Review of Carl Schachter,The Art of Tonal Analysis: Twelve Lessons in Schenkerian Theory, ed. Joseph N. Straus (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Abstract

[1] This collection of lectures from Carl Schachter's final seminar at CUNY is a fitting capstone to his distinguished career as a music theorist. Each of the twelve lectures centers on an analytical exploration of one or two pieces, including works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin; the book ends with a "Q and A" with students of the seminar. As Schachter is one of the most well-known advocates of Schenkerian theory, it is no surprise that the analyses reflect a Schenkerian perspective. But along the way, they touch on many other topics: other aspects of the works in question (rhythm, motive, form, performance); other pieces with similar features; biographical anecdotes about composers, Schenker, and Schachter himself; and matters still further afield, such as the Acoustical Society of America's conventions for labeling pitches. The lectures assume a basic knowledge of Schenkerian theory--for example, there is no explanation for how to read a Schenkerian graph--but clearly an effort has been made to organize them in a pedagogically useful way, starting with basic concepts (e.g. the linear progression) and fairly small-scale observations and working up to larger, more complex structures.[2] No one would call me a Schenkerian, and I have sometimes been quite critical of the Schenkerian approach (Temperley 2007 and 2011). But I have always felt that the most persuasive and compelling case for the theory was found in Carl Schachter's work. So I had high hopes for this book, and I was not disappointed. All of the virtues of Schachter's writing--its unpretentious eloquence, musical insight, and contagious enthusiasm--come through here as clearly as ever. As one would expect, too, the book makes a strong argument for the value and power of Schenkerian analysis. But the book also reinforced some of my doubts and concerns about the Schenkerian approach. In particular, the Schenkerian focus on high-level linear and contrapuntal features of a piece can cause other aspects--aspects that should surely be considered part of tonal analysis--to be underemphasized, if not completely ignored. Schachter (in this book and elsewhere) makes some efforts to address this problem, but it remains very much present. In what follows, I expand on these points, and offer some thoughts about other aspects of the book.* * *Example 1. Example 10.1 of ATA, just measures 1-24 (the whole of page 188)[3] A number of the discussions in The Art of Tonal Analysis (hereafter ATA) represent Schenkerian analysis at its best. Using Schenkerian graphs or sometimes just annotated scores, Schachter draws our attention to linear patterns and large-scale harmonic motions that are audible and compelling, and help us make sense of the music. A case in point is his analysis of the trio of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 2 no. 3 (pages 187-91), shown here in Example 1. Schachter first suggests that we view the bass of the first phrase as moving from the A of measure 1 to the Aof measure 7 and then to B; within this motion is an ascending line that seems headed for E but is "forced down" from D to C by the chord in measure 4. He further points out that the two phrases of the digression (measures 9-12 and 13-16) can be reduced to the same underlying chromatic motive as the first phrase, C-C-D and then D-D-E. In the return of the opening material (measures 17-24), the bass line continues through D to E, providing a kind of pattern completion that was denied to us in the first phrase. Elegant observations such as these are found throughout the book. Even in the Waldstein sonata, a piece that I know extremely well, Schachter's analysis brought new things to my attention, such as the fact that the bass line in the last few measures of the piece recapitulates the first few measures (C-B-B-A-A-G) but with a different harmonic meaning.[4] It is sometimes claimed that a linear progression must connect two chord-tones of a harmony that is being prolonged. …