Harmony

by Heinrich Schenker

Book Overview

Harmony, Heinrich Schenker's first published work, originally appeared in German in 1906 as "New Musical Theories and Phantasies, by an Artist." Its unusual title indicates what was to be the rationale of Schenker's lifework, that artistic problems call for artistic solutions. Schenker's dedication to the formulation of a complete musical theory above the commonplace theoretical discussions was, in essence, his quest for a pattern in nature for music...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226737330
• ISBN13: 9780226737331
• Release Date: October 1980
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 391 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Historical

This book is the book that people talk about! Of course, there are reasons why people talk about it. For beginners, the beginning might seem a bit too difficult, but later things start to make sense. You will find a lot of "Never thought of that before!" moments. One drawback, in my opinion, is that the book is kind of verbose, hence unnecessarily thick.

A bizarre yet groundbreaking mix of Music Theory and Natural/Aesthetic Philosophy!

Read this book and find out for once and all what the big deal about a II V I progressions are. According to Schenker all art is deeply rooted in and imitative of "nature" - - though at times he admits that reconciliations with natural law are required. - - Is this true? Well a whole debate about nature vs. artifical society and the whole realm of aesthetic philosophy can arise outside this book, and one can get into a whole lot of hoo-ha that most musicians don't usually think of when we're tapping our feets to the changes. Schenker however thinks and observes a lot. Unlike most theoreticians he was anything but dry... he was actually a creative thinker writing a plea for musicians to be both *creative* and scientific... this book represents the beginings of his efforts to do so... and it is nothing less than engaging, if not provocative. Over 100 years have past since this book was written. Much of the material on a practical level has been absorbed into mainstream music theory, though in much simpler terms. What makes this book so amazing (besides being "the source") is that Schenker reveals the philosophy underlying musical ideas which we take for granted as "common sense today" (*not to give the wrong impressions, some of his ideas, of course, are debated!) - - Ironically, while much of the practical end theory is definitely modern day common sense, some of the philosophy is - - interesting to say the least, at times a majorly enlightening and different way of looking at things, at other times head scratching "wuh?" or realizing that he definitely was a product of his era. Schenker is also fascinating due to his wry sense of humor as well and ability to draw examples from the most mundane aspects of daily life to the behaviour of the notes (to back his claim that true art imitates nature.) All in all, I should warn you... today's music theory books have a tendency to "dummy down" - - Musical theoreticians may be "authoritive" but they are rarely original, and even when they are they don't like to be too profound... Schenker however is a German Philosopher with a capital "G" and "P", as a result, if you're a typical musician looking for something move along the lines of a typical "Theory Made Simple" book, move on.... this book definitely requires a lot of thinking and absorbing. In the end, if you can and are willing to deal with it, you will not walk away from the book - - if not a bit confused, definitely seeing LIFE as well as music very differently ! Now on to Schillinger...

An important work in the writings on an outstanding and important musicologist

"Schenkerian Analysis" has become a very important technique in understanding tonal music. Heinrich Schenker was an outstanding musicologist. He was born in Austria in 1868 and died there in 1935. During his career he developed several close disciples who became influential apostles of his methods and views. Probably the most influential in the United States were Oswald Jonas and Felix Salzer. This book was edited and annotated by Jonas. Schenker had some views towards the fundamental harmony and how human beings perceived it that he might have considered scientific, but that are nothing short of mystical to us. There is no doubt that his techniques of analyzing tonal music and viewing the compositions as the horizontalization of a core musical idea is compelling. However, his fundamental ideas of how music came to be are not essential to accepting his analytical methods. This is an interesting document and has caused all kinds of debate about many things. If you want to learn about Schenker and his ideas at some point you will need to come to terms with this book. It came out in 1906 so it is hardly juvenilia. There also seem to be various differences with what he came to say in later writings. However, this book is about harmony not about counterpoint - that was a later work. The book is not a theory text suitable for coursework and it has as much musical criticism as it does musical pedagogy. Still, it is eminently worth reading as a kind of poetics of harmony by an important and influential musicologist.

Good analytic approach

Indeed very interesting, enhanced with many examples from the masters' works. Schenker's analysis (scale step approach) is very helpful to correctly parse harmonic progressions.

A different approach to music theory and composition

For the studied musician or composer, this book offers a new approach to the way we veiw both music theory and composition. Schenker begins with a detailed description of how we perceive music based on the natural laws of overtones. He then demonstrates how the "old systems", i.e. the church modes no longer, or ever really could be consisdered as independant systems of tonality. The only valid systems are the major and the minor. The first half encompasses his broad yet clarifying theories and the second half demonstrates these theories in practical applications. The concepts of "compositional unfolding" and many others have increased my understanding and comprehension of theory as it should be.....the way Bach, Beethoven, and many of the greats perceived it before Ramaeu. This is definetly worth the time!