UNIT 6

Wagner used them to introduce more and more chromatic notes into the harmony.
You'll find similar things when we look at jazz. (However, in the example above, the
3rd in fact moves down to the 5th of the next chord, as marked. This is only
permitted at cadences.)
This kind of relaxing of the rules of consonance and dissonance set a precedent for
later composers to add other notes to chords to increase the dramatic and expressive
tension in their music. This led to (he dissolution
music, and produced

the looser relationship

of tonality in modern classical

between melody and harmony that

makes jazz improvisation possible (as we'll see in Unit 9).

Exercises
Using the piano, try to realize the following chord sequences as four-part harmony
with appropriate voice-leading. Where possible play three notes in the right and one
in the left. Write each realization down as you do it. Then embellish the top part to
produce melodies.
1. Key of C major:

IV

IV

VI

II

:11

2. Key ofG major:

VI

IV

lIb

IC

:11

Vb

VI

mb

IV

Ib

II

V7

:11

3. Key of F major:

4. Key of A major:

Vb

VI

V7

:11

5. Key of A minor:

IV

lb

lIb

V7

VI

:11

Notice how these chords often fall into regular groups of two or four that suggest a
kind of harmonic rhythm. This gives the music its sense of forward motion. Now see
if you can add more chords to round off each progression with a cadence.

Heinrich

Schenker (1868-1935) was, along

with

the

composer Arnold
important

Schoenberg, one of the two most

music theorists of the early 20th century. He

was born in Galicia (now western Ukraine) and worked

in Vienna, first as a practical musician and composer,
and then as a critic. This led him to investigate

the

formal basis of the great musical masterpieces, to try to

understand

what

made them

special.

From the

publication of his Theory of Harmony (1906) to the end

of

his life,

he concentrated

on theoretical

work,

producing a series of analytical studies culminating in Free

Composition.

Schenker sought

to analyse the

extended

unfolding of classical forms in terms of tonal forces, emphasising

how harmonic

direction

is shaped and revealed by underlying

polyphonic structures of voice-leading, embellished on different levels.

This approach became increasingly influential in the latter part of the 20th
century: it was taken up by American music theorists and applied more flexibly to a
wider range of musical idioms. Schenker's approach emphasises the linear unfolding of
music in time, as opposed to sectional and thematic contrasts, and points to a sense of
structural depth (foreground and background) in music. Also, the importance given to
embellishment reveals how even the complex works of great composers may reflect the
melodic vocabulary of improvising musicians in unexpected ways.

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