Der Tonwille: Pamphlets in Witness of the Immutable Laws of Music, Offered to a New Generation of Youth (review)

Abstract

Tonwille: Pamplets Witness of Immutable of Offered to New Generation of Youth, vol. 1. By Heinrich Schenker. Edited by William Drabkin. Translated by Ian Bent. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. [xx, 231 p. ISBN 0195122372. $150.00.] Index. Der which roughly translates as the will (desire or egotism) of tone is name given by Schenker to series of pamphlets, of roughly fifty pages each, issued between 1921-24 by Universal Edition that contain essays addressing various topics field of music. Considered by its editor to be a central work-in several respects central work-in Schenkerian canon (p. vii), Tonwille contains three basic types of essays: (1) analyses of individual pieces; (2) essays of theoretical nature; and (3) writings of nature. Each issue, moreover, contains section of miscellany (Vermischtes) containing observations on various aspects of music and politics, although it should be noted that each type of essay commentary is not far from surface (p. ix). content of Tonwille chronicles genesis of probing insights into tonal music for which Schenker is known as well as that of accompanying graphic analytic notation. concepts of Urlinie and Ursatz, for example, are expounded upon detail for first time these pamphlets. former receives its first thorough treatment first issue (The Urlinie: A Preliminary Remark), and latter is mentioned for first time miscellanea of issue 5. Taken together, Urlinie and Ursatz form ultimate conceptual basis of Schenker's view of tonal structure. publication of complete translation of Tonwille by Oxford University Press is laudable achievement; Englishspeaking musicians will now have at their disposal most of Schenker's principal theoretical works (the four Erlauterungsausgaben of Beethoven's piano sonatas and Schenker's early journal essays remain untranslated). Prior to this publication, translations into English of individual essays were scattered throughout scholarly literature, with most comprehensive set of excerpts found Robert Joseph Lubben's dissertation (Analytic Practice and Ideology Heinrich Schenker's 'Der Tonwille' and 'Cantata Harmonia Mundi' [Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 1995]), which contains translations of twelve of essays. ten pamphlets of Tonwille have been available one volume since 1990 photographic reprint by Georg Olms Verlag with preface by Hellmut Federhofer. subject of this review is first half of new English translation (issues 1-5); second volume containing second half (issues 6-10) is projected for 2005. In analytical essays, of which there are eighteen this volume, of analysis . . . are generally followed by remarks on autograph materials and early editions, and on editorial issues arising from them; recommendations on performance, relation to both analytical and text-critical discussions that precede them; and finally dismissive survey of secondary literature (p. viii). pieces discussed individual essays include six by J. S. Bach, three by Beethoven, two each by C. P. E. Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, and one each by Handel and Schubert. It is unfortunate that, since present volume contains only first five issues of ten that comprise Tonwille, only two-thirds of analysis of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is present (the final segment occurs sixth issue). theoretical essays, of which there are five, are concerned with such matters as musical structure, history, and perception; but they are more philosophical tone (p. ix). These essays include The Urlinie: A Preliminary Remark, Laws of Art of Music, History of Art of Music, Yet Another Word on Urlinie, and The Art of Listening. political writings include lead essay (The Mission of German Genius) as well as generous sprinkling throughout four sections of miscellany (so much so that, one instance, Emil Hertzka, executive editor of Universal Edition complained that in fourteen pages of 'Miscellanea,' [for issue 2] no topics whatsoever field of music are examined, but only topics field of politics and demagoguery (p. …