Brief Summary of Working Method
 This page is from the old version of SchenkerGUIDE click here to visit the method page on the new site
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Stage One
preparation: simplifying the music in order to make its analysis more manageable
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Stage Two
foreground analysis: showing how the surface of the music breaks down into a series of melodic units - each of which is connected with a particular harmonic unit
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Stage Three
layer analysis: looking for larger scale linear units - this stage may be repeated several times
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Stage Four
background analysis identifying the largest scale structures to explain how the piece might be understood in terms of Schenkerian background structures
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As well as the example used in the explanation of each stage, there are also several further worked examples of using this method:
If this all looks a bit bewildering, why not look at the Guide to Schenker's Theory of Music first?
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