Structure and voice-leading

Abstract

It is well-known that schenkerian analysis enables performers to understand at least one feature of the aesthetic response to good music, explaining why one passage sounds logical and another illogical. This allows them to establish some of the workings of musical syntax, achieving insights about style which one could not reach by other types of analysis. Simple reductions of the musical surface can reveal hidden motivic connections. Because the outlines at the deepest level of analysis are so generalised, and because the rules of counterpoint and diminution are general techniques of the time, the method cannot easily distinguish between the styles of different composers.