(Ger. Untergreifen).
In Schenkerian analysis (see Analysis, §II, 4), a method of Prolongation whereby the movement in the upper voice is expanded by the insertion of an ascending line from an inner voice. The simplest function this line can perform is to delay the motion of the upper voice in the opposite direction, i.e. descending, as shown in the first eight bars of Mozart's String Quartet in A k464 (ex.1). Elsewhere it may serve to reinforce a neighbour note that embellishes the Urlinie, as illustrated by Schenker's analyses of Chopin's Etude in A minor op.10 no.2 and the ‘St Anthony Chorale’ (Der freie Satz, 1935, figs.42/1–2). The latter reading is disputed by A. Forte and S. Gilbert in their Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (New York, 1982, p.160); indeed, the concept comes up so infrequently that the generally accepted English equivalent of Untergreifen, ‘motion from an inner voice’, features more prominently in translations of Schenker's work than in more recent analytical writings.
Although a work cannot begin with motion from an inner voice (since before any structurally important note in the Urlinie has been established, one cannot identify an inner voice below it), one often encounters a line which ascends by step to the first note of the Urlinie; Schenker called such a line an Anstieg (see Initial ascent).
WILLIAM DRABKIN