Atonal prolongational structure

Abstract

The early atonal music of Schoenberg and his school is emblematic of the difficulties in comprehending twentieth-century music. Music theorists have tried to analyze this music either through a modified Schenkerian approach or through pitch-set theory. After discussing limitations in these approaches, this paper develops at length a different theory for atonal music, one that adapts Jackendoff's and my A Generative Theory of Tonal Music in appropriate ways. Analyses of three Schoenberg pieces (from op. 11 and op. 19) illustrate the theory. The paper closes with an informal discussion of atonal pitch space.

KEY WORDS:

• Atonal
• prolongation
• pitch-set theory
• Schenkerian theory
• generative music theory
• reduction
• Schoenberg
• pitch space