The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Riemannian Music Theories ed. by Edward Gollin and Alexander Rehding (review)

Music scholars and librarians should take note of this collection of essays, a large portion of which represents the most cogent recent development in North American music theory since the codification of pitch-class set theory and the adaptation of Schenker's theories in the 1960s and 1970s. Stemming from the work of the late David Lewin in the 1980s, "Neo-Riemannian" theory grew rapidly over the intervening years and has become the locus for much creative theoretical work in pitch analysis. Given its sophistication in both conception and terminology, the theory's application in the university music setting has been limited largely to graduate studies and thereafter. By now, several generations of young academic theorists have been exposed to it, and many have adopted a Neo-Riemannian approach as an area of research if not a working theoretical framework. Thus any music library supporting studies beyond the undergraduate level should have a copy of this book. It is as important to a graduate curriculum as the many books available now that offer introductions to pitch-class set theory or Schenkerian analysis. (Because of its specialized nature, it is suited more to graduate than undergraduate students, although a very capable upper-level undergraduate music theorist may find it as fascinating as this reviewer found Schenker's thought in his undergraduate days.)

The reader should note, however, that the book is not meant as a basic introduction nor is it dedicated solely to a theory about pitch organization. Instead, the book is devoted to Hugo Riemann, his theories, and their modern theoretical offshoots, one of which is Neo-Riemannian analysis. Thus the book encompasses, on the one hand, chapters on Riemann's thought itself and its reception in its time, while on the other, applications of that thought well beyond Riemann's original frame of reference. Although the scope is substantial, the collection succeeds nonetheless: at the very core of every contribution lies a quite remarkable adventure in Riemannian thought, both past and present.

The essays are drawn from well-established as well as emerging (or recently emerged) scholars—American, Canadian, British, and German—which is a testament to the rapid spread of this theoretical approach. The book comprises six divisions: Intellectual Contexts (chapters 1 through 4, by Ludwig Holtmeier, Benjamin Steege, Bryan Hyer, Matthew Gelbart, and Alexander Rehding), Dualism (chapters 5 through 8, by Ian Bent, Henry Klumpenhouwer, Rehding, and Dmitri Tymoczko), Tone Space (chapters 9 through 11, by Edward Gollin, Susannah Clark, Richard Cohn), Harmonic Space (chapters 12 through 13, by Nora Engebretsen, Edward Gollin, and David Kopp), Temporal Space (chapters 15 through 17, by William Caplin, Scott Burnham, and Paul Berry), and Transformation, Analysis, Criticism (chapters 18 through 20, by Steven Rings, Robert Cook, and Daniel Harrison). These scholars number among the principal advocates of new thought in music theory; their names are well known to readers of music theory journals and to conference goers.

Each part is preceded by a short description, two or three pages in length, of its contents. In brief, the first part is devoted to sketching the background of musical intellectual thought against which Riemann's wide ranging mind worked. Thus, in Holtmeier's essay, for example, the principle ideas and currents of harmony up to and during Riemann's time are encapsulated, the author drawing all the while upon theorists and treatises that have grown remote to us over time. The essay in its own right could serve as backbone to a survey of nineteenth-century music theory literature. In the second part, the most contentious of Riemann's theoretical foundations—the concept of "Dualism"—is addressed. The manner with which this controversy is treated in the book sets a high standard for historical research in music theory. In essence, while acknowledging an epistemic shift in Riemann's thought during his lifetime, the contributors find...