ar eee eer seat Structural Hearing TONAL COHERENCE IN MUSIC VOLUME ONE BY FELIX SALZER WITH A FOREWORD &8Y LEOPOLD MANNES Charles Boni, New YORK, NINETEEN FIFTY-TWOForeword To the gifted and experienced musician, music is a language—to be un- derstood in sentences, paragraphs and chapters. The scudent who is still struggling with letters and words, so to speak, needs the guidance that ‘will reveal to him the larger meanings of the musical language. Theory, as iti called, has always been upheld as the promised geceway 00 chis broad understanding, but there are thousands upon thousands of eager young musicians as well as disappointed older ones who will testify zo the seemingly unbridgeable gap between their theoretical studies and the living experience of music itself. To cell the teuth, musical theory as it is generally taught, consists of a more or less elaborate system by which small musical units may be identified (or written) according to their position and function with respect to the temporary tonal context, The larger units are merely labeled according to the recognizable thematic characteristics. The stu- dent who mascers such a system has indeed fearned something about ‘music; but what he has learned is a nomenclature by which he can con duct a well-described “tour” through 2 composition, pointing out each Jandmark and its more obvious characteristes. If music were only such a “conducted tour” it would never have the profound and moving effect upon us which has made it perhaps the greatest of all the arts. Obviously something far more fartdamental and compelling is ar work in this great language, something which conven- tional theory touches but has largely failed to reveal in its full extent. This “something” quite evidently consists of more than one element; but there is hardly a doubt that the greatest of these organic elements is that of tonality with the inevitable relationship of tonal direction to the element of rhychm—for this js the space-time continuum in which music lives. ft appears that Heinrich Schenker was the first musica! theorist who took the decisive step in defining these organic forces of the musical language; in particular, the tonal functions and relation- ships which fore both the generative and cohesive forces in great music.Fat ee ‘Schenker, however, never fully organized his writings from a pedagogi- cal standpoint; nor are they by any means complete. Some of his ex- planations, moreover, are challenging and call for reexamination, In this extraordinary book Felix Salzer has, I believe, attempted and succeeded in a task of tremendous difficulty. Schenker’s pioneer work has been modified, expanded and completed, in a sense, for the first time, so that its application to tonal music of all styles and periods can be understood. In order to achieve such a result, it has been necessary to write a book of considerable length and, in places, of some complexity. This is inevitably due co the fact that Dr. Salzer has faced fully the problems of his task and has tried to be as complete and exhaustive as possible, Inmy many years as Associate Director and Director of The Manes Music School (following a good many years devoted co the teaching of theory and composition), I have been in a position co observe the results of this approach to music upon the students themselves. Much of the material in this book has been used for several years in the regular theory classes of the School; it will undoubtedly become the official textbook for the course. I can say without hesication that I have never seen such musical awareness on the past of theory students, nor such genuine enthusiasm for a theory course. What seems at frst to be an almost unnecessarily diversified terminology, becomes later on an. obvi- ‘ously necessary and logical approach, and furnishes a seudent with 2 ‘means of analysis which can guide him through a work of any length and complexity. And what is still more important, it can guide him to that sort of listening which embraces the “paragraphs” and ‘“‘chapters” of music—that instinesive uni ing which marks the true musician. 1 feel that che appearance of this book is a major event in the history of musical theory and understanding, and merits attention from musi- cians of all kinds, Leorow> Maxwes . Contents Foreword by Leopold Manes Introduction Port I Chapter One Chapter Two Chord grammar—Chord significance Music as directed motion—Scrucrure and prolongation Harmony and counterpoint Chord prolongation Tonality ‘The implications of structure and prolongation =e NeP Part Il The Pedagogic and Systematic Approach fo Structural Hearing Chapter One The Scope of Elementary Theory Chapter Two Musical Direction as an Organizing Force A. Problems of musical continuity and synthesis B. Musical direction—Structure and prolongation 1, CHORD GRAMMAR—CHORD SIGNIFICANCE. 2, MELODY—-MELODIC DIRECTION AND COHERENCE 3. RELATIVE SIGNIFICANCE OF MELODIC STRUCTURE AND PROLONGATION 4 INTERDEPENDENCE OF MELODY AND CHORD SIGNIFICANCE ©. The functions of harmony and counterpoint 10 14 16 7 28 35 37 37 39 39 4 45