# Harmony, by Schenker



## Philipp von Karajan (Mar 28, 2011)

It's been a while since I undertook a translation of Schenker's *Harmony* and, now that I'm copying out the full text, I'm starting to dedicate special attention to details that were initially left behind for reasons of steadiness and swiftness. I'm having some difficulty either with specific musical terminology unknown to me or Schenker's own coinings for some of his concepts, or still particular words whose use I find rather ambiguous in some cases. Examples:

a) *voice-leading*, a music term that I wonder if means "combination of voices";

b) *free composition* and *strict composition*, music terms again, and whose precise meaning I can guess but cannot know for sure;

c) the same thing with *strict counterpoint*, although this time I can guess even less, especially because I have no idea what free counterpoint could mean, if such a thing even exists;

d) the translator's use of the word "*tones*" many times in the book, which suggests the sense of "notes", as in the following passage on page xi of the introduction:

"Rameau did not even suspect the possibility that voice-leading could be the means for the "compositional unfolding" of wider harmonic areas. For him "chord" and "scale-step" were identical. He reduced any simultaneity of *tones* to its supposed root position and rent the artful texture of voice-leading into strips of more or less closely related chords."

So, I was wondering if you folks could help me out with these doubts.

Best
Philipp


----------



## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

a) Voice leading is the how the melodic (horizontal) movement of the tones is arranged in the harmonic progressions.

b) Not sure. Could mean either the composition allows a lot of room for improvisation to the performer or the music is without form/structure or something entirely different.

c) Strict counterpoint means counterpoint that adheres to the old school of counterpoint laid out in Gradus ad Parnassum. i.e. no parallel fifths or hidden fifths, contrary motion should be more common than parallel or similar motion etc. Free counterpoint would relinquish many of these strictures.

d) 'Tones' and 'notes' are different things. Tones are the actual sounds you hear, whereas notes are the marks made by the composer in the score to denote the tone.

Hope this helps.


----------



## Philipp von Karajan (Mar 28, 2011)

Argus, do you perchance know what is the French or Italian (or Spanish) term for voice-leading, or is it also Schenker's coining?

And thanks for the explanation on point "d". "Notes" would be the right word for me. In Portuguese it means both the sound and the graphic representation, whereas "tones" is only used to refer to key.


----------



## Philipp von Karajan (Mar 28, 2011)

*e) step progression*

The term "step progression" is also used a lot throughout the book. But the concept is quite obscure to me. Could anybody explain it to me? Does it have a precise equivalent in French, Italian or Spanish?

A passage from the book:

"How can we justify the unexpected intrusion (measures 2 and 3) of the dominant seventh-chord (V7) of E-flat major - interrupting a *step progression* moving in an otherwise perfectly normal A major?"

Another one:

"The employment of the leading tone, however, caused the appearance of an augmented second, introducing a *step progression* which, from the melodic point of view, was undesirable."


----------



## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Philipp von Karajan said:


> Argus, do you perchance know what is the French or Italian (or Spanish) term for voice-leading, or is it also Schenker's coining?
> 
> And thanks for the explanation on point "d". "Notes" would be the right word for me. In Portuguese it means both the sound and the graphic representation, whereas "tones" is only used to refer to key.


I don't think Schenker coined the phrase 'voice leading' but I'm not sure what the proper translation for it is into those languages. Possibly 'mouvement harmonique' but that could also refer to the general harmonic progression and not the motion of individual tones.

Does Schenker use the word 'klang' in the original text where 'tones' appears? I remember the English translator (Ellis) for Helmholtz's _On the Sensations of Tone_ wrote an insightful footnote about how the word 'klang' could be interpretted in a few different ways in English.


----------



## Philipp von Karajan (Mar 28, 2011)

Argus said:


> Does Schenker use the word 'klang' in the original text where 'tones' appears? I remember the English translator (Ellis) for Helmholtz's _On the Sensations of Tone_ wrote an insightful footnote about how the word 'klang' could be interpretted in a few different ways in English.


I don't know that. I don't have the original text. But it's no so much the original German word, but the fact that "tone", according to how you explained it, is never used in Portuguese (the language to which I'm translating the work) the way it's used in English, i.e., to refer necessarily to the sound of an individual tone. In Portuguese, "tom" always means "key", whereas "nota" (which refers to both the sound and the notation) is the right word for "tone".


----------



## Romantic Geek (Dec 25, 2009)

Philipp von Karajan said:


> It's been a while since I undertook a translation of Schenker's *Harmony* and, now that I'm copying out the full text, I'm starting to dedicate special attention to details that were initially left behind for reasons of steadiness and swiftness. I'm having some difficulty either with specific musical terminology unknown to me or Schenker's own coinings for some of his concepts, or still particular words whose use I find rather ambiguous in some cases. Examples:
> 
> a) *voice-leading*, a music term that I wonder if means "combination of voices";
> 
> ...


Ugh, I know this is old, but I think this is something that should be documented anyway, so here I go!

A) Voice-leading. This is the way that a single voice moves contrapuntally. Now, a single voice doesn't necessarily mean a single line. There is such a thing called a compound melody where multiple voices are being played by one instrument. Bach's Cello Suites are great examples of this. Ideally, voice-leading should be stepwise (and in Schenker's theory later on, he shows how this is very evident on the largest of scales in a composition).

B) Free composition vs. strict composition. This is exactly what he later expounds upon in his book _Der Freie Satz_ which has been translated to "Free composition." Strict composition is essentially species counterpoint (see Fux _Gradus Ad Parnassum_. Free composition is realizing that species counterpoint into a real composition. I.e. Free composition means the stuff that we see in scores and hear on the radio.

C) Strict counterpoint. Just another way to say strict composition, i.e. species counterpoint. This may mean on the 1:1 ratio however. I'd have to see the context of it in the passage.

D) I think for the most part you are right that tones mean notes. However, I want to correct you that chord and scale-step are not synonymous at all! Chord in Schenker's writing would be Klang. I'm thinking you're translating Stufe as scale-step. Stufe is a little different. This eventually boils down to Schenker's theory where music is made of large scale descending lines and that these "scale-steps" are the notes in these lines. They line up simultaneous with a chord, but it's not a chord.

E) Step progression. Basically, it's what it sounds like. Schenker's term for this is Zug. Basically, it is a larger scale melodic line. So we may get a sense that a piece is ascending from G to B through A, but it may be heavily decorated, so that connection is obscured.

I hope this helps (if not for the original poster, for someone interested in Schenker).


----------

