ABSTRACT
The ‘difficulties’ of translating Heinrich Schenker must be, in part, those of translating any scholarly text: a specialised vocabulary; references needing to be filled out and brought up to date; the problem of striking the right tone, a sense that the original was the product of a particular time and place. One forgets, Schenker has become part of the musical ‘establishment’, recognised as a ‘major figure’, institutionalised as fodder for university analysis courses from London to Yale, how difficult he must have seemed to his contemporaries, how little he was prepared to compromise. His analytical essays start straight in with difficult, uncompromising analysis. Schenker was a man overflowing with ideas. He must have been a marvellous teacher: the enthusiasm that caused him to make mistakes, falling over himself in his excitement, won him many followers. And the greatness of his achievement is unquestionable.
