The course examines the contrapuntal and harmonic relationships of tonal music as two dimensions that are strongly related to each other and constitute the basis of a tonal piece. These relationships are inherent in the musical piece both at the foreground level and at deeper levels of the music. During the course students will meet compositional techniques of tonal music, analyze pieces from the common practice period, beginning with short phrases and ending with sonata form, and become familiar with the graphic notation of Schenkerian analysis.

During the second semester of this class we will focus on the concept of “Interruption” and its application to three Beethoven Sonatas.