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Allen Forte (born December 23, 1926) is a music theorist
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
 and musicologist. He was born in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
 and fought in the Navy at the close of World War II before moving to the East Coast. He is now Battell Professor of Music, Emeritus at Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
. Forte is arguably best known for his book The Structure of Atonal Music, in which he extrapolates from the serial theory of Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering Serialism, and electronic music....
, proposing a musical "set theory"
Set theory (music)

Musical set theory provides concepts for categorizing musical objects and describing their relationships. Many of the notions were first elaborated by Howard Hanson in connection with tonality music, and then mostly developed in connection with atonal music; the concepts of set theory are very general and can be applied to tonal and atonal...
 of pitch-class-set analysis analogous to mathematical set theory
Set theory

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies Set , which are collections of objects. Although any type of object can be collected into a set, set theory is applied most often to objects that are relevant to mathematics....
 with the avowed intention of providing a method for the analysis of pre-serial atonal music.






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Allen Forte (born December 23, 1926) is a music theorist
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
 and musicologist. He was born in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Northwestern United States United States, near the confluence of the Willamette River and Columbia River rivers in the state of Oregon....
 and fought in the Navy at the close of World War II before moving to the East Coast. He is now Battell Professor of Music, Emeritus at Yale University
Yale University

Yale University is a private university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701 as the Collegiate School, Yale is the Colonial Colleges institution of higher education in the United States and is a member of the Ivy League....
. Forte is arguably best known for his book The Structure of Atonal Music, in which he extrapolates from the serial theory of Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt

Milton Byron Babbitt is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering Serialism, and electronic music....
, proposing a musical "set theory"
Set theory (music)

Musical set theory provides concepts for categorizing musical objects and describing their relationships. Many of the notions were first elaborated by Howard Hanson in connection with tonality music, and then mostly developed in connection with atonal music; the concepts of set theory are very general and can be applied to tonal and atonal...
 of pitch-class-set analysis analogous to mathematical set theory
Set theory

Set theory is the branch of mathematics that studies Set , which are collections of objects. Although any type of object can be collected into a set, set theory is applied most often to objects that are relevant to mathematics....
 with the avowed intention of providing a method for the analysis of pre-serial atonal music. The musicologist Richard Taruskin
Richard Taruskin

Richard Taruskin is an American musicologist, music historian, and critic who has written about the theory of performance, Russian music, fifteenth-century music, twentieth-century music, nationalism, the theory of modernism, and analysis....
 and the composer and music theorist George Perle
George Perle

George Perle was a composer and music theory. He was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. A student of Ernst Krenek, Perle composed with a technique of his own devising called "twelve-tone tonality," which is different from, but related to, twelve-tone technique ....
 are among the most vocal critics of this method. Forte has published analyses of the works of Webern
Anton Webern

Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and Conducting. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known proponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative...
 and Alban Berg
Alban Berg

Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Gustav Mahler Romantic music with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique....
 and has written about Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis

Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theory of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to reveal the underlying structure of a tonal work; in fact its basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music....
 and American popular song. Now in retirement, he is travelling, giving lectures and seminars. He is married to pianist Madeleine Forte.

Bibliography

  • (1962) Tonal Harmony in Concept and Practice.
  • (1973) The Structure of Atonal Music.
  • (1978) The Harmonic Organization of The Rite of Sping.
  • (1982) Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (with Steven E. Gilbert).
  • (1995) The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era 1924-1950. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • (1998) The Atonal Music of Anton Webern.


External links

  • Follow the "Print Resources" link on the left to get to the special collections and then proceed to the Allen Forte Theory Treatise Collection page.
  • Unpublished papers, notes, and sketches available for viewing and download through the Center for Schenkerian Studies at UNT.