Schenker Guide: A Brief Handbook and Website for Schenkerian Analysis

Informative, concise and well written.

The Kindle version of this guide is technically flawed by periodic interruptions of the continuity of the prose. The principle issue is that sentences that are chopped in two have their remaining part interpolated forward in the text thus creating further continuity problems downstream. Here's a list of seven instances using square brackets to indicate the hiatuses:1. Example 2.4 give some examples of Roman numerals and figured bass in practice. A letter followed by a colon denotes the relevant key, with minor keys in lower case; Roman numerals (all in upper case) indicate the chord within that key. At its simplest the addition of figured bass to the Roman [ ]Figured bass is a shorthand method of indicating harmonies that was widely used in the Baroque era to allow keyboardists (and other continuo players) to improvise an accompanying part above a given bass line.2. As well as indicating triads and sevenths in their various inversions, figured bass is also used to show suspensions within a chord, such as 4 resolving to 3, as in the last measure below.[ ] numeral labeling system can be used to clarify inversions, as in the first chord of Example 2.4a, where the 6 below the staff (short for 6/3) shows that the dominant chord is in first inversion.3. "Species counterpoint" formed part of the musical education of such major figures as Haydn, Mozart, (The following sentence interrupts the previous one, as indicated by square brackets:) [Take the time to play through these examples on the piano--you will find that everything in this book makes much more sense if you do so. Failing that, you will find midi files of many of the examples on [...].] Beethoven and Brahms; the principles it embodies are integral to the compositional tradition to which these composers belong.4. In addition, he outlines a [ ]Foreground, middleground and backgroundSchenker gives formal labels to the various layers of an analysis.5. The middleground layer closest to the background is referred to as the first-level middleground, and consists only of direct elaborations of the background. [ ]fairly restricted number of basic contrapuntal structures that underpin tonal music and the main ways in which they are elaborated.6. In the first measure of this example the upper voice ascends through the three notes of a root position triad against a lower voice that sustains the [ ]Arpeggiations of C major Notice that the fourth arpeggiation in Example 2.8a contains a seventh (F in a chord of G).7. As the diminished seventh is effectively a stack of minor thirds, it contains no dissonances and can therefore be arpeggiated. [ ]root note of the chord, elaborating the harmony of I in C majorThe pattern that emerges is that the sentence interrupted before the left-hand bracket in example 1, for instance, is completed in example 2 after the right-hand bracket. The same is true of the pairs of examples 4 and 5, and 6 and 7. Now that I've discerned this pattern of error I can probably make sense of the book but it's tedious and I feel that my money has been poorly spent in renting this insightful guide to a challenging approach to the analysis of music.

This book's subtitle, "A brief handbook and website for Schenkerian analysis", is a bit too modest. Although short, it's a very complete and thorough first course in Schenkerian analysis.One good feature of the book is that Pankhurst describes Schenkerian notation at the same time as introducing the concepts. This means that he needs far fewer words than other writers to say what needs to be said. The examples often speak for themselves, and everything is very clear.Another excellent feature is the section about how to do a Schenkerian analysis and how to present one in practice. I don't know where else one might find this. The exercises at the end are well graded and there are a few very easy ones on the web site to get you started.Schenker's theories are controversial and many people find them quite hard to swallow. Some authors either skate over this or else patronise and bully their readers. Here's what Pankhurst says: "Whereas Schenker lived at a time when knowledge tended to be presented as absolute truth, we tend today to view it as somewhat more provisional. The task for a student of Schenker is to be open to understanding music in the way that he suggests, but at the same time keeping critical faculties intact and alert." He returns to this issue several times during the book, always with the same undogmatic good humour.Normally you'd want to be at least at undergraduate level to tackle Schenker's theories, but this book is so clearly written that I think a good A level student could manage it pretty well. I wish all music theory books were written as well as this.

By far the best Schenker book out there.

Quick delivery, great quality. I couldn't be happier.