Schenker is a Bad Influence on our Youth

This weekend members of the CCM-based “Stufen-gang” have fled to Boston for the annual Society for Music Theory meeting. I sat through a Schenkerian analysis class about two years ago and found the theoretical approach compelling. Sketching Ursätze on the sofa with Letterman in the background is my idea of an exhilarating evening. It makes for satisfying self-occupation, the same type one might get from crossword puzzles or anagrams. But what really turns me off is reading or listening about graphs someone else has fashioned. The only prolongation I sense is that of my own agony.

It confuses me that Schenker seems to spark social energy. In case college students could not find any other reason to get together, we have the “Stufen-gang.” The “everybody’s doing it” phrase takes on new meaning when an activity of personal indulgence and academic pretense becomes a mediator for youth culture. I hear T-shirts and letter jackets are on the way. I knew there was a reason I had joined.