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 | | Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis: Form and Content in Tonal Music by Allen Forte, Steven E. Gilbert ISBN-10: 9780393951929 ISBN-10: 0-393-95192-8 ISBN-13: 9780393951929 ISBN-13: 978-0-393-95192-9 Paperback 1982-08-17 W. W. Norton & Company Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description This book is intended to serve as a basic textbook on Schenkerian analysis, the analytical approach developed over a period of many years by the Austrian music theorist Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935). The book begins with a thorough coverage of a number of elementary matters. This may be regarded either as a review or as a reorientation in preparation for the systematic presentation that follows. Beginning in Part Two ideas that are more specifically Schenkerian are developed and applied to the analysis of short compositions. Since the book is also intended to cover all of the basic standard form it has seemed logical to use this feature in organizing the material. Thus, Part Two ends with longer forms and Part Three covers the main large forms (sonata, rondo, and so on). The various types of Schenkerian prolongations are introduced gradually and discussed and illustrated thoroughly in the text. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises keyed to the topics that have been presented, and the student is given precise instructions for completing the exercises as well as occasional hints about pitfalls and special problems that they contain. | ||
Reviews | ||
great service. thank you got it in time, and was exactly what i was looking for. cheapest price i could find and 5 star service. :) | ||
boooooooring This book is poorly organized and pompously written. I hear Schenkerian analysis can be helpful and interesting but you wouldn't know it from this book. Not that I even made it very far. I wish I hadn't spent the money. | ||
More misconceptions The author of "clumsy" no doubt wrote a similar review for Straus's Intro. to Post-Tonal theory, wherein he affirms once again that "criticims is not concomitant with ignorance or opactiy." Such an argument and string of academic babble, misplaced twice within similar contexts, canonly be willful ignorance. In both cases, the reviewer critcizes not an iota of the book's content he is reviewing! Forte/Gilbert is a standard text in Schenkerian Analysis. It is by no means, however, a great text. It is indeed dense and its organization is quite often flawed. However, this is a presentational issue mainly. It is neither what "clumsy" has implied (that it lack content), nor what "A nightmare!" has stated out right (that it is a theoretical imposition of a composer-wannabe's ideas onto compositions). Neither the original theory nor this book explains all of tonal music (or claims to!) and to make the calims such as those made above is absurd. If you need to buy this book, you will. Otherwise, it is not exactly enjoyable reading. The Cadwallader/Gagne text is a more practical introduction to Schenkerian Analysis, for those that are freelancing in music theory. I give this book no more than 3 stars as well but I do it on the basis of having read, grappled, and understood the book and its flaws. No book, no matter how flawed, deserves the treatment of an ignorant gloss in an honest review. | ||
A nightmare! I am a student of music and read musical analyses avariciously; I had no problem understanding 'The Art of fugue' or Piston's 'Harmony'. This book, on the other hand, is an abstruse Nightmare! It's odd because Mr. Forte at least pretends to want to explain his subject clearly, and the book has just hundreds of examples; but I'm afraid I hardly understood a single one of them. From the very earlist examples on, Mr. Forte paints full Schenkerian grafts, before you even know what half of those silly lines and phrasing markes mean, and example after example I found my poor self asking: why this way, and not that way? And so I read the entire book, front to cover, various times, trying to see if this or that question would eventually be addressed, but in vain. Since then I have come to understand Schenkerian thought, partly, through other sources. I have concluded that the reason his theories are so very hard to understand and to put into practice is because a great deal of it is just nonsense for people who wish they were composers but aren't, and so they spend their time painting little complicated grafts (which are often even misleading about the way we hear music). That said, I nevertheless hope that one day a better, clearer book on this historically important subject will soon be writ. | ||
Excellent Intro to Schenker I've been looking for a book like this for a long time. I'm using it for self-study of Schenker's theories. I find Schenkers own works to assume that one already understands a lot about his theories. This book starts from the beginning, and leads you through some very complex and worthwhile ideas. I think any serious musician not acquainted with Schenker and interested in more than a superficial understanding of his thought could greatly benefit from reading this book (and working through the exercises). | ||