Schillinger System
Encyclopedia
The Schillinger System of Musical Composition, named after Joseph Schillinger
, is a method of musical composition based on mathematical processes. It comprises theories of rhythm
, harmony
, melody
, counterpoint
, form, and semantics
(emotional meaning, as in movie music).
It offers a systematic and non-genre specific approach to music analysis and composition, a descriptive rather than prescriptive grammar of music. The Schillinger System might have served as a road map for many later developments in music theory and composition. Instead, it languished in relative obscurity.
in New York City and taught such celebrated composers as George Gershwin
, Glenn Miller
, Benny Goodman
, and a host of Hollywood and Broadway composers. His books were published after his death and his system enjoys a cult following, although it is still considered controversial in traditional circles. There are a limited number of Certified Schillinger Teachers of this system in the world.
In New York, Schillinger flourished, becoming famous as the advisor to many of America's leading popular musicians and concert music composers. These include George Gershwin
, Benny Goodman
, Glenn Miller
, Paul Lavalle
, Oscar Levant
, Tommy Dorsey
, and Carmine Coppola
among others. Gershwin spent four years studying with Schillinger. During this period, he composed Porgy and Bess
and consulted Schillinger on matters concerning the opera, particularly its orchestration. In the field of electronic music
, Schillinger collaborated with Léon Theremin
, inventor of the Theremin
, an early electronic musical instrument, composing the first concert work for theremin and orchestra, the First Airphonic Suite, in 1929.
His postal tuition courses were so successful he was able to rent a twelve-room apartment on Fifth Avenue. Schillinger accredited a small group of students as qualified teachers of the system.
. He did not finish work on the texts he hoped would advance his theories in the realm of academia. His widow and biographer, Frances Schillinger, hired editors to complete and publish a text. They pulled together his unfinished monograph with parts of his correspondence courses. Despite its length, it presents only a partial exposition of the system. For example, Schillinger's theory of counterpoint covers but two part counterpoint. (It was left for students like Jerome Walman
to expand the technique to cover three, four and unlimited combinations of melodies, which lead to Walman developing his own system). It is marred by a wildly uneven tone, at times neutral and objective, at times vehement and polemical. Critics almost universally panned the work. His method remained difficult and obscure for the uninitiated.
His flamboyant manner based on extreme assertions is evident in his writings: "These procedures were performed crudely by even well reputed composers. For example L. Van Beethoven…"
Later, in The Theory of Melody, Beethoven is taken to task over the construction of the opening melody of his Pathetique Sonata.
Schillinger rarely attempts to predict the aesthetic consequences of his system, but instead offers generalized pattern-making techniques, free of stylistic bias.
The thesis underlying Schillinger's research is that music is a form of movement. Any physical action or process has its equivalent form of expression in music. Both movement and music are understandable with our existing knowledge of science. His contribution was intuitively recognizing how to apply everyday mathematics to the making of music. He expressed the belief that certain patterns were universal, and common to both music and the very structure of our nervous system.
Schillinger's style can induce a resistance, appearing at times relentlessly dry, favoring algebra and music notation above words. Occasionally the text is deliberately provocative. The techniques are tools: by themselves, they do not compose music but merely assist the composer in the planning and execution of large musical structures. The techniques in the field of rhythm to some extent compensate for an imbalance in composition literature, largely dominated by considerations of pitch.
Many of the techniques and procedures were later independently advocated by others, whom history remembers as their creators. For example, Schillinger proposed a system of numerical analysis of pitches based on principles which later became incorporated into set theory, long before the work of Milton Babbitt
and Allen Forte
. Furthermore, Schillinger pioneered advanced algorithmic compositional techniques long before the work of Iannis Xenakis
and other later advocates.
The uncompromising tone is due partly to the background from which he emerged. During the 1930s, he was amongst those who called for science to sweep away outdated practices.
Schillinger had a profound effect on the world of jazz education. One of Schillinger's recognised students, Lawrence Berk
, founded the Schillinger House of Music in Boston, after Schillinger's death, to continue the dissemination of the System. Schillinger House opened in 1945 and later became the Berklee College of Music
where the Schillinger System survived in the curriculum until the 1960s. See: Berklee method
.
In the 40s, the Schillinger Method was a focus of the curriculum at Westlake College of Music. Dick Grove
, who was one of the teachers at Westlake and had studied the Schillinger System for 9 years, developed some of Schillinger's ideas into his own comprehensive system of music education, which he taught at his Grove School of Music and later at the Grove School Without Walls.
Yet another admirer and former student of Schillinger's system was veteran movie composer, John Barry
. ("John Barry - A Sixties Theme" by Eddi Fiegel (Constable, London, 1998)).
More recently, Jeremy Arden has written a dissertation on Schillinger and offers courses on Schillinger's theories at his Schillinger School.
The reformation of The Schillinger Society has caused a resurgence in interest in all Schillinger's theories. The Practical Schillinger Online School offers courses that were derived from Schillinger and his top teachers.
Joseph Schillinger
Joseph Schillinger was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher. He was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine and died in New York City.-Life and career:...
, is a method of musical composition based on mathematical processes. It comprises theories of rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
, harmony
Harmony
In music, harmony is the use of simultaneous pitches , or chords. The study of harmony involves chords and their construction and chord progressions and the principles of connection that govern them. Harmony is often said to refer to the "vertical" aspect of music, as distinguished from melodic...
, melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
, form, and semantics
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
(emotional meaning, as in movie music).
It offers a systematic and non-genre specific approach to music analysis and composition, a descriptive rather than prescriptive grammar of music. The Schillinger System might have served as a road map for many later developments in music theory and composition. Instead, it languished in relative obscurity.
Schillinger's career
Schillinger was a professor at The New SchoolThe New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York City and taught such celebrated composers as George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
, Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, and a host of Hollywood and Broadway composers. His books were published after his death and his system enjoys a cult following, although it is still considered controversial in traditional circles. There are a limited number of Certified Schillinger Teachers of this system in the world.
In New York, Schillinger flourished, becoming famous as the advisor to many of America's leading popular musicians and concert music composers. These include George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
, Benny Goodman
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...
, Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller
Alton Glenn Miller was an American jazz musician , arranger, composer, and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1943, leading one of the best known "Big Bands"...
, Paul Lavalle
Paul Lavalle
Paul Lavalle was a conductor, composer, arranger and performer on clarinet and saxophone. He was born Joseph Usifer on September 6, 1908 in Beacon, New York and died in Harrisonburg, Virginia on June 24, 1997....
, Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American pianist, composer, author, comedian, and actor. He was more famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and in movies and television, than for his music.-Life and career:...
, Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
, and Carmine Coppola
Carmine Coppola
Carmine Coppola was an American composer, flautist, editor, musical director, and songwriter. Coppola was a composer and conductor who contributed to many of the musical scores in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, and Apocalypse Now directed by his son Francis Ford...
among others. Gershwin spent four years studying with Schillinger. During this period, he composed Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
and consulted Schillinger on matters concerning the opera, particularly its orchestration. In the field of electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
, Schillinger collaborated with Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin
Léon Theremin was a Russian and Soviet inventor. He is most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments. He is also the inventor of interlace, a technique of improving the picture quality of a video signal, widely used in video and television technology...
, inventor of the Theremin
Theremin
The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...
, an early electronic musical instrument, composing the first concert work for theremin and orchestra, the First Airphonic Suite, in 1929.
His postal tuition courses were so successful he was able to rent a twelve-room apartment on Fifth Avenue. Schillinger accredited a small group of students as qualified teachers of the system.
After Schillinger
Schillinger's celebrity status made him suspect, and his ideas were treated with skepticism. He died early from lung cancerLung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
. He did not finish work on the texts he hoped would advance his theories in the realm of academia. His widow and biographer, Frances Schillinger, hired editors to complete and publish a text. They pulled together his unfinished monograph with parts of his correspondence courses. Despite its length, it presents only a partial exposition of the system. For example, Schillinger's theory of counterpoint covers but two part counterpoint. (It was left for students like Jerome Walman
Jerome Walman
Jerome Walman is an American composer and certified instructor of the Schillinger System of Musical Composition. He studied at Boston University, Juilliard School of Music, Berklee School of Music, and at New York University . Walman is one of the last certified of instructors of the Schillinger...
to expand the technique to cover three, four and unlimited combinations of melodies, which lead to Walman developing his own system). It is marred by a wildly uneven tone, at times neutral and objective, at times vehement and polemical. Critics almost universally panned the work. His method remained difficult and obscure for the uninitiated.
His flamboyant manner based on extreme assertions is evident in his writings: "These procedures were performed crudely by even well reputed composers. For example L. Van Beethoven…"
Later, in The Theory of Melody, Beethoven is taken to task over the construction of the opening melody of his Pathetique Sonata.
Beyond style
Schillinger's System of Musical Composition is an attempt to create a comprehensive and definitive treatise on music and number. This has the disadvantage of resulting in a treatise of great length and elaborate nomenclature. By revealing principles of the organization of sound through scientific analysis, Schillinger hoped to free the composer from the shackles of tradition. Although the system is forward-looking, couched in an apparently modern form, it also clarifies traditional music theory by debunking misconceptions from the past. He was clear that his methods allowed any style of composition to be undertaken more effectively.Schillinger rarely attempts to predict the aesthetic consequences of his system, but instead offers generalized pattern-making techniques, free of stylistic bias.
Scope and limitations
The positive side of the balance sheet reads this way:- All existing music is accommodated.
- Techniques do not prohibit creative freedom.
- Results are practical and effective.
The thesis underlying Schillinger's research is that music is a form of movement. Any physical action or process has its equivalent form of expression in music. Both movement and music are understandable with our existing knowledge of science. His contribution was intuitively recognizing how to apply everyday mathematics to the making of music. He expressed the belief that certain patterns were universal, and common to both music and the very structure of our nervous system.
Schillinger's style can induce a resistance, appearing at times relentlessly dry, favoring algebra and music notation above words. Occasionally the text is deliberately provocative. The techniques are tools: by themselves, they do not compose music but merely assist the composer in the planning and execution of large musical structures. The techniques in the field of rhythm to some extent compensate for an imbalance in composition literature, largely dominated by considerations of pitch.
Many of the techniques and procedures were later independently advocated by others, whom history remembers as their creators. For example, Schillinger proposed a system of numerical analysis of pitches based on principles which later became incorporated into set theory, long before the work of Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
and Allen Forte
Allen Forte
Allen Forte is a music theorist and musicologist. He was born in Portland, 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...
. Furthermore, Schillinger pioneered advanced algorithmic compositional techniques long before the work of Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
and other later advocates.
The uncompromising tone is due partly to the background from which he emerged. During the 1930s, he was amongst those who called for science to sweep away outdated practices.
Students
For all its rigour, repetition and challenge, the System was enjoyed and apparently used with great success for many years after its author's death. Schillinger’s influence lingers on in the work of celebrated musicians as well as those who produced countless film scores and television theme tunes.Schillinger had a profound effect on the world of jazz education. One of Schillinger's recognised students, Lawrence Berk
Lawrence Berk
Lawrence Berk was the founder of Berklee College of Music, a pianist, composer and arranger, and educator.Berk oversaw the growth of the modest Schillinger House music school into the Berklee College of Music, the largest independent school of music in the world...
, founded the Schillinger House of Music in Boston, after Schillinger's death, to continue the dissemination of the System. Schillinger House opened in 1945 and later became the Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
where the Schillinger System survived in the curriculum until the 1960s. See: Berklee method
Berklee method
In music performance and education, the Berklee method is the music theory, terminology, and practice taught at Berklee College of Music, the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world...
.
In the 40s, the Schillinger Method was a focus of the curriculum at Westlake College of Music. Dick Grove
Dick Grove
Richard Dean "Dick" Grove was an American musician, composer, arranger and award-winning music educator. He performed with Alvino Rey, and worked with Paul Horn, Buddy Rich, and Nancy Wilson....
, who was one of the teachers at Westlake and had studied the Schillinger System for 9 years, developed some of Schillinger's ideas into his own comprehensive system of music education, which he taught at his Grove School of Music and later at the Grove School Without Walls.
Yet another admirer and former student of Schillinger's system was veteran movie composer, John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
. ("John Barry - A Sixties Theme" by Eddi Fiegel (Constable, London, 1998)).
More recently, Jeremy Arden has written a dissertation on Schillinger and offers courses on Schillinger's theories at his Schillinger School.
The reformation of The Schillinger Society has caused a resurgence in interest in all Schillinger's theories. The Practical Schillinger Online School offers courses that were derived from Schillinger and his top teachers.
External links
- Example of the Schillinger system
- The Schillinger Society
- The Schillinger Society on Myspace
- Pease, Ted, "The Schillinger/Berklee Connection: A perusal of Lawrence Berk's notebooks sheds light on Berklee's early curriculum", Berklee Today, Berklee College of Music, Boston. Article on the practical use of the Schillinger System, with examples
- The Schillinger System: a digital archive and community forum
- Jeremy Arden´s Schillinger School
- U.S. School of Commercial Music (USSCM), The Schillinger System of Musical Composition (SSMC)
- Schillinger-based software
- http://library.berklee.edu/archives_content/schillinger_house/index.html, Lawrence Berk's notebooks of Schillinger's Lessons.
