Schenkers Concept

of
Melody I
^1 ^2 ^3
^3 ^45 ^5 ^6
^7
^8 ^8

^2=upper LT
 Schenkers Concept of Melody
1. Understanding tonal melody=acquiring feel for stablility/instability of tones.

2. Notes of the tonic triad are the most stable.

3. Because triad tones arise from the overtone series, they are like a force of
nature (to Schenker, a manifestation of divine), & capable of generating more music.
4. Less stable tones, tendency tones (e.g. LT, upper LT)

5. Resolutions can be long-range

6. Ultimate stability requires scale degree 1, supported by the tonic in bass.

7. Melodic and Harmonic resolution can therefore be out of synch

8. Falling melodic motion is most natural, providing closure/completion.

9. Melodic fluency means stepwise or predominantly stepwise motion
10. Carrots show scale degrees (^1 ^2 ^3 )
11. Schenker theory distinguishes structural tones from ornamental tones

12. Key concept: A dissonant note is never a structurally important tone (and
is generally incapable of further prolongation).

13. In great music, structural tones connect to form melodically fluent lines.

14. Great music is rich in motivic parallelisms, short ideas that replicate
themselves in various forms.
Square brackets show motivic parallelisms.
15. In minor, ^6 usually functions as a N. N. to more stable ^5

16. Melodies with leaps suggest voice-leading connections between

nonadjacent tones.

17. In great music, such connections can suggest two (or more)
melodically fluent voices in different registers.
(= compound melody or polyphonic melody)
18. Surface leaps in melodies can occur without destroying underlying
melodic fluency. =registral transfer

19. To Schenker a melodic leap is often not a mere skip, but a temporary
switch to a new voice or new register.
20. Structural melodic tones can be prolonged by NNs and by linear progressions
into or away from the structural note.

21. In Schenkerian graphic notation, a long slur groups linear progressions.

22. A dotted slur often connects a tone that is prolonged over a long period
(aural retention of the tone).
Phrase 1

Phrase 2
 Phrase 1

Melodically fluent structural

^5 prolonged ^5 prolonged
^5 prolonged Melody ^5-^4-^3-^2-^1
Phrase 2 by chordal skipsby NN by filling in ^5-^3
(linear progresson)

^2 prolonged
by choral skips

I ________________________ Parallel 6ths connect V7 I

I to II6 (interm) smoothly