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Thinking about Harmony: Historical Perspectives on Analysis

Thinking about Harmony: Historical Perspectives on Analysis Journal of Music Theory 56:2,Fall2012 DOI10.1215/00222909-1650433 ©2012byYaleUniversity theory and musicology at the graduate level and beyond" (ix) seems apt. readsimplyasahistoryofharmonicanalysisintheeighteenthandnineteenth centuries,Thinking about Harmony offersasurveyofconsiderablebreadthand interest.Inthecourseofhispresentation,whichproceedsthroughaseriesof well-orderedtopics(tobediscussedbelow),ratherthanchronologicallyorby author,Damschroderreferencesthewritingsofninety-fivetheoristsofvariousnationalbackgrounds,rangingfromworksbywell-knownauthorssuch asJean-Philipperameau,JohannKirnberger,SimonSechter,GeorgJoseph Vogler,GottfriedWeber,andMoritzHauptmann,toworksoffortyauthors whodidnotmeritentriesinDamschroderandWilliam's1990bibliography, Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker,andinmanycaseshavereceivedlittleto noattentionelsewhere.(Damschrodersuppliesabriefbiographicalsketchfor eachauthorcited,alongwithbibliographicinformationfortheirtreatise[s], inthesection"BiographiesofMusicTheorists"[244­86].Theseparationof thisprimarybibliographicmaterialfromthebibliographyofsecondaryliteraturebysomethirty-fivepagesof"notesandreferences"isminorannoyance.)MostofDamschroder'scitationsoflesser-knowntheoristsandworks aremadeinpassingandstemfromhisinterestintracingthedissemination andmodificationofideasfoundinmorefamiliartreatises.Severallesserknown theorists--John Frederick Lampe (c. 1703­51), Daniel Jelensperger (1797­1831),andJohannGottliebPortmann(1739­98)--doreceiveconsiderable attention, however, far more than found in other standard sources. Damschroder'spresentationdoeshavehistoricallimits,ofcourse:heexplicitly excludes Hugo riemann, Heinrich Schenker, and Arnold Schoenberg, notingthat"myprincipalinterestisinassayingwhattheanalyticallandscape was like before those well-studied giants emerged" (vii), and his focus on analyticaltheoryleadstotheexclusionofalldiscussionofmorespeculative, dualist approaches that emerged beginning at midcentury, initially in the worksofHauptmann,andlaterinthoseofArthurvonOettingen,riemann, andothers.InadditiontothepairingwithLester'sCompositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century mentionedabove(apairingthatentailssomeoverlap), Thinking about Harmony would complement Ian Bent's Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century(1994,2005),whichincludesrelativelylittlediscussionof harmonictheory. Thinking about Harmony isameticulouslyorganizedwork.Atthelevelof chapters,Damschroderleadshisreaderthroughanexaminationofhistoricalresponsestoaseriesofincreasinglysophisticatedanalyticalchallenges: chordidentificationwithinakey(chapter1),identificationofharmonicstructuresversuschordalembellishments(chapter2),recognitionofthenatureof parallelandsequentialprogressions(chapter3),theestablishmentofguidelines for harmonic progression (chapter 4), the definition of relationships basedonchordalhierarchy(chapter5),recognitionofthelimitsofkeysand themechanismsofmodulationtocloselyrelatedkeys(chapter6),andfinally, reviews Engebretsen on Damschroder considerationoftherelationshipbetweenkeycontextandchromaticchords, bothdiminished/augmented(chapter7)andmajor/minor(chapter8). Thefocusonasingle,relativelywell-circumscribedtopicwithineach chapter facilitates comparison of analytical strategies, for as Damschroder stresses, there was by no means a single, unified nineteenth-century analyticalpractice.rather,themultiplicityofapproachesandtheirpotentialto generatecompeting,ifnotconflicting,interpretationsarecastasoneaspect of the potentially "more vibrant" engagement with music of the era to be explored.Thesequencingoftopicsacrossthechaptersalsosupportsa"spiral"approach,inwhichthenarrativereturnsagainandagaintoacoregroup oftheorists,andinsomecaseseventoahandfulofwell-chosenexamples. Oneoddinconsistencyfoundbetweenandevenwithinchaptersconcernsthe functionoftheshadedtextboxesattheendofsections,whicharereminiscentofthesummarysectionspopularinundergraduateharmonybooksbut onlysometimessetoffsummaryorevaluativetextwhileatothertimesemphasizetransitionalmaterialorevennarrativeasides. Individual chapters follow a nearly identical organizational scheme: Onceanissueorcomplexofrelatedissueshasbeenidentified,treatisesare minedforrelevantprescriptive(compositional,regulative)anddescriptive (analytical)content.Competingapproachesarepresentedwithsupportof numerous musical examples, many drawn from the primary http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Music Theory Duke University Press

Thinking about Harmony: Historical Perspectives on Analysis

Engebretsen, N.
Journal of Music Theory , Volume 56 (2) – Sep 21, 2012
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Abstract

Journal of Music Theory 56:2,Fall2012 DOI10.1215/00222909-1650433 ©2012byYaleUniversity theory and musicology at the graduate level and beyond" (ix) seems apt. readsimplyasahistoryofharmonicanalysisintheeighteenthandnineteenth centuries,Thinking about Harmony offersasurveyofconsiderablebreadthand interest.Inthecourseofhispresentation,whichproceedsthroughaseriesof well-orderedtopics(tobediscussedbelow),ratherthanchronologicallyorby author,Damschroderreferencesthewritingsofninety-fivetheoristsofvariousnationalbackgrounds,rangingfromworksbywell-knownauthorssuch asJean-Philipperameau,JohannKirnberger,SimonSechter,GeorgJoseph Vogler,GottfriedWeber,andMoritzHauptmann,toworksoffortyauthors whodidnotmeritentriesinDamschroderandWilliam's1990bibliography, Music Theory from Zarlino to Schenker,andinmanycaseshavereceivedlittleto noattentionelsewhere.(Damschrodersuppliesabriefbiographicalsketchfor eachauthorcited,alongwithbibliographicinformationfortheirtreatise[s], inthesection"BiographiesofMusicTheorists"[244­86].Theseparationof thisprimarybibliographicmaterialfromthebibliographyofsecondaryliteraturebysomethirty-fivepagesof"notesandreferences"isminorannoyance.)MostofDamschroder'scitationsoflesser-knowntheoristsandworks aremadeinpassingandstemfromhisinterestintracingthedissemination andmodificationofideasfoundinmorefamiliartreatises.Severallesserknown theorists--John Frederick Lampe (c. 1703­51), Daniel Jelensperger (1797­1831),andJohannGottliebPortmann(1739­98)--doreceiveconsiderable attention, however, far more than found in other standard sources. Damschroder'spresentationdoeshavehistoricallimits,ofcourse:heexplicitly excludes Hugo riemann, Heinrich Schenker, and Arnold Schoenberg, notingthat"myprincipalinterestisinassayingwhattheanalyticallandscape was like before those well-studied giants emerged" (vii), and his focus on analyticaltheoryleadstotheexclusionofalldiscussionofmorespeculative, dualist approaches that emerged beginning at midcentury, initially in the worksofHauptmann,andlaterinthoseofArthurvonOettingen,riemann, andothers.InadditiontothepairingwithLester'sCompositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century mentionedabove(apairingthatentailssomeoverlap), Thinking about Harmony would complement Ian Bent's Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century(1994,2005),whichincludesrelativelylittlediscussionof harmonictheory. Thinking about Harmony isameticulouslyorganizedwork.Atthelevelof chapters,Damschroderleadshisreaderthroughanexaminationofhistoricalresponsestoaseriesofincreasinglysophisticatedanalyticalchallenges: chordidentificationwithinakey(chapter1),identificationofharmonicstructuresversuschordalembellishments(chapter2),recognitionofthenatureof parallelandsequentialprogressions(chapter3),theestablishmentofguidelines for harmonic progression (chapter 4), the definition of relationships basedonchordalhierarchy(chapter5),recognitionofthelimitsofkeysand themechanismsofmodulationtocloselyrelatedkeys(chapter6),andfinally, reviews Engebretsen on Damschroder considerationoftherelationshipbetweenkeycontextandchromaticchords, bothdiminished/augmented(chapter7)andmajor/minor(chapter8). Thefocusonasingle,relativelywell-circumscribedtopicwithineach chapter facilitates comparison of analytical strategies, for as Damschroder stresses, there was by no means a single, unified nineteenth-century analyticalpractice.rather,themultiplicityofapproachesandtheirpotentialto generatecompeting,ifnotconflicting,interpretationsarecastasoneaspect of the potentially "more vibrant" engagement with music of the era to be explored.Thesequencingoftopicsacrossthechaptersalsosupportsa"spiral"approach,inwhichthenarrativereturnsagainandagaintoacoregroup oftheorists,andinsomecaseseventoahandfulofwell-chosenexamples. Oneoddinconsistencyfoundbetweenandevenwithinchaptersconcernsthe functionoftheshadedtextboxesattheendofsections,whicharereminiscentofthesummarysectionspopularinundergraduateharmonybooksbut onlysometimessetoffsummaryorevaluativetextwhileatothertimesemphasizetransitionalmaterialorevennarrativeasides. Individual chapters follow a nearly identical organizational scheme: Onceanissueorcomplexofrelatedissueshasbeenidentified,treatisesare minedforrelevantprescriptive(compositional,regulative)anddescriptive (analytical)content.Competingapproachesarepresentedwithsupportof numerous musical examples, many drawn from the primary

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Journal of Music Theory – Duke University Press

Published: Sep 21, 2012

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