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Der Tonwille: Pamplets in Witness of the Immutable Laws of Music, Offered to a New Generation of Youth.

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Der Tonwille: Pamplets in Witness of the Immutable Laws of Music, Offered to a New Generation of Youth, vol. 1. By Heinrich Schenker. Edited by William Drabkin. Translated by Ian Bent. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. [xx, 231 p. ISBN 0195122372. $150.00.] Index.

"Der Tonwille," which roughly translates as "the will (desire or egotism) of the tone" is the name given by Schenker to a series of pamphlets, of roughly fifty pages each, issued between 1921-24 by Universal Edition that contain essays addressing various topics in the field of music. Considered by its editor to be "a central work--in several respects the central work--in the Schenkerian canon" (p. vii), Der Tonwille contains three basic types of essays: (1) analyses of individual pieces; (2) essays of a theoretical nature; and (3) writings of a political nature. Each issue, moreover, contains a section of miscellany ("Vermischtes") containing observations on various aspects of music and politics, although it should be noted that in each type of essay political commentary is "not far from the surface" (p. ix). The content of Der Tonwille chronicles the genesis of the probing insights into tonal music for which Schenker is known as well as that of the accompanying graphic analytic notation. The concepts of the Urlinie and Ursatz, for example, are expounded upon in detail for the first time in these pamphlets. The former receives its first thorough treatment in the first...

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