that the object of study in Schenkerian analysis is one's own understanding of a work's structure as a listener, not the compositional history of the piece. Seen this way, Schenkerian analysis (and, more broadly, much of music theory) could be thought of as a kind of first-person psychology, cognitive science, or phenomenology, concerned with the explicit description and explanation of musical effects, and among Schenker's principal accomplishments is the invention of a vocabulary for discussing certain types of musical effects with an unprecedented level of specificity. Of course, the usefulness of this vocabulary in various contexts continues to be a subject of debate.

Schenker's work dealt almost exclusively with music of the tonal tradition, i.e. Western art music of the common practice period, and this literature remains the primary focus of contemporary Schenkerian theorists. However, attempts have been made to apply Schenkerian concepts to Western art music of other periods, and to popular and folk music of a variety of cultures.

Contents

1 The Ursatz
2 Diminution
3 Legacy and responses
4 Further reading
5 Sources
6 External links

The Ursatz

For Schenker, the simplest type of "musical composition" is represented by a structure of the following form:

This prototypical counterpoint, which Schenker called the Ursatz (usually translated as "fundamental structure"; see also satz), consists of a melodic prototype (the "Urlinie") and a harmonic prototype (the "Bassbrechung"). The Urlinie is "a stepwise descent from one of the triad notes to the tonic (hence, 3-2-1, 5-4-3-2-1, 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1)" (Middleton 1990, p.193). The bass arpeggiation is a two-stage progression: first moving from I to V and then from V back to I. Schenker came to understand every tonal work to be an embellishment of an Ursatz, making the claim that a tonal work unfolds in a particular triad or key more specific.

According to Allen Forte, "Schenker's major concept is not that of the Ursatz, as it is sometimes maintained, but that of structural levels, a far more inclusive idea." Schenker called these levels Schichten. He called only the Ursatz background or Hintergrund and he called the foreground Vordergrund. (Beach 1983)

Schenker used traditional musical notation with modified implications, and his own symbols, on graphs or graphic analyses. Forte groups Schenker's graphs into "rhythmic" and "structural" types. In rhythmic reduction, often called metric reduction, the original note durations and their meanings are kept, while in structural analysis longer rhythmic values indicate greater structural importance or level. In Free Composition half notes, sometimes whole notes, are used for the fundamental line also accompanied by careted scale degree and its supporting bass. Quarter notes indicate middleground, linear progressions and their supporting bass lines, and eighth notes usually indicate embellishments or leading tone motion to the tonic. Beams and slurs connect and group together parts of the same structural level. Other symbols include those for interruptions and omissions. (Beach 1983)

Diminution

In Schenkerian theory, the process of elaborating basic structures by generating subordinate tones is often called diminution. A diminution may be classified as a passing note (P), neighboring note (N, upper or lower, complete or incomplete, direct or indirect), consonant skip (CS), arpeggiation (Arp). These can also stand as nonchord tones, but Schenkerian analysis differentiates levels not expressed by the terms chordal and nonchordal tones. Diminutions may also be prefixes or suffixes. (Forte and Gilbert, 1982).

"The function of a note is determined by its harmonic and contrapuntal setting." Thus, whether a note is part of a diminution is determined by its context. For example, if two adjacent notes alternate, the one which is 'unsupported' by the harmony is [often] a neighboring note. (Forte and Gilbert 1982)

Legacy and responses

Fred Maus (2004, p.162) compares Schenker's "creation of an elaborate tonal theory in response to post-tonal music" with "sexologists' back-formation of the concept of heterosexuality as a complement to their new concept of homosexuality." Finding similarities, "to some extent" including the "conceptualization of the normative or unmarked category" following "awareness of an alternative." Though Schenker considered nontonal or atonal music unnatural, unlike the sexologists who focused more on minoritized categories, he focused on elaborating his theory of tonal music.

Milton Babbitt admired Schenker's work and his own work may be seen as part response, revision, and alternative to Schenker's. For example, he suggests that the properties described as natural phenomenon by Schenker be considered axioms and he also formulated a system to compose twelve-tone music that was "equally intricate and fruitful." Allen Forte also responded to Schenker by providing an alternative system applicable to the analysis of nontonal nontwelve tone music. (ibid, p.162-163)

Sources

Beach, David, ed. (1983). Aspects of Schenkerian Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Maus, Fred (2004). "Sexual and Musical Categories", The Pleasure of Modernist Music. ISBN 1580461433.
Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.

External links

[Schenker Guide by Tom Pankhurst]
Tim Smith's introduction to Schenkerian concepts in a Bach fugue: [Shockwave movie] or [pdf]

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