Introduction to the History of Theory (G6300) Prof.

Benjamin Steege

Fall 2012 Monday 1012

History of Music Theory from Rameau to Riemann

Survey of European music-theoretical perspectives from roughly 1720 to 1920. This period witnessed the consolidation of the field of modern theory that continues to inform contemporary discourse. In addition to tracing the emergence of novel theoretical topicsfrom form to functionwe will address the relation of music theory to the new or modernizing fields it productively interacted with: physics, aesthetics, historiography, hermeneutics, physiology, psychology, and so on. Texts will be read in connection with the analysis and interpretation of relevant musical repertories. Readings are drawn from translation, but knowledge of French and/or German is very useful. Presentations and final paper.

Selected Reading List (Provisional): Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau, Trait de lharmonie (1722), Preface, Books I and II Rameau, Nouveau systme de musique thorique (1726), Preface, chs. 12 and 46 Rameau, Gnration harmonique (1737), chs. 12, 46, 9 and 11 Christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment, chs. 17 Brian Hyer, Before Rameau and After, Music Analysis 15/1 (March 1996), pp. 75100 Jairo Moreno, Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber, ch. 3 Mattheson and Rousseau Johann Mattheson, Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), chs. 5 and 14 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Essay on the Origin of Languages (17491755) Joel Lester, Mattheson and the Study of Melody, in Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 15876 Christensen, Sensus, Ratio, and Phthongos: Matthesons Theory of Tone Perception, in Atlas and Cherlin, eds., Musical Transformation and Musical Intuition, pp. 122 Cynthia Verba, Music and the French Enlightenment: Reconstruction of a Dialogue, pp. 850 German Theory after Rameau (to 1800) Joel Lester, The Marpurg-Kirnberger Disputes, in Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 23157 Johann Georg Sulzer, General Theory of the Fine Arts (177174), translators introduction (324) and articles on Sentiment (2732), Invention (5564), Layout (6667), Disposition and Elaboration, (7480), in Christensen and Baker, trans. and ed., Aesthetics and the Art of Musical Composition in the German Enlightenment Heinrich Christoph Koch, Introductory Essay on Composition (178293), excerpts in Christensen and Baker, trans. and ed., Aesthetics and the Art of Musical Composition in the German Enlightenment, pp. 111204 Joel Lester, Koch: Toward a Comprehensive Approach to Musical Structure, in Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 27399

Reicha and Weber Antoine Reicha, Ariafrom Mozarts The Marriage of Figaro (1814), in Ian Bent, ed., Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 14651 Reicha, Analysiswith Respect to Thematic Development (1826), in Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 15256 Gottfried Weber, A Particularly Remarkable Passage in a String Quartet in C by Mozart (1832), in Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 15783 Ian Bent, General Introduction and Introduction to Part II, Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 117 and 12731 Peter Hoyt, The concept of dveloppement in the early nineteenth century, in Bent, ed., Music Theory in the Age of Romanticism, pp. 14162 Janna Saslaw, Gottfried Weber and Multiple Meaning, Theoria 5 (199091), pp. 74103 Jairo Moreno, Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects, ch. 4 Marx A. B. Marx, excerpts in Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven, trans. and ed. Scott Burnham, Introduction, chs. 2 and 4 G. W. F. Hegel, excerpts from Aesthetik, in Peter Le Huray and James Day, Music and Aesthetics in the Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Centuries, pp. 33953 Scott Burnham, The Role of Sonata Form in A. B. Marxs Theory of Form, Journal of Music Theory 33/2 (Fall 1989), pp. 24771 Ftis and Hauptmann Franois-Joseph Ftis, Complete Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Harmony (1844), Book 3 Moritz Hauptmann, The Nature of Harmony and Meter (1853), pp. xxxvxlviii, 353, and 18994 Rosalie Schellhous, Ftiss Tonality as a Metaphysical Principle: Hypothesis for a New Science, Music Theory Spectrum 13/2 (Fall 1991), pp. 21940 Thomas Christensen, Ftis and emerging tonal consciousness, in Music Theory in the Age of Romanticism, pp. 3756 Maryam Moshaver, Structure as Process: Rereading Hauptmanns Use of Dialectical Form, Music Theory Spectrum 31/2 (Fall 2009), pp. 26283 Helmholtz and Oettingen Hermann von Helmholtz, On the Physiological Causes of Harmony in Music (1857) Helmholtz, On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1863), Introduction, chs. 13 and 19 Suzannah Clark, Seduced by notation: Oettingens topography of the major-minor system, in Clark and Alexander Rehding, eds., Music Theory and the Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Twentieth Century, pp. 161180 Benjamin Steege, Helmholtz, Music Theory, and Liberal-Progressive History, Journal of Music Theory 54/2 (Fall 2010), pp. 283310 Riemann Hugo Riemann, The Nature of Harmony (1882) (incl. my introduction) Riemann, Harmony Simplified (1893), excerpts Riemann, Ideas for a Study On the Imagination of Tone [1914] Journal of Music Theory 36/1 (Spring 1992), 81117 (incl. translators intro.) Brian Hyer, Reimag(in)ing Riemann, Journal of Music Theory 39/1 (Spring 1995), pp. 10138 Hyer, What Is a Function?, in Rehding and Gollin, eds., Oxford Handbook of Neo-Riemannian Theory Rehding, Hugo Riemann and the Birth of Modern Musical Thought, chs. 12 Rehding, Tonality Between Rule and Repertory; Or, Riemanns FunctionBeethovens Function, Music Theory Spectrum 33/2 (Fall 2011)