One of the momentous events in twentieth century music was the advent of atonality and serialism, and the consequent proliferation of such avant-garde genres as total serialism, electronic music, and aleatory music. This book examines serialism and its progeny, formulates criteria that are applicable both to serialism and to the traditional harmony from which it developed, and focuses on the failure of serialism to solve the problem of coherent harmonic progression. Rather than seeking to denounce serialism, the work attempts to restore a balance by questioning whether its esteem is justified.

In this work, Schoffman applies the criterion of the degree of indeterminacy of the chords to both traditional functional harmony and to serial and avant-garde music. Consequently, serialism and avant-garde music are placed in a historical perspective and evaluated in terms of their chordal behavior. The study is divided into four separate sections, examining the indeterminacy of progression, the indeterminacy of members of chords, chords in serial music, and destructive aspects of indeterminacy. Also included is an extensive list of musical examples, a guide to references, and a comprehensive index. With its correlations to literature, painting, and history, this volume will be an important addition to academic and public libraries, university music departments, and academies of music, as well as a valuable resource for courses in music theory and analysis, esthetics of music, and music history.

Robert Browning interests musicians because he was a major poet as well as a competent musician. Music was a central theme in his poetry and formed the basis for many of his images and ideas. This unusual element compels musicological criticism as well as literary. The subject of Nachum Schoffman's book is the nature of Browning's musicality and the role and influence of music in his poetry. Schoffman carries the musicological analysis of Browning's poetry to its logical conclusions, revealing more than other literary critics have of the poet's musicality. On the basis of his analysis, he advances two new ideas. First, he identifies the piece described in the poem A Toccata of Galuppi's as the Sonata in F Major. Second, he offers a new interpretation of the relationship between words and music in Browning's music poems. Schoffman's unique musicological perspective enriches our understanding of one of the great nineteenth century poets. His book is required reading for scholars and students of Browning and those involved in interdisciplinary approaches to literature.