Poundie Burstein
Hunter College, Music, Faculty Member
Research Interests:
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to... more
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to ideas espoused by the theorist Heinrich Schenker, they are not necessarily equivalent to them, and much confusion arises from a failure to sufficiently distinguish between Schenker's ideas, Schenker's ideas as they are characterized by others, and the approaches that are to varying extents related to these ideas. In all of its manifestations, this analytic practice is best understood not as a means of proving musical coherence or worth, nor of demonstrating how people hear music, but as a set of tools that help analysts share interpretations regarding certain aspects of tonal music.
The proper citation is: “Schenker, Schenkerian Analysis, and Other Strange Bedfellows.” Plenary session address at the EuroMAC 10, 22 September 2021, Moscow (via Zoom).
The proper citation is: “Schenker, Schenkerian Analysis, and Other Strange Bedfellows.” Plenary session address at the EuroMAC 10, 22 September 2021, Moscow (via Zoom).
Research Interests:
“Analysis nach Schenker.”
Research Interests:
Specifically, the term “Schenkerian analysis” can refer to one of three things: (1) the analytic concepts that appear in Schenker’s writings (the “actual Schenker”); (2) Schenker’s ideas as they are characterized by his followers (the... more
Specifically, the term “Schenkerian analysis” can refer to one of three things: (1) the analytic concepts that appear in Schenker’s writings (the “actual Schenker”); (2) Schenker’s ideas as they are characterized by his followers (the “idealized Schenker”); or (3) the body of analyses that are to varying degrees influenced by Schenker (“Schenkerian practice”). Though interrelated and overlapping, these three meanings remain distinct from one another. Unfortunately, when discussing Schenkerian analysis, people often mix up these three categories, which in turn creates confusion. This essay seeks to clarify the distinction, history, and nature of these categories, along with a discussion of receptions history of these concepts
Note: this is an English translation of essay to be published in Handbuch Musikanalyse. Methode und Pluralität, ed. Ariane Jeßulat, Oliver Schwab-Felisch, Jan Philipp Sprick, Christian Thorau. Kassel: Bärenreiter. 2017 is when the essay was written; the proper date of this essay is "forthcoming."
Note: this is an English translation of essay to be published in Handbuch Musikanalyse. Methode und Pluralität, ed. Ariane Jeßulat, Oliver Schwab-Felisch, Jan Philipp Sprick, Christian Thorau. Kassel: Bärenreiter. 2017 is when the essay was written; the proper date of this essay is "forthcoming."
Research Interests:
Through much of the eighteenth century, commentators often described musical form in relation to a type of journey leading toward a set of specific tonal/harmonic/melodic/rhythmic goals, punctuated along the path by a standard series of... more
Through much of the eighteenth century, commentators often described musical form in relation to a type of journey leading toward a set of specific tonal/harmonic/melodic/rhythmic goals, punctuated along the path by a standard series of resting points. Partly in reaction to developments witnessed in music composed during the high Classical era onward, since around the nineteenth century descriptions of musical form have tended to combine or even replace these “journey” metaphors with those that rely more heavily on architectonic analogies. When dealing with works composed around the middle of the 1700s, however, there are advantages for viewing musical form as it unfolds, much in the manner described by those who composed, improvised, listened to, and performed at the time. Taking as its focus the part of the movement now known as the exposition, this study analyzes the form of sonata-form works from Galant era by applying concepts and methodologies that stem from the eighteenth cen...
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In his book Contemplating Music, Joseph Kerman famously criticized Schenkerian analysis as a positivistic enterprise (1985: 73–74). Schenkerian scholars largely have seemed hesitant to refute this accusation, perhaps betraying a... more
In his book Contemplating Music, Joseph Kerman famously criticized Schenkerian analysis as a positivistic enterprise (1985: 73–74). Schenkerian scholars largely have seemed hesitant to refute this accusation, perhaps betraying a reluctance to deny the notion that Schenkerian analysis has objective and experiential grounding. Some have even argued that Schenkerian analysis should rightly have an empirical basis.1 Indeed, it has often been suggested that Schenkerian analysis seeks to describe certain concrete elements found in compositions, demonstrating things such as the “coherence or the working-out of long-range implications [...] in the masterpieces of the tonal repertory” (Schulenberg 1985: 304–5) or “the unity of [a] work and the necessity of its constituent moments” (Treitler 1989: 32), that it uncovers “connections among tones that are not readily apparent” (Cadwallader and Gagné 1998: 4), as well as the degree to which a composition may be regarded as tonal (Brown, Dempster,...
Research Interests:
In a 1789 treatise, the Darmstadt musician J.G. Portmann presents what amounts to a multi-level harmonic analysis of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano in D, K. 284, I. Portmann’s interpretation of the movement’s exposition is in line with... more
In a 1789 treatise, the Darmstadt musician J.G. Portmann presents what amounts to a multi-level harmonic analysis of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano in D, K. 284, I. Portmann’s interpretation of the movement’s exposition is in line with concepts expressed by other eighteenth-century theorists, but suggestively differs from standard modern conceptions of the form, especially in its understanding of what nowadays is labeled as the secondary theme.
Research Interests:
Publikationsansicht. 4392704. The non-tonic opening in classical and romantic music--[microform] /--by L. Poundie Burstein. (1988). Burstein, L. Poundie. Abstract. Includes abstract.. Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of New York, 1988..... more
Publikationsansicht. 4392704. The non-tonic opening in classical and romantic music--[microform] /--by L. Poundie Burstein. (1988). Burstein, L. Poundie. Abstract. Includes abstract.. Thesis (Ph. D.)--City University of New York, 1988.. Bibliography: leaves 245-250.. ...
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Although a half cadence marks the end of the transition section in most sonata-form expositions and recapitulations, in many of Haydn’s sonata-form movements — especially those from around the 1760s — the end of the transition is instead... more
Although a half cadence marks the end of the transition section in most sonata-form expositions and recapitulations, in many of Haydn’s sonata-form movements — especially those from around the 1760s — the end of the transition is instead articulated by a firm perfect authentic cadence. This establishes a point of harmonic resolution, rather than momentum, at this crucial formal juncture. As such, it yields an overall formal shape that departs from “textbook” sonata-form descriptions, which are based largely on later stylistic norms. The practice of having a strong tonic arrive in the middle of the exposition or recapitulation is a strategy that Haydn shared with other composers who flourished in the mid-eighteenth century, and it well accords with the descriptions of formal procedures found in Heinrich Christoph Koch’s Versuch einer Anleitung zur Composition .
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Burnham's comments could apply not merely to these two symphonic movements but also to many other of Beethoven's works. Indeed, the ir-resolute striving toward a movement's central thematic and harmonic return... more
Burnham's comments could apply not merely to these two symphonic movements but also to many other of Beethoven's works. Indeed, the ir-resolute striving toward a movement's central thematic and harmonic return is emblematic of the composer's style. A relatively early ...
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
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In their responses to my article, A New View of Tristan Arthur Maisel and Bruce McKinney bring up a number of issues which merit further discussion. The first to which I would like to address myself is Maisel's notion that both the... more
In their responses to my article, A New View of Tristan Arthur Maisel and Bruce McKinney bring up a number of issues which merit further discussion. The first to which I would like to address myself is Maisel's notion that both the Prelude and the conclusion to Act I of Tristan start in one key and end in another.^ I do not question the validity of this notion in its entirety. I feel, however, that we should distinguish between works that begin in one key but are retrospectively interpreted in another (as I believe is the case in these sections of Tristan) and those pieces which shift keys in such a way that the closing key cannot be interpreted as the tonal goal of the opening sections. Although the seventh chord on E in bar 3 of Act I is at first perceived as a dominant seventh of A, I feel its initial harmonic tendency is so emphatically and repeatedly contradicted that one retrospectively interprets it, along with the rest of the Prelude, within the framework of the ultimate...
Literary scholars have long recognized that gender can influence how writers present narratives. In particular, a number of feminist literary theorists, such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, have discussed the tendency for women to... more
Literary scholars have long recognized that gender can influence how writers present narratives. In particular, a number of feminist literary theorists, such as Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, have discussed the tendency for women to adopt a perspective that differs from that of their male counterparts, so as to establish a somewhat separate literary tradition. (1) This is not to imply that women writers express a monolithic viewpoint or that writers cannot transcend their own personal perspective. Rather, it simply acknowledges that much as one's own life experience--which is of course greatly affected by one's gender--can influence how one views people and situations in general, so can the life experiences of authors or poets influence how they portray the characters and situations in their own literary creations. The same is true when composers deal with literary texts. Of all the areas in which the gender of a composer can affect a work of music, perhaps none is so readi...
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Schubert's music often seems to negotiate the tension between reality and imagination. By contrasting the forces of tonal affirmation and negation, his compositions can evoke a sense of memory or of presentiment, as though longing... more
Schubert's music often seems to negotiate the tension between reality and imagination. By contrasting the forces of tonal affirmation and negation, his compositions can evoke a sense of memory or of presentiment, as though longing either for what was or for what might be. The resulting feeling of dissociation is indeed frequently cited as a central aspect of Schubert's art.2 It takes a special skill to create such a sense in a work of music. In life, unless one is dreaming or hallucinating, it is usually easy to distinguish an actual experience from one that is merely remembered or hoped for. Within a piece of music, on the other hand, it is not so simple to differentiate the two. For instance, a fully recapitulated theme typically will not appear as a memory, but rather as a reenactment of an earlier event. In order to establish an impression of a memory, a musical idea must be presented in a way that somehow is conspicuously incomplete, so that its reiteration will be acco...
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A striking gesture appears at the climax of the first phrase of the Menuetto from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1. This motivic gesture, which may be understood as derived from manipulation of standard... more
A striking gesture appears at the climax of the first phrase of the Menuetto from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1. This motivic gesture, which may be understood as derived from manipulation of standard voice-leading procedures, has intriguing ramifications that deeply affect the structure and narrative of the entire movement. These features are explored with the aid of Schenkerian analytic procedures, and the analysis is then compared to an interpretation of this same movement by Heinrich Schenker.
... This issue was first raised openly by Maynard Solomon in "Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of Benvenuto Cellini," Nineteenth-Century Music 12 (1989): 193-206; the most sustained set of responses and reactions may be found in... more
... This issue was first raised openly by Maynard Solomon in "Franz Schubert and the Peacocks of Benvenuto Cellini," Nineteenth-Century Music 12 (1989): 193-206; the most sustained set of responses and reactions may be found in a series of essays by a number of scholars in ...
Some of Schubert’s boldest compositions feature an unusual strategy of alluding to the main tonic within a prolongation of a distant key. In such situations, the distant key is perceived as stable and the original tonic chord is perceived... more
Some of Schubert’s boldest compositions feature an unusual strategy of alluding to the main tonic within a prolongation of a distant key. In such situations, the distant key is perceived as stable and the original tonic chord is perceived as unstable. This reverses the normal state of affairs and produces a distorted variation of the deeper tonal structure. Among the works by Schubert which includeexamples of this are the overture to Des Teufels Lustschloss; the D Major Piano Sonata (D. 850), III; the B-flat Major String Trio (D. 581), I; and the C Major String Quintet, II.
Research Interests:
In a 1789 treatise, the Darmstadt musician J.G. Portmann presents what In what amounts to a multi-level harmonic analysis of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano in D, K. 284, I. Portmann’s interpretation of the movement's exposition is in line with... more
In a 1789 treatise, the Darmstadt musician J.G. Portmann presents what In what amounts to a multi-level harmonic analysis of Mozart’s Sonata for Piano in D, K. 284, I. Portmann’s interpretation of the movement's exposition is in line with concepts expressed by other eighteenth-century theorists, but suggestively differs from standard modern conceptions of the form, especially in its understanding of what nowadays is labeled as the secondary theme.
Research Interests:
Some of Schubert’s boldest compositions feature an unusual strategy of alluding to the main tonic within a prolongation of a distant key. In such situations, the distant key is perceived as stable and the original tonic chord is... more
Some of Schubert’s boldest compositions feature an unusual strategy of alluding to the main tonic within a prolongation of a distant key. In such situations, the distant key is perceived as stable and the original tonic chord is perceived as unstable. This reverses the normal state of affairs and produces a distorted variation of the deeper tonal structure. This procedure is one of the ways that Schubert evokes a sense of memory in his compositions (a sense that is often cited as a central feature of his style), for a tonally unstable reference to the tonic allows for reflection upon past events while at the same time denying their presence. Among the works by Schubert which include brilliant examples of this are the overture to Des Teufels Lustschloss; the D Major Piano Sonata (D. 850), III; the B-flat Major String Trio (D. 581), I; and the C Major String Quintet, II.
Research Interests:
The form and voice-leading framework of Gallant expositions can be best understood in terms described by theorists of the time, in which each passage leads to a tonal resting point on the way toward a perfect cadence in a new key. The... more
The form and voice-leading framework of Gallant expositions can be best understood in terms described by theorists of the time, in which each passage leads to a tonal resting point on the way toward a perfect cadence in a new key. The different theme groups result as a byproduct of the articulation of these resting points.
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Distinguishing between half cadences, elided authentic cadences, and similar endpoints can be a surprisingly challenging task. Particular problems arise when more than one way of labeling a phrase ending (or possible phrase ending) is... more
Distinguishing between half cadences, elided authentic cadences, and similar endpoints can be a surprisingly challenging task. Particular problems arise when more than one way of labeling a phrase ending (or possible phrase ending) is syntactically proper, and when the formal divisions in such instances are obscured by conflicting harmonic, textural, or rhythmic features; this is especially so when an ending (or potential ending) is demarcated by a dominant harmony. Recognizing the flexibility of cadential status in these cases in turn has implications for larger issues of form, voice-leading structure, and the interaction of analysis and performance.
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A commonplace in the scholarly and popular literature on Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata for Piano in E-flat Major, op. 81a, is the notion that this piece portrays the composer's deep sorrow over the departure of his dear friend... more
A commonplace in the scholarly and popular literature on Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata for Piano in E-flat Major, op. 81a, is the notion that this piece portrays the composer's deep sorrow over the departure of his dear friend and student Archduke Rudolph, who fled from ...
Various compositional problems and opportunities may accompany the return of a main theme that has a non-tonic opening. There are four overlapping strategies for approaching such ‘off-tonic returns’: (1) the thematic return may be... more
Various compositional problems and opportunities may accompany the return of a main theme that has a non-tonic opening. There are four overlapping strategies for approaching such ‘off-tonic returns’: (1) the thematic return may be preceded by V of the main key; (2) the returning theme may be preceded by an applied chord which points to the theme's opening, non-tonic harmony; (3) the theme may return in the middle of a larger progression; or (4) the theme may be recomposed so as to start on the tonic when it returns. In many compositions, these various strategies have deep harmonic, motivic, or narrative implications. Beethoven was particularly adept in handling off-tonic returns, as may be witnessed in works such as his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G Major, Op. 58.
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Schenker created the term auxiliary cadence (Hilfskadenz)along with the synonymous term incomplete transference of a form of the fundamental structure (unvollständinger Übertragung einer Ursatzform)to refer to a progression that... more
Schenker created the term auxiliary cadence (Hilfskadenz)along with the synonymous term incomplete transference of a form of the fundamental structure (unvollständinger Übertragung einer Ursatzform)to refer to a progression that begins on a non-tonic Stufe and is closed ...
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Burnham's comments could apply not merely to these two symphonic movements but also to many other of Beethoven's works. Indeed, the ir-resolute striving toward a movement's central thematic and harmonic return... more
Burnham's comments could apply not merely to these two symphonic movements but also to many other of Beethoven's works. Indeed, the ir-resolute striving toward a movement's central thematic and harmonic return is emblematic of the composer's style. A relatively early ...
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Research Interests:
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Surprising Returns 303 Ex. 6 (b) Haydn, String Quartet Op. 54 No. 1, fourth mvt., end of development end of development recapitulation & m Ш f Г f Nfoffite Щ p£ fe^ Щ щ ш Ш gt 31 jílípipH lígjipví жст vi« (VS) (с) Haydn, String... more
Surprising Returns 303 Ex. 6 (b) Haydn, String Quartet Op. 54 No. 1, fourth mvt., end of development end of development recapitulation & m Ш f Г f Nfoffite Щ p£ fe^ Щ щ ш Ш gt 31 jílípipH lígjipví жст vi« (VS) (с) Haydn, String Quartet Op. 33 No. 1, third mvt., end of development end of ...
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There are various striking similarities between the move-ments of Beethoven's Second Symphony. Many of these sim-ilarities touch upon three interrelated harmonic twists that arise at the central climax of each movement (as well... more
There are various striking similarities between the move-ments of Beethoven's Second Symphony. Many of these sim-ilarities touch upon three interrelated harmonic twists that arise at the central climax of each movement (as well as at other crucial junctures throughout): ...
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Research Interests:
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to... more
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to ideas espoused by the theorist Heinrich Schenker, they are not necessarily equivalent to them, and much confusion arises from a failure to sufficiently distinguish between Schenker's ideas, Schenker's ideas as they are characterized by others, and the approaches that are to varying extents related to these ideas. In all of its manifestations, this analytic practice is best understood not as a means of proving musical coherence or worth, nor of demonstrating how people hear music, but as a set of tools that help analysts share interpretations regarding certain aspects of tonal music.
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to... more
The conglomeration of approaches that fall under the umbrella of the "Schenkerian analysis" has long played a dominant role in the field of music analysis, especially in North America. Although by definition these approaches all relate to ideas espoused by the theorist Heinrich Schenker, they are not necessarily equivalent to them, and much confusion arises from a failure to sufficiently distinguish between Schenker's ideas, Schenker's ideas as they are characterized by others, and the approaches that are to varying extents related to these ideas. In all of its manifestations, this analytic practice is best understood not as a means of proving musical coherence or worth, nor of demonstrating how people hear music, but as a set of tools that help analysts share interpretations regarding certain aspects of tonal music.
This was a keynote address delivered at the EuroMAC 10 conference, 22 September 2021, Moscow (via Zoom).
This was a keynote address delivered at the EuroMAC 10 conference, 22 September 2021, Moscow (via Zoom).