Introduction to the History of Theory (G6300) Fall 2012

Prof. Benjamin Steege 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
J ean-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
J airo Moreno, Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical
Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber, ch. 3

Mattheson and Rousseau
J ohann Mattheson, Der vollkommene Capellmeister (1739), chs. 5 and 14
J ean-J acques Rousseau, Essay on the Origin of Languages (17491755)
J oel 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)
J oel Lester, The Marpurg-Kirnberger Disputes, in Compositional Theory in the Eighteenth
Century, pp. 23157
J ohann 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
J oel Lester, Koch: Toward a Comprehensive Approach to Musical Structure, in Compositional
Theory in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 27399

1


2
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
J anna Saslaw, Gottfried Weber and Multiple Meaning, Theoria 5 (199091), pp. 74103
J airo 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 J ames 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-J oseph 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)