Language Notes
Text: English, German (translation)
| ||||||||||||||||||
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you need to know about the theory of music?,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker (Music Series) (Paperback)
This is a short book, originally published in 1934, but contains a huge amount of detail and a large number of examples by the great composers. It is one of the most brilliant books I've ever read, but is also opinionated and closed-minded. Jonas's examples of Mozart in particular help me to understand the genius embedded in the simplicity of Mozart's style.Jonas emphasizes the evolution of music as a tonal art-form and rejects all work more recent than Brahms. The first two chapters ("Music and Nature" and "The Artistic Formation of the Chord") I found riveting, but subsequent chapters were of a lesser standard. Some of the material in them was impossible for me to understand, despite taking a great deal of time to study the examples that were supposed to illustrate it. Some examples of the masters' work are presented only in chord form, with the reader being given no opportunity to take in their full merit. There are also many examples created synthetically by Schenker. Much digestion of theory and listening to music in new light convinces me that Jonas and Schenker are right and conventional theory (which emphasizes chord progressions) is wrong. Jonas berates the French for ruining German music. He tediously lauds Brahms as the only composer who took the trouble to unlearn new developments in music in the second half of the 19th century. I believe that Jonas should have welcomed the music of Bruckner, Sibelius and Korngold, who (by my hearing at least) satisfy his ultimate test of writing a "living bass" that does not merely stamp a sequence of chords. To me the book provides an excellent base for students to embark on study of the masterworks.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
