Annotation for Rothstein, William
Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music
Annotation (by Jay Tomlin):
- Generously elaborative and replete with musical examples, Phrase Rhythm
in Tonal Music since its publication in 1989 has become one of the most
important sources dealing with rhythm in tonal music, due no doubt to
Rothstein's meticulous efforts to make the book approachable by a wide
variety of musicians. Rothstein's primary biases stem from Schenkerian
thought; throughout the book Rothstein emphasizes that tonal motion is
the most important factor--more important even than meter or
hypermeter
--for determining phrase rhythm (hypermeter is in fact
considered a derivative of tonal motion). The book is divided into two
parts of four chapters each: the first part is a more general overview
of concepts and basic terms, going so far as to discuss various methods
of phrase expansion and contraction. The second part of the book is a
more detailed look at individual composers (the implication being that
phrase rhythm is an element of style); a chapter each is devoted to
Haydn, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Wagner. The main thrust of this second
part is that in later nineteenth-century music, composers were faced with
"The Great Nineteenth-Century Rhythm Problem," which, in short, was the
danger of permitting too duple a hypermeter. Several excellent published
reviews of the book are available, including Robert P. Morgan's critique in
Nineteenth Century Music 15, No. 1, 75-80.
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