Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach

Rating:
Summary: Schenkerian analysis text strong on presentation, conten
Review: This text is intended for graduate students in music (and perhaps for advanced undergraduates as well). It replaces Allen Forte and Steven Gilbert's Schenker text of ca. 1979 as an authoritative introduction to the themes and tools of Schenker's way of looking at the music of the Western Classical tradition. Long considered a "secret code" impenetrable to outsiders, Schenkerian analysis has at last been accepted as defining the mainstream of music theory in this country, thanks to the widespread availability since the '80s of English translations of his most important books, _Harmonielehre_, _Kontrapunkte_, the _Five Graphic Analyses_, and Schenker's late summary of his techniques and theories, _Der Freie Satz_. Cadwallader and Gagne succeed where Forte and Gilbert failed to find a clear, uncluttered style of presentation and a tone that is suited to the level of preparation one is likely to find among the target student population. A good test of this boo! k's success is that it is _almost_ usable by students with little or no prior specialized background; it succeeds to a remarkable degree in making Schenkerian theory a tool for musicians at large, rather than for specialists. A glossary of specialized terms would have been useful, as well as more extensive treatment of certain topics such as mixture about which Schenker had quite idiosyncratic ideas, but all in all this is a teacher-friendly, student-friendly contribution to the study of music theory which should be known to everyone in the discipline.

Rating:
Summary: Schenkerian analysis text strong on presentation, conten
Review: This text is intended for graduate students in music (and perhaps for advanced undergraduates as well). It replaces Allen Forte and Steven Gilbert's Schenker text of ca. 1979 as an authoritative introduction to the themes and tools of Schenker's way of looking at the music of the Western Classical tradition. Long considered a "secret code" impenetrable to outsiders, Schenkerian analysis has at last been accepted as defining the mainstream of music theory in this country, thanks to the widespread availability since the '80s of English translations of his most important books, _Harmonielehre_, _Kontrapunkte_, the _Five Graphic Analyses_, and Schenker's late summary of his techniques and theories, _Der Freie Satz_. Cadwallader and Gagne succeed where Forte and Gilbert failed to find a clear, uncluttered style of presentation and a tone that is suited to the level of preparation one is likely to find among the target student population. A good test of this boo! k's success is that it is _almost_ usable by students with little or no prior specialized background; it succeeds to a remarkable degree in making Schenkerian theory a tool for musicians at large, rather than for specialists. A glossary of specialized terms would have been useful, as well as more extensive treatment of certain topics such as mixture about which Schenker had quite idiosyncratic ideas, but all in all this is a teacher-friendly, student-friendly contribution to the study of music theory which should be known to everyone in the discipline.