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Schenkerian analysis is a method of Musical Analysis based on the Theories of Heinrich Schenker . The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to reveal the structure of a tonal masterpiece; in fact its basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining Tonality in music. The primary means of describing the structure of a musical passage for the Schenkerian analyst is to show hierarchical relationships among the pitches of the passage. This can be done through making reductions of the music and through a specialized symbolic form of musical notation that Schenker devised to demonstrate various Prolongational Techniques . The musical reductions of Schenkerian analysis are usually arhythmic. This reflects Schenker's belief that the deep, long-range structure of a piece of music has no particular rhythm. This long-range structure is called the Fundamental Structure in Schenkerian analysis, while the more surface aspects of the music are called the foreground. So one could rephrase the previous statement as "the background of a musical composition is arhythmic," or, better yet, " Rhythm is a characteristic of the musical foreground" (See ''Der Freie Satz'' section 21 and chapter 4). Open and closed noteheads, beams, and flags, which show rhythm in ordinary Musical Notation , are used in Schenkerian analysis to show hierarchical relationships between the pitch-events being analyzed. Schenkerian analysis is a ''subjective'', not an objective, method. This means that there is no mechanical procedure for arriving at an analysis for a given piece of music; rather, the analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst. The analysis represents a way of hearing a piece of music. Schenker himself was certain that a tonal masterpiece contains an inner truth-content, although few are sufficiently gifted to appreciate it. Although it is a subject of debate among music theorists whether there is ever/always/sometimes a single correct hearing and analysis of a piece of tonal music, even those who hold that there is a unique correct analysis agree that the analysis can only be arrived at and evaluated subjectively by an expert listener. Therefore learning how to do Schenkerian analysis is above all else learning a way of hearing and understanding tonal music, and it requires study and practice just as learning to play an instrument does. SCHENKER'S GOALS Schenker's primary theoretic aims were to prove the superiority of German music of the Common Practice Period (especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach , Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , Franz Josef Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig Van Beethoven , and Johannes Brahms ) over more modern music such as that of Richard Wagner , Igor Stravinsky , and Arnold Schoenberg , and to show that most of the established music theory teaching of the time, with an emphasis on the theories of his contemporary Hugo Riemann , was misleading and useless for an understanding of the "masterworks." These premises led Schenker to seek the key to an understanding of music in the traditional discipline of Counterpoint , since this is the type of theory the "German Masters" themselves had studied. While Schenker's theory has been tremendously influential, particularly in North America thanks in part to his emigre students Oswald Jonas and Felix Salzer , most "Schenkerians" do not share his exceeding narrow and nationalistic view of musical excellence, and his ideas and methods have been applied to a wide range of composers. Schenker's project, thus, was to show that free composition ('''''freier Satz''''') was an elaboration of '''strict composition''' ('''''strenger Satz'''''), by which Schenker meant '''species Counterpoint''' . He did this by developing a theory of hierarchically organized reductional levels, called '''prolongational levels''', '''voice-leading levels''' ('''''Stimmführungsschichten'''''), or '''transformations''' ('''''Verwandlungen'''''), the idea being that at higher levels in the structure the musical materials conform more closely to those of strict composition. A primary goal in constructing these levels therefore is to show linear connections between notes that may be separated by many measures on the musical surface (since linearity or step-wise motion is the most important characteristic of good Voice Leading ). The basic components of Schenkerian theory and analysis therefore are the nature of the background—that is, the highest voice leading level—and the ways in which the background may be '''prolonged''' (elaborated, transformed) to arrive at the '''foreground'''—i. e. the musical composition. SCHENKERIAN HARMONY Schenker's ''magnum opus'', ''Neue Musikalische Theorien und Phantasien'' ("New Musical Theories and Fantasies"), spans his entire publication career from the early work, '''''Harmonielehre''''' ("Harmony") (volume I) through the formative '''''Kontrapunkt''''' ("Counterpoint") (volumes II.1 and II.2) to the posthumously published '''''Der Freie Satz''''' ("Free Composition") (volume II.3). The organization of this work reflects the organization of Schenkerian analysis itself. The tenets of harmony and counterpoint, given by nature, combine through art to produce the musical work in free composition. The first tenet of Schenkerian harmony is that nature, through the Harmonic Series , gives us the Triad as the ultimate (and only possible) basis for musical composition. (See ''Harmony'' pp 20-29 which includes Schenker's defense of the 5- Limit ). In fact, Schenker's explanation only secures "naturalness" for the ''major'' triad, whereas Schenker describes the ''minor'' triad as an artificial construction of musicians. (''Harmony'' pp 49-52) Despite this difference, in practice the major and minor triads are treated equally in Schenkerian analysis. The basic component of Schenkerian harmony is the '' Stufe '' ( Scale Degree , scale-step). The ''Stufe'' is an abstraction of the idea of a Chord and a revision of Jean-Philippe Rameau 's idea of Basse Fondementale (fundamental bass). A chord in a piece of music ''may'' represent the ''stufe'' corresponding to its Root . However, many surface phenomena in music that ''appear'' to be chords are not actually representative of ''Stufen'' themselves but are voice-leading constructions of a passing nature whose real function is the prolongation of some other ''Stufe''. In short, not all chords represent ''Stufen''. Furthermore, a literal chord is not necessary for the representation of a ''Stufe''. The chord may be Arpeggiated , so that all its tones are not present simultaneously. This arpeggiation may occur at a very background level so that it is not apparent on the musical surface. (In other words, the arpeggiation or chord may be Prolonged , e.g. by passing motions). Sometimes a ''Stufe'' may be represented by only a single note. (See ''Harmony'' pp 133-53). Schenkerian analyses show ''Stufen'' with Roman Numerals . E. g., "I" indicates the Tonic ''Stufe'', "V" indicates the Dominant ''Stufe'', and so on. The practice of Roman Numeral Analysis originated in the theoretic work of Gottfried Weber and was common in Schenker's time. However it should be emphasized that Schenker and Schenkerians after him are generally at odds with the practice of roman numeral analysis, mainly because they believe that it fails to recognise the sensitivity of the meaning of a chord to its musical context (particularly its rhythmic and voice-leading context) and that it tends to project an insufficiently sophisticated theory of Modulation and Tonicization . The ''Stufe'' is an elusive but important concept in Schenkerian theory. Its formulation in Schenker's earliest significant work, ''Harmony'', is associated with the idea of "contrapuntal" or "passing" chords. That is, some chords in music are not harmonic in nature (do not represent real ''Stufen'') but arise by '', a more mature work. Here, the ''Stufen'' is seen as an imaginary Cantus Firmus tone against which the passing chords are constructed in multiple parts, dissonant with the cantus firmus but consonant with one another. This is the most accurate way to think of the roman numerals that sometimes are placed below a Schenkerian analysis, rather than thinking of them as chord Roots . Schenkerian harmonic theory holds that Modulation is an illusory phenomenon in music (or at least in musical "masterworks"). Every complete musical piece projects a single key and ultimately a single ''stufe'' (the tonic). (See Ursatz ). What appear to be modulations in a musical work are actually the result of prolongations. Whenever harmonic progressions suggest new tonics without disrupting the unity of a tonal background in the home key, Schenkerian analysts prefer the weaker term " Tonicization " to "modulation." THE URSATZ See Also: Ursatz The ''Ursatz'' (usually translated as " Fundamental Structure "; see also Satz ) is the basic form of the background in Schenkerian analysis. That is, it represents the most reduced contrapuntal version of a piece of music and shows its most skeletal form, the essential pillars of the tonal structure. One of the tenets of Schenkerian theory is that this basic background counterpoint can only come in a few different versions. This is also the most common point of contention with Schenkerian theory, that there is a basic structure to which all tonal compositions conform. These attacks on the idea of the ''Ursatz'' have lead to many defenses from supporters of Schenkerian theory, among them Allen Forte 's statement that "Schenker's major concept is not that of the ''Ursatz'', as it is sometimes maintained, but that of Structural Level s, a far more inclusive idea." It is important to realize that the ''Ursatz'' itself is not a description of the piece of music; rather the art of tonal composition is (according to Schenkerian theory) in the way in which the ''Ursatz'' is expressed and elaborated. Correspondingly, the art of understanding music, of analysing music, is in penetrating the musical surface and hearing through the foreground to the background—in other words, hearing how the foreground and the background are connected by a series of Prolongations . Forms of the Ursatz For Schenker, the simplest type of "musical composition" is represented by a structure of the following form: This prototypical counterpoint consists of a more specific. The initial note of the ''Ursatz'' is called the ''head-tone'' (''Kopfton''). The only possible head-tones for a piece of music are scale-degrees , , and the tonic (in which case the ''urlinie'' is an octave descent). The three corresponding forms of the ''Urlinie'' are often called the '''3-line''' (--), the '''5-line''' ( ) and the '''octave-line''' ( ---). In all three cases, the V (dominant key area) of the bass arpeggiation corresponds to the penultimate scale-degree in the ''Urlinie''. (This is the most basic form of the background. At the next level of elaboration, it is possible to fill out this bass part.) While Schenker often used the octave-line in his analyses, it has generally fallen out of favor with later analysts and is rarely used nowadays. Initial ascent Frequently the head-tone of the ''Urlinie'' does not coincide with the beginning of the piece or the initial statement of the tonic harmony in the piece. In such cases the background of the analysis includes approach to the head-tone of the ''Urlinie'' and this is known as the initial ascent ('''''Anstieg'''''). The initial ascent takes the form of either an Arpeggiation or a Linear Progression from one tone of the tonic triad to another. For instance, if the head-tone of the piece is scale-degree 3, the initial ascent could take the form of an arpeggiation from scale-degree 5 (5-1-3), or a linear progression from the tonic (1-2-3), among others. SCHENKERIAN NOTATION Schenker created a symbolic language from modified musical notation creating graphic analyses, or graphs. Forte groups Schenker's graphs in " Free Composition " 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. (Beach 1983) In modern Schenkerian analysis structural graphs are the norm. In the language of Schenkerian symbols open noteheads are used for notes of the fundamental line and their supporting bass notes. These are usually stemmed and beamed together and accompanied by careted scale-degree numbers. Flagged open notes indicate the deeper middleground Prolongations of the Fundamental Structure , frequently Neighbor-note embellishments of the ''Urlinie''. Other stemmed closed notes show a subsequent stage of middleground prolongation. Occasionally these may be beamed together beneath the beamed open notes to show a middleground image of the fundamental structure. In this case the careted scale-degree numbers should be in parentheses to show that this is not the true fundamental line. Slurs indicate a variety of middleground connections, especially Linear Progressions , and dotted slurs show the retention of a single note over a long span or the Registral Displacement (or octave coupling) of a particular note. Other symbols include those for Interruptions , Unfolding , and Voice Exchange . TECHNIQUES OF PROLONGATION The meat of a Schenkerian analysis is in showing how a background structure may be expanded step-by-step until it results in the succession of musical events on the surface of the composition itself. We refer to this as the process of prolongation. There are many techniques for prolonging musical structures, and it is impossible to make a complete list of them given the unlimited nature of compositional ingenuity. This section includes most of the more common techniques one might encounter in a Schenkerian analysis. The first few focus on those techniques, Arpeggiation , Interruption , and Neighbor Note , which are important techniques at the earliest levels of prolongation—that is, those that may prolong the ''Ursatz'' itself. These techniques are common at later levels of elaboration also. Arpeggiation One important means of prolongation is the composing-out ('''''Auskomponierung''''') of a triad. This means that two or more notes of the triad are presented in succession rather than simultaneously. (In other words the vertical is made horizontal). This is called ''arpeggiation'' . The ''Ursatz'' includes an example of arpeggiation in the lower voice, called the Bass Arpeggiation. That is, Schenkerian theory views the I - V - I motion in the lower voice of the ''Ursatz'' as an arpeggiation of the root and fifth of the tonic triad. This basic bass arpeggiation may be further prolonged by the addition of the note III in the bass, transforming the ''Ursatz'' to ^ ^ ^ 3 2 1 I III V I or, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5 4 3 2 1 I III V I In music of the Romantic Period this frequently takes the form of a section in the key of the Chromatic Mediant III# (when the tonic key is major). Such an arpeggiation in the bass is especially common in minor key pieces, which move easily to the relative major, III. Arpeggiation can occur as a prolongational technique at the foreground also, and at various levels inbetween. An example of a common middleground use of arpeggiation is in the Initial Ascent to the head-tone of the ''Urlinie''. Another common use of arpeggiation at later middleground levels is in the service of a register Transfer . Interruption Another fundamental prolongational technique, one that applies directly to ''Ursatz'' itself is called Interruption ('''''Unterbrechung'''''). Interruption is an important Form -generating prolongation. It works as follows: beginning with the ''Ursatz'': ^ ^ ^ 3 2 1 I V I one prolongs the resolution of scale-degree 2 to 1 by going back to degree 3 and replaying the whole sequence: | ||
| When This Is Used As A Form-generating Prolongation, The Interruption () Marks The Major Formal Division That It Creates A Typical Example Is (scale-degree 3 Or 5) On A Smaller Scale, Form-generating Interruption Is Typical In Movements Of A | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/dance_suite" class="copylinks">Dance Suite The octave-line (the third form of the ''Ursatz'') doesn't generally yield to prolongation by interruption (Instead, the arrival at scale-degree 5 in the principle voice may provide a point of formal division) |
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