Research Guides: Professional Organizations: Schenkerian Analysis

Welcome

Welcome to the Schenkerian Analysis Research Guide! This guide is meant to provide tools and resources to help you gain an understanding of Schenkerian analysis and to provide a good place to begin your research on the topic. You will find help formulating a good strategy in the library catalog and JSTOR; links to selected books, disserations, and journal articles; and interesting links on the topic of Schenker and Schenkerian analysis.

Materials

Blank Schenkerian Staff Paper
If you don't want to buy a whole pad of special Schenkerian staff paper, you can print off blank staff paper here.

Catalog Search Tips

Roosevelt catalog search on "Schenker"

When searching the library catalog, some good search terms are "Schenker" and "Schenkerian analysis." If you search "Schenker" as an author, you will return resources that Schenker wrote. Using "Schenker" and "Schenkerian analysis" as keywords will return resources on theory.

Roosevelt catalog search on "Schenkerian analysis"

JSTOR Search Tips and Articles of Interest

"Towards a Methodology for Schenkerian Analysis" by Karl- Otto Plum.

JSTOR is a good place to start when looking for journal articles on Schenkerian analysis. "Schenkerian analysis" or "Schenker examples" make good search terms. Below you will find some journal articles that provide examples of analysis.

Links of Interest

Schenker Guide
This page is meant to be an accompaniment to a textbook, but it provides helpful tips on presentation, analysis exercises, a glossary of terms, explanations, and links page.
Introduction by video
Tim Smith introduces Schenkerian concepts in a Bach fugue, illustrated by video. This link includes a list of questions and a pdf handout to accompany the video.
Grove Music Online search results
This page of search results on the term "Schenker" from Grove Music Online provides some examples of analysis.
Heinrich Schenker from the Oxford Dictionary of Music
A very brief entry on Heinrich Schenker in the Oxford Dictionary of Music
Heinrich Schenker from Grove Music Online
A well-researched short biography of Heinrich Schenker including a list of writings, editions, and a bibliography.
Schenker Documents
A digitized collection of extensive correspondence, diaries, and lesson books from Heinrich Schenker. The documents are transcribed and not facsimiles, and they attempt to provide a kind of scholarly edition to Schenker's personal development.
Schenkerian Analysis on Wikipedia
While Wikipedia can't be considered a scholarly source, this page provides an extensive introduction to the topic of Schenkerian analysis. Be sure to check out the list of further reading for places to look for other resources.
Free Analyses in French
If you happen to speak French, you might find these analyses interesting. This page allows free downloads of Schenker's original analyses as well as some analyses done by Nicolas Meeus and Luciane Beduschi on the same pieces.
Animated Schenkerian anlaysis of Schumann's Träumerei, op. 15/7
A flash based rendering of the piece's analysis.
Schenker-Analysis Glossary
Intended to assist scholars and students in understanding and applying principles of Schenkerian analysis. The terms, in English and German, are specific to Schenkerian analysis.
Schenkerian Analysis LibGuide: Yale University
This guide is an introduction to Schenkerian Analysis sources. It will help you retrieve primary and secondary sources

Books in the Library

Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis by Allen Forte
Call Number: MT6 .F642 I6
ISBN: 0393951928
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.

A selected list of books available in the library on the topic of Schenkerian analysis. The selected resources are linked to the catalog and provide the call number as well as a description taken from the publisher's product description or introduction of the work.

A Topical Guide to Schenkerian Literature by David Carson Berry
Call Number: REF ML128.T5 B47 2004
ISBN: 9781576470954
Publication Date: 2004-08-01
The Guide is largest Schenkerian reference work ever published. At nearly 600 pages, it contains 3600 entries (2200 principal, 1400 secondary) representing the work of 1475 authors. It is organized according to a wide variety of topics. Fifteen broad groupings encompass seventy topical headings, many of which are divided and subdivided again, resulting in a total of 271 headings under which entries are collected.
Schenker's Argument and the Claims of Music Theory by Leslie David Blasius
Call Number: MT6 .B642 S3 1996
ISBN: 0521550858
Heinrich Schenker's theoretical and analytical method occupies a central (and often troubling) position in modern Anglo-American musical studies. His writings claim to resubstantiate the unique artistic presence of the canonic work, and reject those disciplines, such as psychoacoustics and systematic musicology, which derive from the natural sciences. This book rereads Schenker's project as an attempt to reconstruct music theory as a discipline against the background of the new empirical musical sciences of the later nineteenth century, such as the psychological and historical investigations of music.
Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach by Allen Cadwallader
Call Number: MT6.C12 A53 2011
ISBN: 9780199732470
Rather than relying on stereotypical models or formulas, authors Allen Cadwallader and David Gagné use specific, memorable compositions to explain structural principles. This approach teaches students how to think about and critically examine music in ways that will inform their understanding and performance of great compositions of Western art music. Part 1 covers principles fundamental to the study of Schenkerian analysis and includes discussions of melody, counterpoint, bass-line structures, the imaginary continuo, linear techniques, and the essential properties of the Ursatz (fundamental structure). Part 2 presents complete compositions by formal category, beginning with one-part forms; proceeding through binary, ternary, and rondo forms; and concluding with the sonata principle. The book includes more than 200 analytical graphs, an appendix on graphic notation, and a bibliography.
Explaining Tonality: Schenkerian Theory and Beyond by Matthew Brown
Call Number: MT6.B87 E9 2005
ISBN: 1580461603
This book tries to show why Schenker was able to explain tonal relationships so successfully and why his explanations have advantages over those of his rivals. The volume is subdivided into an introduction and six chapters. The introduction explores some of the general methodological issues that arise when we try to build, test, and evaluate a plausible theory of tonality. It begins by outlining the main ingredients of such a theory, namely concepts, laws, and procedures, and describes some of the problems that they raise. The introduction goes on to discuss six criteria that theorists typically use to evaluate the success of their models. These criteria include accuracy, scope, fruitfulness, consistency, simplicity, and coherence. With this broad theoretical framework in place, the central portion of this book uses these criteria to illuminate the foundations of Schenkerian theory. The conclusion describes some of the ways in which Schenkerian theory might develop in the future.
Heinrich Schenker: A Guide to Research by Benjamin McKay Ayotte
Call Number: REF. ML134.S25 A95 2004
ISBN: 0415940710
The present volume consists of more than fifteen hundred citations to both primary sources and extensive secondary literature, annotated and subdivided by category. the list is supplemented with an index of the pieces analyzed in the entries, as well as a selective classification index. Reviews of many of the books are cited, and discussions stemming from certain articles are included. A multilingual glossary of Schenkerian terms and index of authors concludes the volume.
Schenker Studies 2 by Carl Schachter and Hedi Siegel
Call Number: MT6 .S4572 1999
ISBN: 0521470110
This is Cambridge University Press' second volume of studies based on the work of Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935), now recognized as this century's most influential figure in the areas of music theory and analysis. The book contains historical studies that derive from Schenker's unpublished papers, and analytical studies of music from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It aims to apply and further develop Schenker's theories and ideas for the benefit of music scholars, performers, and students.
Schenker's Interpretive Practice by Robert Snarrenberg
Call Number: MT6 .S674 S3 1997
ISBN: 0521497264
Schenker's Interpretive Practice is the first comprehensive study of this century's most influential music theorist, Heinrich Schenker. Since the 1960s, American theorists and musicologists have focused almost exclusively on analytical methods distilled from Schenker's writings. Breaking from that tradition, Robert Snarrenberg returns to Schenker's texts and to the humanist roots of his approach, situating Schenker's work in the broader context of his desire to portray the richness and particularity of musical experience. Snarrenberg concentrates on four aims that Schenker hoped to achieve: to present a theoretical account of musical effects encountered in European music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to represent the mindset shared among composers of that music, to convey the expressive interaction of musical effects in individual artwork, and to promote continued creative and re-creative participation in the musical tradition. Author recipient of the 1998 Young Scholar Award from the Society of Music Theory.
A Guide to Schenkerian Analysis by David Neumeyer and Susan Tepping
Call Number: MT6 .N248 G81992
ISBN: 0134972155
A guide throughout Schenkerian analysis of traditional tonal music, using a contemporary multi-levelled hierarchy to show interaction of structure and motion in music. Details the link between Schenkerian analysis and traditional methods of analysis of form in music. Uses a generative (top-down) approach to Schenkerian analysis rather than a reductive approach to more closely illustrate Schenker's original intentions for the method. Presents scores of models for notation, as well as bass-line sketches to allow a smooth transition into Schenkerian analysis.
Schenkerian Analysis by David Beach
Call Number: MT6.B294 A38 2012
ISBN: 9780415892148
Publication Date: 2012-04-24
Advanced Schenkerian Analysis: Perspectives on Phrase Rhythm, Motive, and Form is a textbook for students with some background in Schenkerian theory. It begins with an overview of Schenker's theories, then progresses systematically from the phrase and their various combinations to longer and more complex works. Unlike other texts on this subject, Advanced Schenkerian Analysis combines the study of multi-level pitch organization with that of phrase rhythm.
Heinrich Schenker, an annotated index to his analyses of musical works by Larry Laskowski
Call Number: REF. ML423.S33 L4
ISBN: 9780918728067
Publication Date: 1978-01-01

Dissertations

The following disserations provide examples of in depth Schenkerian analysis on common pieces of music.