Notes

David Damschroder has been circling Ludwig van Beethoven for a while now, looking ahead with Harmony in Chopin (2015), then back with Harmony in Haydn and Mozart (2012), and even paralleling him in Harmony in Schubert (2010), all published by Cambridge University Press. The arrival of his latest book will therefore come as no surprise. Damschroder has been reenvisaging harmonic practice for some time now—both what it should reveal and how to reveal it—and his work represents nothing short of a radical rethinking of how harmonic theory is taught and assimilated. Heinrich Schenker's influence waxes strong, particularly in his concept of Stufen theory as articulated in the Harmonielehre (Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta, 1906). This is central to both Damschroder's thinking and the way he applies his analytical findings. For Damschroder, a Stufe—which he translates as "scale-step" (p. 9)—is a hierarchical level above a mere harmony that may sometimes comprise several chords as designated by traditional analysis. The application of this concept permeates his analyses of Beethoven.

Readers eager to get to the heart of the book should be cautioned not to skip the preface, particularly if they are approaching Damschroder's work for the first time. There his information on "Conventions regarding note relations, chords, keys, and Roman numerals" (pp. x–xiii) is crucial to the understanding of what follows. Compared with traditional analysts, Damschroder employs roman numerals far more sparingly and quite differently in regard to function/hierarchy. Gone is the goal of labeling every chord, replaced by assessing chordal function (as structural or embellishing) and assigning roman numerals (or not) accordingly. Gone too is the use of lowercase roman numerals for minor chords. Instead, he indicates altered notes by adding accidentals to uppercase numerals: to the left for an altered root and to the right for an altered third. This has the advantage of showing a more direct relation to the tonic. For alterations of other chord tones, with modifying accidental signs [End Page 310] added as appropriate, he uses additional superscript arabic numerals positioned to the right of the roman numerals above the third indications. Thus, the chord of D minor (formerly ii) in the key of C major is II, whereas a D major chord in the same context (formerly V of V) is now II. This roman/arabic fusion is felicitous. Also gone is the labeling of secondary dominants, now reenvisaged as altered versions of primary scale steps. Bullets (•) are used for missing roots. Parentheses around a pitch indicate that it is physically absent although theoretically present. Transitional, nonstructural harmonies are indicated by open parentheses I ( ) IV. Damschroder also restores enharmonic chord spellings to what he considers to be their structurally accurate forms. Pitches are also sometimes underlined to indicate hierarchy. Abbreviations connected with formal analysis taken from Elements of Sonata Theory (e.g., S [secondary theme zone] and PAC [perfect authentic cadence]) are used throughout (James Hepokowski and Warren Darcy, Elements of Sonata Theory: Norms, Types, and Deformations in the Late Eighteenth-Century Sonata [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006]). Readers must assimilate further details, more than can be listed here.

Damschroder follows a similar plan to his previous volumes, dividing Harmony in Beethoven into two parts. In the first, "Methodological Orientation: Har monielehre (The Piano Sonatas)," he covers the ways in which Beethoven approaches chordal function. His fresh analytical insights into Beethoven's use of harmony outline in particular the many and varied ways in which scale steps—IV (chap. 1), II (chap. 2), III (chap. 4, with supplementary information on differentiating III from I in chap. 5)—connect Stufen between I and V. Other chapters include an examination of the circle of fifths (chap. 3) and explanation of parenthetical passages (chap. 7). The book provides copious music examples, all taken from the piano sonatas and laid out using block chords, making them more approachable to readers who are unfamiliar with graphic notation. The most noticeable thing to catch the eye...