Kant's And Heinrich Schenker: Music Analysis

Out of the various approaches to analysing music have emerged throughout history I have chosen to review Immanuel Kant’s and Heinrich Schenker’s forms of analysis. The historical origin of a form of analysis is significant as the method and theory of these analytical approaches materialise from political and social circumstances of society of the time. For example, the discourse of period will manipulate the way a piece of music is discussed, and the understanding of discourse associated with a form of analysis will affect the way in which that approach is performed.
Accordingly, the most effective way to critique the usefulness of each method is to remove them from their historical origins. This can be done by analysing a ‘timeless’ piece
The lyrics come from Friedrich Schiller’s ‘Ode to Joy’. Schenker states that “What Beethoven did, he did in spite of text”, the only consideration of the lyrics in the analysis is a justification as to why vocals are acceptable on this one occasion. Schenker suggests that Beethoven’s need for parallelism overrode the need for programmatic considerations despite them being ‘logical inconsistency’. Other compositional context is also ignored by Schenker, ‘Ode to Joy’ was also commissioned by The Philharmonic Society of London. The basic melody was adapted from Henry van Dyke’s hymn "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee". And the lyrics refer to Elysium (Heaven) as the origin of joy achieved through loving god. These numerous factors which have shaped the composition of ode to joy but fail to be acknowledged by Schenker.
Schenker’s concept of the term origin is the defining aspect of Schenkerian analysis. The method reduces the piece to its apparent structural source (the cell) but stops at investigating the origin of that source. If Schenker continued he would have reached aesthetics and the political, social world which influenced the composer and the composition. But this aesthetical origin is subjective, even though Schenkerian analysis itself is a prejudiced system that assumes the development of a piece. Schenker wanted his systematic approach to achieve scientific