History of Music Theory

Hauptman, Moritz (1792-1868)

• The Nature of Harmony and Metre (1853)

    ". . . a philosophical understanding of musical phenomena rather than a technical knowledge of them, an approach that he felt filled a gap among contemporary theory texts. For Hauptmann, the principles underlying music must be universally true of human thought. His basic principle comprises the elements unity, opposition and (re)union (higher unity). Hauptmann's direct source may have been Hegel's dialectic, idealist philosophy in general, Goethe or Lutheran theology, or some combination of these. In any case, Hauptmann's theory is often termed ‘Hegelian’. It has been called ‘deductive, transcendental and dialectical.’"  [reproduced from Grove Music Online]

Helmholtz, Hermann von (1821-1894)

• On the Sensations of Tone (1863)

    If Hauptmann's treatise is a thesis (idealist), Helmholtz's On the Sensations of Tone (materialist) is an antithesis in terms of methods, vocabulary, attitudes, values, and judgments.

Oettingen, Arthur von (1836-1920)

• Harmoniesystem in dualer Entwickelung: Studien zur Theorie der Musik (1866)

    Oettingen believed in drawing musical conclusions from the results of acoustic researches, relied on just intonation as a foundation of his system, and did not shrink from advancing nontraditional ideas about harmony.

     "He developed the idea that major and minor triads and key systems are mirror inversions of each other: that the major triad C–E–G, designated c^plus, is mirrored by the minor triad C–A♭–F (reading downward), designated c°. The tonic major scale C–D–E–F–G–A–B–C is mirrored by the phonic scale E–D–C–B–A–G–F–E (reading downward), which is the common A minor scale descending from the dominant. In this arrangement the intervals of the two scales are the same and every triad in the tonic scale is mirrored by a triad of the opposite mode in the phonic scale. If the triads repeat their roots, the phonic chords will all be second inversions in the major-minor system."  [reproduced from Grove Music Online]

Riemann, Hugo (1849-1919), selected bibliograhy

• 1877.  Musikalische Syntaxis

• 1877.  Systematische Modulationslehre als Grundlage der musikalischen Formenlehre

• 1880.  Skizze einer neuen Methode der Harmonielehre (later revised version titled as Handbuch der Harmonielehre.  4th edition in 1906; 6th edition in 1917)

• 1896.  Harmony Simplified

• 1898.  History of Music Theory from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Centuries

• 1905.  "Das Problem des harmonischen Dualismus"

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Stephan Krehl (1864-1924)

• Presented almost pure Riemann

Max Reger (1873-1916)

• 1903.  Beiträge zur Modulationslehre (famous for its completeness and for the brevity of its progressions)

Rudolf Louis (1870-1914) and Ludwig Thuille (1861-1907)

• 1907.  Harmonielehre

• A paragon of pedagogy: lucidly thorough in its treatment of diatonic materials, innovative and, indeed, intrepid in its ideas on chromatic and enharmonic techniques

• Used roman numerals and were not dualist, but the dependence of their work on many of Riemann's ideas is obvious

• A piracy of Riemann's theory books

• With the subsequent supplementary material, workbooks, answer keys, and summaries, it is the first all-in-one teaching package

Hermann Grabner (1886-1969)

• 1923.  Die Funktionstheorie Hugo Riemanns und ihre Bedeutung für die praktische Analyse

• 1944.  Handbuch der funktionellen Harmonielehre

Hermann Erpf (1891-1969)

• 1927.  Studien zur Harmonie- und Klangtechnik der neueren Musik

• More theoretically elegant

• An original and thoroughgoing revision of Riemannian theory

• One of the first theorists to address the structural characteristics of the chromatic style

• Functionally mixtures of the two dominants, Doppeldominanten, showing Subdominant and Dominant functions by a single function letter

Sigfrid Karg-Elert (1877-1933)

• 1931.  Polaristische Klang- und Tonalitätslehre

• Contains astonishingly sophisticated and effective examples

• Fluent compositional techniques in this difficult chromatic art

• Sheer exuberance and eccentric enthusiasms

• Suffix M to indicate mediant relationship, its vertical location denoting the direction from the primary triad

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