Studies on the origin of harmonic tonality

Abstract

Dahlhaus. Studies on the Origin of Harmonic Tonality. Translated by Robert O. Gjerdingen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. xv, 389pp. ISBN 0-691-09135-8 It is hard to disagree with the claim, printed on the jacket of this book, that Carl Dahlhaus was without doubt the premier musicologist of the postwar generation. He is an impressive model for the profession, both for the wealth of topics he approached and for the thoroughness with which he broached the most perplexing issues. The prospect of writing a critical review of a significant work by an author of this stature is daunting, would it be merely for the level of scholarship displayed on every page. This book addresses issues that are so central to every domain of musicology that to greet it with servile deference would be just as unprofessional as dismissing it with the back of one's hand as outdated. Thus what should have been a straightforward book review has grown into an article-length essay. Not only are the issues approched vital to us all, they are also treated by the most eminent spokesperson of an intellectual tradition standing at the core of German music-theoretic life. Dahlhaus is whole-heartedly, but very clearmindedly, a follower of Riemann, and this book is a most exhaustive verification of the historical limits of the latter's theory of harmonic tonality. While recent publications may point to a resurgence of interest in Riemann' s theoretical work on our continent, its current influence on North American academia pales in comparison with the sustained prestige it enjoys in central Europe, in particular in the teaching of harmony. Our vantage point is that of North American theory of the 90' s, impressed as it is with Schenkerianism and with Schoenberg' s theory of harmony. In our perspective, the attention granted by Dahlhaus to these two authors is less than satisfactory (barely 36 lines are devoted to Schenker, and Schoenberg's classification of chord progressions is dispatched in two sparse footnotes). This discrepancy between an almost exclusive reliance on Riemann, on the one hand, and a lack of interest in Schenker and Schoenberg, on the other, is revealing of the abyss separating the intellectual tradition to which this book belongs from ours. It is also a yardstick of the challenges awaiting the North American reader of this translation. Following a short introduction, the book is divided into four chapters: 1. The theory of harmonic tonality; 2. Intervallic and chordal composition; 3. Mode and system; and 4. Analyses. The first chapter is essentially polemical, extensively discussing the theories of Fetis (the father of the concept of tonality), Rameau, and Sechter, as read in the light of Riemannian concepts. The second chapter deals with the transition from the intervallic approach to composition prevalent in the Middle Ages to the chordal approach of thoroughbass harmony. This chapter is by far the most extensive and most impressive in terms of scholarship - the notes alone extend over 26 pages! Equipped with his unique mastery of both the repertoire and the literature, Dahlhaus relentlessly chases misconceptions, most of which are to be ascribed to anachronistic readings either of the music or of the theory. The third chapter follows the development of the tonal system, trying to pinpoint the historical moment when the modal system has definitely been displaced, again carefully dodging the pitfalls of anachronism. While the book is well worth reading just for its wealth of musical examples, the process is reversed in the final chapter: rather than illustrating theoretical problems with the analysis of ad hoc examples, Dahlhaus scrutinizes three representative and homogeneous repertoires (motets by Josquin, frottoias by Cara and Tromboncino, and madrigals by Monteverdi) from a variety of angles. This comprehensive approach is open-ended in more than one way: a number of issues are raised which had to be ignored in previous chapters, and many questions are left unanswered. …

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