Schenkerian analysis

Schenkerian analysis is an approach to musical analysis devised by Heinrich Schenker. It generates all tonal music from a simple progression based on the tonic triad which in its simplest form is:

Legacy and responses

Fred Maus (2004, p.162) compares Schenker's "creation of an elaborate tonal theory in response to post-tonal music" with "sexologist's back-formation of the concept of heterosexuality as a complement to their new concept of homosexuality." Finding similarities, "to some extent" including the "conceptualization of the normative or unmarked category" following "awareness of an alternative." Though Schenker considered nontonal or atonal music unnatural, unlike the sexologists who focused more on minoritized categories, he focused on elaborating his theory of tonal music.

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Milton Babbitt admired Schenker's work and his own work may be seen as part response, revision, and alternative to Schenker's. For example, he suggests that the properties described as natural phenomenon by Schenker be considered axioms and he also formulated a system to compose twelve-tone music that was "equally intricate and friutful." Allen Forte also responded to Schenker by providing an alternative system applicable to the analysis of nontonal nontwelve tone music. (ibid, p.162-163)

Related Topics:
Milton Babbitt - Twelve-tone music - Allen Forte

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