Since the late 1970s it has been my extraordinary good fortune to attend numerous courses taught by Carl Schachter. In each class session he offered breathtakingly profound insights into the wonders of musical masterpieces, and I am happy to see that The Art of Tonal Analysis will now allow everyone to share in the excitement of these lessons.
Carl Schachter is an extraordinary musician and musical thinker, and the world's leading practitioner of Schenkerian theory and analysis. He has written extensively on the masterworks of the tonal common practice and on the analytical delights and challenges that they present. Although his articles and books have been broadly influential, and are seen by many as models of musical insight and lucid prose, perhaps his greatest impact has been felt in the classroom. At the Mannes College of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and at special pedagogical events around the world, he has taught generations of musical performers, composers, historians, and theorists.
Joseph N. Straus has published widely on topics in modernist music and post-tonal music theory. He is a former President of the Society for Music Theory.