The Development of Schenker's Concept of Interruption. (23rd July 2013) - Marston, Nicholas
Abstract This article draws on the rich resources of Heinrich Schenker's Nachlass in the Ernst Oster Collection (New York Public Library) to construct the development of interruption (Unterbrechung), a vital aspect of Schenker's mature understanding of musical form. In §90 of Der freie Satz (1935) Schenker makes a crucial distinction between the structural weight of the two configurations in an interrupted Ursatz, and gives priority to the first one: the effect of interruption depends on the sense that this will be succeeded by , rather than by the return to that is actually forthcoming. Subsequently, in §93, Schenker claims that the reasserted connects back to its first appearance, prior to the first arrival of . The article explores the tension between these two claims in relation to and Ursätze and reconstructs preliminary versions of the text relating to interruption in Der freie Satz. It concludes by suggesting that Schenker's shifting notation of interrupted structures reflects a continuing uneasiness with his own definition of interruption as a theoretical concept.