Free Composition

by Heinrich Schenker

The first two volumes of Heinrich Schenker's masterwork Neue musikalische Theorien und Phantasien, Harmonielehren (1906), and Kontrapunkt (1910 and 1922), laid the foundations for the harmonic aspect of his theory. The specific voice-leading component was a later development, progressing with brilliance over the last 15 years of his life. It is in Free Composition ( Freie Satz , 1935) that the idea of voice-leading receives its most detailed and precise formulation. Pendragon Press is honored to make this distinguished reprint available once again, with a new preface by Carl Schacter.

164 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

About the author

Heinrich Schenker (19 June 1868 – 14 January 1935) was an Austrian music theorist, composer, pianist, and editor whose reductive analytical method, now termed "Schenkerian analysis", elucidates the hierarchical structure of tonal music by tracing elaborations from surface details back to a fundamental Ursatz derived from linear progressions and triadic arpeggiations.