(b Wisniowczyki, Galicia, 19 June 1868; d Vienna, 13 Jan 1935). Austrian theorist. While at the Gymnasium in Lemberg (now L’viv), he studied piano with Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin. Following the wishes of his father, a Jewish physician, he went to Vienna to study law at the university (1884–8). While completing his law degree he enrolled in the conservatory (1887–9), where he studied the piano with Ernst Ludwig and harmony with Bruckner. After withdrawing from the conservatory to support his widowed mother and sister and brother, he met with modest success in Vienna as an accompanist, composer, critic and editor. He regularly accompanied the Dutch baritone Johannes Messchaert. After the turn of the century, however, he focussed on writing, editing and private piano teaching. This work attracted the attention of musicians and students: Wilhelm Furtwängler, impressed by Schenker’s treatise on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (1912), became a lifelong friend; Anthony van Hoboken gave financial support to his work in later years; and several of his pupils became eminent scholars and teachers, including Felix Eberhard von Cube, Oswald Jonas, Felix Salzer, Otto Vrieslander and Hans Weisse.
Pervading his work is a deep, abiding interest in preserving and understanding the intentions of composers. He deplored the intrusive and obfuscating alterations that editors such as Hans von Bülow had made to works of the past masters, because he thought they obscured the composers’ intentions. He prepared editions of works by Handel, C.P.E. Bach and Beethoven based on first editions and, where available, autographs. Among the most significant are the ‘Erläuterungsausgaben’ of Beethoven’s last five piano sonatas (the edition of op.106 was not completed due to lack of an extant autograph). This editorial work led him to instigate the establishment of the Vienna Archiv für Photogramme musikalischer Meister-Handschriften in 1927 under the direction of O.E. Deutsch, with funds provided by van Hoboken (it is now in A-Wn).
Schenker’s theory amounts to a probing analysis of musical cognition within the tradition of Western European music as practised in the 18th and 19th centuries. In his theoretical writings he established the cognitive prototypes of musical perception, based upon subtle readings of works by composers widely recognized as the leading artists in the tradition, vigorous examination of his own hearing and a thorough study of the evidence presented indirectly in the disciplines of species counterpoint (according to Fux) and thorough-bass (according to C.P.E. Bach). In his analytical writings he illustrated how his theory of musical cognition operated in the perception of musical artworks. The cognition Schenker described is the superior competence of a skilled practitioner, not the ordinary competence of average musicians or listeners. He was convinced, in fact, that his theory accurately described the mind and intentions of master composers. To the extent that it is a theory of how mental prototypes shape musical perception, his theory is consistent in its approach with the most recent advances in the understanding of perception.
The core of his theory is contained in the three volumes of Neue musikalischen Theorien und Phantasien, i: Harmonielehre (1906); ii: Kontrapunkt (bk 1, 1910; bk 2, 1922); and iii: Der freie Satz (1935). Conceptually speaking, the beginning of the set is Kontrapunkt, in which Schenker explicated the rules of the Fuxian species method and critiqued the formulations and explanations of Fux, Albrechtsberger, Cherubini and Bellermann. Taking the concept of triadic consonance as axiomatic, he defined the character of intervallic relations between and within melodic lines and established the transient rhythmic nature of dissonance, with its ineluctable need for future resolution into consonance. He elucidated the rhythmic and melodic aspects of the concept of passing (Durchgang) and pointed out ways in which the concept of passing could be extended (or ‘prolonged’) to cover more complex tonal configurations. Later writings reveal that he regarded the even pace of strict counterpoint as a norm for interpreting the rhythm of free melodies. In Book 1 he frequently provided insights into the connection between strict counterpoint and free composition (freier Satz), where interpreting the behaviour of voices is influenced by other factors such as harmonic progression, motivic repetition and the desire for special compositional effects. In Book 2 he extended the principles of two-voice settings to counterpoint of three or more voices and concluded by proposing that harmonic scale degrees play the role of the cantus firmus tones in free compositions.
In Harmonielehre Schenker elaborated the concept of the harmonic scale degree (Stufe), which he defined as a triad whose root is located on a scale of perfect fifths emanating from a tonic triad. The triads in this series form a diatonic system. He argued that the individual harmonic degree could be manifested melodically, as a single chord, or as a contrapuntal complex of many lines and many chords, and he formulated a set of principles for identifying harmonic degrees in compositions. He also described the psychology of ascribing tonic function to a triad, the forms of harmonic progression (Stufengang) and the procedure for giving a harmonic degree the temporary function of a tonic (Tonikalisierung, ‘tonicization’). With the concept of tonicization he reinterpreted previous notions of ‘key’ and ‘modulation’. This permitted him to assert plausibly that the tonal composition expresses a single tonality, within which one or more non-tonic degrees may be tonicized for a period of time. A triad, for example, that is the second tonic in a sonata exposition may also be regarded as a component of a broader harmonic progression unfolding in the main key.
In Der freie Satz, published shortly after his death, Schenker expounded ideas initially developed in essays in Der Tonwille (1921–4) and Das Meisterwerk in der Musik (1925–30). The idea with the most wide-ranging application is the Zug (‘linear progression’), which can be defined as a direct passing between two non-adjacent notes. With this idea Schenker was able to describe melodic movement with great precision: departures, arrivals, detours, reversals and so forth. The Zug is a norm for interpreting the ebb and flow of free melodies, just as even pace is a norm for intepreting the rhythm of free melodies. In the 1920s he began to interpret large-scale melodic trajectories in terms of a simple line that he called the Urlinie, an idea introduced in his commentated edition of Beethoven’s op. 101 (1921). Initially, the Urlinie was a chain of linear progressions that spanned a section or movement, counterpointed by a progression of Stufen; these simple lines frequently contained motivic repetitions. In later writings and in Der freie Satz the Urlinie became a single Zug that descends from the third, fifth or octave to the root of the tonic triad, and the lower harmonic counterpoint of abstract Stufen became the structure of a bass line that arpeggiates the tonic triad (root-fifth-root). Schenker coined the term Ursatz for the contrapuntal combination of an Urlinie-Zug and Bassbrechung (‘bass arpeggiation’).
Der freie Satz is structured as a detailed explication of the proposition that the tonal composition unfolds in a single triad, a proposal put forth three decades earlier in Harmonielehre. Schenker explained concepts that enable a composer or listener to sustain a single triad through time, which is to say that his theory describes forms of musical memory: how to keep a single triad in mind over a period of time and how to interpret configurations of notes as contributing to the continuity of that memory. Der freie Satz is thus more of a treatise in music psychology than a textbook of analysis. Its principal topic is the conceptual structure of the triadically tonal musical mind. Schenker proceeded from a ‘fundamental structure’ (the Ursatz) through a series of progressive elaborations to a description of a richly complex sequence of events. The middleground of the theory is a repertory of linear configurations that arise repeatedly in the analysis of tonal works: interruption, arpeggiation, reaching-over, various types of linear progression, unfolding, register transfer and coupling. Ever mindful of the particularities of individual compositions, he also discussed the stunningly diverse combinations of relationships that are actualized in masterworks. Hence, in the last and longest section of Der freie Satz, the so-called foreground of the theory, he discussed how concepts such as harmony, counterpoint, metre, motivic repetition and form interact with the conceptual structure of voice-leading. But despite containing many fascinating, even brilliant insights into individual compositions, Der freie Satz remains only one component of Schenker’s theory.
Proof of the theoretical claims made in Neue musikalischen Theorien und Phantasien lies in the interpretations which those claims made possible. Accordingly, Schenker decided at the outset of his writing career that he would supplement Theorien und Phantasien with texts devoted to individual masterpieces, in order to illustrate how his theory of the master musician’s mind worked in practice. This ‘literature supplement’ includes the commentated edition of J.S. Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue (1910), the treatise on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the Beethoven ‘Erläuterungsausgaben’, and interpretative essays in Der Tonwille and Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, the latter including extremely detailed treatments of Mozart’s G minor Symphony k550 and Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony. The interpretative texts have a fixed format: representation of the work’s content, discussion of sketches or manuscripts (if extant), an edition of the score or commentary on published editions, discussion of issues related to performance and critique of the relevant secondary literature.
Representation of a work’s content consists of detailed description of the ‘responses’ (Wirkungen, ‘effects’) which the composer intended the tonal configurations to elicit in the properly attuned listener or performer. Schenker was concerned above all with ‘synthesis’, by which he meant the interaction, sometimes cooperative, sometimes antagonistic, of the independent modes of musical cognition: the several dispositions to hear tones in terms of harmony, counterpoint, linear progression, motivic repetition, form and possibly programme or text. He generally narrated the course of musical events from beginning to end, starting with the long-range trajectory of the Ursatz and proceeding to finer details. The texts in Der Tonwille and Das Meisterwerk in der Musik are accompanied by illustrations that use a combination of musical notation and special symbols to represent the trajectories of voice-leading and harmony. Schenker described long-range, mid-range and short-range melodic trajectories in a set of ‘layers’ (Schichten), divided under the headings background, middleground and foreground. The most detailed of these is the Urlinie-Tafel, a ‘chart’ that lays out all the linear and harmonic trajectories, establishes their connection with the Urlinie and shows the formal articulations and principal thematic units.
With the exception of the Fünf Urlinie-Tafeln (1932), Schenker made extensive use of prose to describe the nuances of musical effects. While a musical illustration, for example, could clearly show the path of a linear progression (Zug), only prose permitted description of what it is like to follow that path: how the linear progression moves in a particular direction and in a particular location within the texture of the piece, how it is paced, whether it is hesitant or storming, tumbling or dragging, how directly or indirectly the goal is reached, and whether setbacks, delays or detours are encountered. Several texts even include highly nuanced programmatic descriptions based on observation of the musical effects, but he strongly criticized the rhetorical excesses of hermeneutic writers such as Hermann Kretzschmar, Wilhelm von Lenz, Paul Bekker and A.B. Marx, because they failed to demonstrate a connection between the composer’s configuration of tones and their highly figurative descriptions. Schenker intended his publications to aid performers more than scholars. Annotated editions and commentaries on performing practice were meant to be of direct practical utility, while the theoretical and interpretative writings were meant to help performers refine and train their musical intuitions.
Several projects were left unfinished at his death, including treatises on form and performing practice as well as numerous interpretations of musical works. Much of his Nachlass is contained in the Ernst Oster Collection (US-NYp); a smaller amount is held in the Oswald Jones Memorial Collection, Heinrich Schenker Archive, at the University of California, Riverside; and some portions belong to the estate of Felix Salzer.
See also Analysis, §§II, 4, and figs.18–22; Arpeggiation (ii); Ausfaltung; Auskomponierung; Höherlegung; Koppelung; Layer; Obligate Lage; Prolongation; Teiler; Tieferlegung; Übergreifen; Unterbrechung; Untergreifen; Urlinie; Ursatz; Zug (i).
ROBERT SNARRENBERG
Ein Beitrag zur Ornamentik als Einführung zu Ph. Em. Bachs Klavierwerken (Vienna, 1903, rev. 2/1908/R; Eng. trans. in Music Forum, iv, 1976, 1–140)
Neue musikalische Theorien und Phantasien, i: Harmonielehre (Stuttgart, 1906; Eng. trans., 1954/R); ii/1: Kontrapunkt: Cantus firmus und zweistimmiger Satz (Vienna, 1910; Eng. trans., 1987); ii/2: Kontrapunkt: drei- und mehrstimmiger Satz, Übergänge zum freien Satz (Vienna, 1922; Eng. trans., 1987); iii: Der freie Satz (Vienna, 1935, rev. 2/1956 by O. Jonas; Eng. trans., 1979)
Beethovens neunte Sinfonie (Vienna, 1912/R; Eng. trans., 1992)
Der Tonwille (Vienna, 1921–4; Eng. trans., forthcoming) [in 10 issues]
Beethovens V. Sinfonie (Vienna, 1925/R) [orig. pubd serially in Der Tonwille]
Das Meisterwerk in der Musik (Munich, 1925–30/R) [Eng. trans., 1994–7]
Fünf Urlinie-Tafeln (Vienna, 1932, rev. 2/1969 by F. Salzer as Five Graphic Music Analyses)
ed.: J. Brahms: Oktaven und Quinten u.a. (Vienna, 1933; Eng. trans. in Music Forum, v, 1980, 1–196) [facs.]
ed. H. Federhofer: Heinrich Schenker als Essayist und Kritiker: gesammelte Aufsätze, Rezensionen und kleinere Berichte aus den Jahren 1891–1901 (Hildesheim, 1990)
Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach: Klavierwerke (Vienna, 1902–3)
Georg Frideric Handel: Sechs Orgelkonzerte (Vienna, 1904)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Chromatische Phantasie und Fuge: kritische Ausgabe mit Anhang (Vienna, 1910), rev. 2/1969 by O. Jonas; Eng. trans., 1984
Ludwig van Beethoven: Die letzten [fünf] Sonaten von Beethoven: kritische Ausgabe mit Einführung und Erläuterung (Vienna, 1913–21, rev. 2/1971–2 by O. Jonas as Beethoven: Die letzten Sonaten; Sonate, Op. 27 Nr. 2 (Vienna, 1921) [facs. of autograph and 3 sketch leaves]; Klaviersonaten nach den Autographen und Erstdrucken rekonstruiert (Vienna, 1921–3/R, rev. 1945–7 by E. Ratz)
O. Jonas: Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: eine Einführung in die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers (Vienna, 1934, 2/1972 as Einfürung in die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers; Eng. trans., 1982/R)
R. Sessions: ‘Heinrich Schenker's Contribution’, MM, xii (1934–5), 170–75
Der Dreiklang: Monatsschrift für Musik (Vienna, 1937–8/R)
A.T. Katz: Challenge to Musical Tradition: a New Concept of Tonality (New York and London, 1945/R)
F. Salzer: Structural Hearing: Tonal Coherence in Music (New York, 1952, 2/1962)
A. Forte: ‘Schenker’s Conception of Musical Structure’, JMT, iii (1959), 1–30
E. Oster: ‘Register and the Large-Scale Connection’, JMT, v (1961), 54
O. Jonas: ‘Heinrich Schenker und grosse Interpreten’, ÖMz, xix (1964), 584–9
Music Forum (1967–) [incl. many exx. of Schenkerian analysis]
S. Slatin: The Theories of Heinrich Schenker in Perspective (diss., Columbia U., 1967)
D. Beach: ‘A Schenker Bibliography, JMT, xiii (1969), 1–37
F. Salzer and C. Schachter: Counterpoint in Composition: the Study of Voice Leading (New York, 1969/R)
A. Komar: Theory of Suspensions: a Study of Metrical and Pitch Relations in Tonal Music (Princeton, NJ, 1971)
J. Rothgeb: ‘Design as a Key to Structure in Tonal Music’, JMT, xv (1971), 230–53
V. Zuckerkandl: Sound and Symbol, ii: Man the Musician (Princeton, NJ, 1973)
C. Dahlhaus: ‘Schoenberg and Schenker’, PRMA, c (1973–4), 209–15
W. Drabkin: ‘The New Erläuterungsausgabe’, PNM, xii (1973–4), 319–30
J. Rothgeb: ‘Strict Counterpoint and Tonal Theory’, JMT, xix (1975), 260–84
P. Westergaard: An Introduction to Tonal Theory (New York, 1975)
E. Narmour: Beyond Schenkerism: the Need for Alternatives in Music Analysis (Chicago, 1977)
M. Yeston, ed.: Readings in Schenker Analysis and other Approaches (New Haven, CT, 1977)
C. Burkhart: ‘Schenker's “Motivic Parallelisms”’, JMT, xxii (1978), 145–75
L. Laskowski: Heinrich Schenker: an Annotated Index to his Analyses of Musical Works (New York, 1978)
D. Beach: ‘A Schenker Bibliography: 1969–1979’, JMT, xxiii (1979), 275–86
W. Rothstein: Rhythm and the Theory of Structural Levels (diss., Yale U., 1981)
C. Schachter: ‘A Commentary on Schenker's Free Composition’, JMT, xxv (1981), 115–42
A. Forte and S.E. Gilbert: Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (New York, 1982)
D. Beach, ed.: Aspects of Schenkerian Theory (New Haven, CT, 1983)
A. Keiler: ‘On Some Properties of Schenker's Pitch Derivations’, Music Perception, i (1983–4), 200–28
W. Drabkin: ‘Felix-Eberhard von Cube and the North-German Tradition of Schenkerism’, PRMA, cxi (1984–5), 180–207
D. Beach: ‘The Current State of Schenkerian Research’, AcM, lvii (1985), 275–307
W. Drabkin: ‘A Lesson in Analysis from Heinrich Schenker: the C Major Prelude from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I’, MAn, iv (1985), 241–58
I. Bent: ‘Heinrich Schenker, Chopin and Domenico Scarlatti’, MAn, v (1986), 131–49
N. Rast: ‘A Checklist of Essays and Reviews by Heinrich Schenker’, MAn, vii (1988), 121–32
N. Cook: ‘Music Theory and “Good Comparison”: a Viennese Perspective’, JMT, xxxiii (1989), 117–41
N. Cook: ‘Schenker's Theory of Music as Ethics’, JM, vii (1989), 415–39
A. Keiler: ‘The Origins of Schenker's Thought: How Man is Musical’, JMT, xxxiii (1989), 273–98
P. McCreless: ‘Reading Schenker's Kontrapunkt’, Intégral, iii (1989), 201–25
W. Rothstein: Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music (New York, 1989)
A. Cadwallader, ed.: Trends in Schenkerian Research (New York, 1990)
J. Dubiel: ‘“When You are a Beethoven”: Kinds of Rules in Schenker's Counterpoint’, JMT, xxxiv (1990), 291–340
H. Siegel, ed.: Schenker Studies (Cambridge, 1990)
I. Bent: ‘Heinrich Schenker e la missione del genio germanico’, RIM, xxvi (1991), 3–34
K. Korsyn: ‘Schenker's Organicism Reexamined’, Intégral, vii (1993), 82–118
J. Lubben: ‘Schenker the Progressive: Analytical Practice in Der Tonwille’, Music Theory Spectrum, xv (1993), 59–75
R. Lang and J. Kunselman: Heinrich Schenker, Oswald Jonas, Moriz Violin: a Checklist of Manuscripts and Other Papers in the Oswald Jonas Memorial Collection (Berkeley, 1994)
N. Cook: ‘Heinrich Schenker, Polemicist: a Reading of the Ninth Symphony Monograph’, MAn, xiv (1995), 89–105
M. Eybl: Ideologie und Methode: zum ideengeschichtlichen Kontext von Schenkers Musiktheorie (Tutzing, 1995)
C. Schachter: ‘The Triad as Place and Action’, Music Theory Spectrum, xvii (1995), 149–69
L.D. Blasius: Schenker’s Argument and the Claims of Music Theory (Cambridge, 1996)
C.J. Smith: ‘Musical Form and Fundamental Structure: an Investigation of Schenker's Formenlehre’, MAn, xv (1996), 191–297
R. Snarrenberg: Schenker’s Interpretive Practice (Cambridge, 1997)