Product Description

A new critical foreword by Walter Frisch, H. Harold Gumm/Harry and Albert von Tilzer Professor of Music at Columbia University, expands this centennial edition. Frisch puts Schoenberg's masterpiece into historical and ideological context, delineating the connections between music, theory, art, science, and architecture in turn-of-the century Austro-German culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124402 in Books
• Published on: 1983-02-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

Features

• ISBN13: 9780520049444
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)

About the Author
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951), renowned Austrian and American composer, musical theorist, painter, and teacher of composition, pioneered compositional and critical approaches to atonality that were landmarks in twentieth century musical thought.

Customer Reviews

A Philosophical Tome - Not a Textbook
No...Schonberg's Harmonic works are not where anyone should start when trying to learn standard western harmony. Let's get that out in the open first. You should not read this book as a way to learn the rules of figured-bass style harmony. For that, better to read Piston. This book is a philosophical tome. As such, it is verbose, but it is also extremely instructive, mostly for the composer.

I first read the Theory of Harmony as a grad student. My composition teacher suggested it. (He was always correcting my chord spelling in ways that didn't make sense to me, until I read the Schonberg.) This book opened me to the "mystical" side of harmonic theory. It also was a great clarifier on the relationship between harmony and counterpoint in voice leading. And, most harmony texts really are based on the rules of Rameau, which amazingly work up until the post Wagnerian era, when they begin to break down. Schonberg's work is the best examination of post-Wagnerian tonal harmony that I've come across. So to me, this is more than an historical artifact, it is a useful tool for the experienced composer. But definately not for your usual undergrad!

A Masterpiece for every musician
This book is a must for a musician.

It is not a textbook. You need another standard one for this purpose. But it is essential as a companion, if you want to UNDERSTAND the reasons behind the rules. And you better read it in parallel with a standard textbook.

Schoenberg starts from the most ancient sources to the most modern and EXPLAINS everything! You are his pupil because this book was written for his real pupils. (And btw a 6th chord is a 6th chord for every classical harmony manual...).

I agree that sometimes some digressions may be questionable and some "rules" are introduced and then eliminated in a questionable way, but he is undoubtely an artist, and this book reflects it. The way he explains, for instance, the minor mode is unsurpassed.

You can't break harmony rules if you don't know what's behind them.

AMM

traditional harmony text by inventor of serial composition
Schoenberg presents a systematic method for learning/teaching traditional harmony. He gets into fairly advanced levels of harmony, but does not really get into 12-tone composition, except fleetingly toward the end of the book. You have to remember that at the time he wrote this, he was still only beginning to work out his ideas about serialism, and all his works prior to and surrounding the publication of this book were still written in his earlier harmonic style. One of his major premises is that it is necessary to the _craft_ (a very important word) of music to be intimately familliar with the older ways, because it guarantees the ability to at least write music of "established effectiveness."

He leads the reader from scales and diatonic triads, through modulations and diminished chords, and into "wandering" non-diatonic chords. He does not have the student realize figured bass lines, or harmonize chorales, and he goes into great detail describing the fallacy of these teaching methods. Rather, he has the student composing from the outset, manipulating musical materials in a manner more like the act of "real" composition.