Parsimonious Voice Leading and the Stimmfuhrungsmodelle
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article confronts the dialectic between parsimonious voice leading, as represented by neo-Riemannian theory, and the diatonic Stimmführungsmodelle, or the traditional formulas and methods of thorough-bass pedagogy as they were preserved in the nineteenth century. The historical contexts are represented by Carl Friedrich Weitzmann’s essay on the augmented triad (1853) and Simon Sechter’s Generalbass-Schule (1835). The possibility of setting the diatonic and chromatic models into productive analytic practice is explored, even as it is acknowledged that they are grounded in different principles. Steven Rings’s “syntactical interaction†and Richard Cohn’s “double syntax†are invoked. A Brahms song and a Schubert symphony serve as extended analytical examples.
Article Details
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for Music Theory. All rights reserved.
[1] Copyrights for individual items published in Music Theory Online (MTO) are held by their authors. Items appearing in MTO may be saved and stored in electronic or paper form, and may be shared among individuals for purposes of scholarly research or discussion, but may not be republished in any form, electronic or print, without prior, written permission from the author(s), and advance notification of the editors of MTO.
[2] Any redistributed form of items published in MTO must include the following information in a form appropriate to the medium in which the items are to appear:
This item appeared in Music Theory Online in [VOLUME #, ISSUE #] on [DAY/MONTH/YEAR]. It was authored by [FULL NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS], with whose written permission it is reprinted here.
[3] Libraries may archive issues of MTO in electronic or paper form for public access so long as each issue is stored in its entirety, and no access fee is charged. Exceptions to these requirements must be approved in writing by the editors of MTO, who will act in accordance with the decisions of the Society for Music Theory.
This document and all portions thereof are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Material contained herein may be copied and/or distributed for research purposes only.