Harmony (Schenker)
Harmony (
Harmonielehre, or "Theory of Harmony" in the original
German) is a book published in
1906 by
Heinrich Schenker. It is the first installment of Schenker's three-volume treatise on
music theory entitled
New Musical Theories and Fantasies; the others are
Counterpoint and
Free Composition. Schenker's name did not appear on the original edition of the work: the author was listed simply as "an artist".
Harmony, which was Schenker's first published theoretical writing, is notable for defining the theoretical agenda that Schenker was to carry out over the subsequent three decades. Schenker makes a careful distinction between the theories of
harmony (which for Schenker is concerned with relations among
scale-steps) and
counterpoint (which deals only with
voice leading); he argues that other theorsts have confusingly mixed these two concepts. He introduces the
principle of repetition, which gives rise to the concept of the
motive. Schenker also stongly hints about the ways in which large spans of music can be understood as elaborations of simple structures; this idea is perhaps the most characteristic feature of his mature theory. Finally, he discusses the relationship between
music and
Nature, which would also be a recurring theme throughout his career.
The work also contains the type of polemical writing that was to characterize most of Schenker's output. In
Harmony, Schenker expresses his dissatisfaction with the state of music theory and music pedagogy in his time, and, by making frequent references and comparisons to other theorists, argues at length that his own ideas are superior. He would repeat this procedure in his later writings, often adding virulent commentary about the social and political situation of early
20th century Europe.
*Schenker, Heinrich.
Harmony. Oswald Jonas, ed. Elisabeth Mann Borgese, tr. University of Chicago Press, 1954.
