1997 Articles

Review of The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality by William Kinderman and Harald Krebs

Frisch, Walter M.

The central questions occupying the authors The Second Practice of Nineteenth-Century Tonality are: What happens in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to the principle of a single tonality governing a piece of music? And when, where, and how does this principle begin to break down? The Second Practice is remarkable not least for getting between two covers music historians and theorists -- they are in about equal measure here -- who focus on issues that up to now have not been adequately addressed by either Fach. As would be expected from a multiauthor volume, the result is not unified or consistent, not a "second practice" of tonal theory, but a stimulating collection of analyses, ideas, and hunches.