Schenkerian analysis

Schenkerian analysis is a method of analyzing tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935). The goal is to demonstrate the organic coherence of the work by showing how the "foreground" (all notes in the score) relates to an abstracted deep structure, the Ursatz. This primal structure is roughly the same for any tonal work, but a Schenkerian analysis shows how, in each individual case, that structure develops into a unique work at the foreground. A key theoretical concept is "tonal space".^[1] The intervals between the notes of the tonic triad in the background form a tonal space that is filled with passing and neighbour tones, producing new triads and new tonal spaces that are open for further elaborations until the "surface" of the work (the score) is reached.

The analysis uses a specialized symbolic form of musical notation. Although Schenker himself usually presents his analyses in the generative direction, starting from the Ursatz to reach the score and showing how the work is somehow generated from the Ursatz, the practice of Schenkerian analysis more often is reductive, starting from the score and showing how it can be reduced to its fundamental structure. The graph of the Ursatz is arrhythmic, as is a strict-counterpoint cantus firmus exercise.^[2] Even at intermediate levels of reduction, rhythmic signs (open and closed noteheads, beams and flags) display not rhythm but the hierarchical relationships between the pitch-events.

Schenkerian analysis is an abstract, complex, and difficult method, not always clearly expressed by Schenker himself and not always clearly understood. It mainly aims to reveal the internal coherence of the work – a coherence that ultimately resides in its being tonal.^[3] In some respects, a Schenkerian analysis can reflect the perceptions and intuitions of the analyst.^[4]

^ Schenker described the concept in a paper titled Erläuterungen (“Elucidations”), which he published four times between 1924 and 1926: Der Tonwille vol. 8–9, pp. 49–51, vol. 10, pp. 40–42; Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. 1, pp. 201–205; 2, pp. 193–197. English translation, Der Tonwille, vol. 2, pp. 117–118 (the translation, although made from vols. 8–9 of the German original, gives as original pagination that of Das Meisterwerk 1; the text is the same). The concept of tonal space is still present in Free Composition, especially §13 where Schenker writes: "By the concept of tonal space, I understand the space of the horizontal fulfillment of the Urlinie. ... The tonal space is only to be understood horizontally."
^ Free Composition, § 21.
^ Schenker writes: "In the distance between the Urlinie and the foreground, between the diatony and the tonality, the spatial depth of a musical work expresses itself, the distant origin in the utter simple, the transformation through subsequent stages, and the diversity in the foreground" (Im Abstand von der Urlinie zum Vordergrund, von der Diatonie zur Tonalität, drückt sich die Raumtiefe eines Musikwerkes aus, die ferne Herkunft vom Allereinfachsten, der Wandel im späteren Verlauf und der Reichtum im Vordergrund.). Der freie Satz, 1935, p. 17; Free Composition, p. 5 (translation modified).
^ Robert Snarrenberg, Schenker's Interpretive Practice, Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis 11, 1997.

[1] Schenker described the concept in a paper titled Erläuterungen (“Elucidations”), which he published four times between 1924 and 1926: Der Tonwille vol. 8–9, pp. 49–51, vol. 10, pp. 40–42; Das Meisterwerk in der Musik, vol. 1, pp. 201–205; 2, pp. 193–197. English translation, Der Tonwille, vol. 2, pp. 117–118 (the translation, although made from vols. 8–9 of the German original, gives as original pagination that of Das Meisterwerk 1; the text is the same). The concept of tonal space is still present in Free Composition, especially §13 where Schenker writes: "By the concept of tonal space, I understand the space of the horizontal fulfillment of the Urlinie. ... The tonal space is only to be understood horizontally."

[2] Free Composition, § 21.

[3] Schenker writes: "In the distance between the Urlinie and the foreground, between the diatony and the tonality, the spatial depth of a musical work expresses itself, the distant origin in the utter simple, the transformation through subsequent stages, and the diversity in the foreground" (Im Abstand von der Urlinie zum Vordergrund, von der Diatonie zur Tonalität, drückt sich die Raumtiefe eines Musikwerkes aus, die ferne Herkunft vom Allereinfachsten, der Wandel im späteren Verlauf und der Reichtum im Vordergrund.). Der freie Satz, 1935, p. 17; Free Composition, p. 5 (translation modified).

[4] Robert Snarrenberg, Schenker's Interpretive Practice, Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis 11, 1997.

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