Robert Wason & Matthew Brown - Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony

Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony by Robert Wason and Matthew Brown offers a rigorous and historically grounded examination of the harmonic theory that underlies Schenker's entire analytical enterprise. Drawing on Schenker's early theoretical writings — above all Harmonielehre (1906) — as well as unpublished sketches and correspondence, Wason and Brown trace the development of Schenker's concept of harmony from its roots in Viennese music theory through its transformation into the foundational layer of his mature hierarchical model of tonal structure.

The authors situate Schenker's harmonic thought within the broader 19th- and early 20th-century theoretical tradition, engaging critically with the work of Rameau, Helmholtz, Riemann, and others, and demonstrating how Schenker's distinctive approach — grounded in the overtone series and the concept of tonal motion — diverges from and ultimately supersedes its predecessors. The result is an indispensable companion both to Schenker's own writings and to the broader literature of Schenkerian analysis.

An essential resource for:

• Music theorists specializing in harmonic theory and Schenkerian analysis
• Graduate students in music theory and musicology
• Scholars of 19th- and early 20th-century music theory
• Libraries building holdings in the history and theory of tonal music