Editing Musical analysis (section)

==Analyses==
Some analysts, such as [[Donald Tovey]] (whose ''[[Essays in Musical Analysis]]'' are among the most accessible musical analyses) have presented their analyses in [[prose]]. Others, such as [[Hans Keller]] (who devised a technique he called ''[[Wordless functional analysis|Functional Analysis]]'') used no prose commentary at all in some of their work.{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}}

There have been many notable analysts other than Tovey and Keller. One of the best known and most influential was [[Heinrich Schenker]], who developed [[Schenkerian analysis]], a method that seeks to describe all [[tonality|tonal]] classical works as elaborations ("prolongations") of a simple [[counterpoint|contrapuntal]] sequence. [[Ernst Kurth]] coined the term of "developmental motif" {{Citation needed|date=September 2015}}. [[Rudolph Réti]] is notable for tracing the development of small melodic [[motif (music)|motifs]] through a work,{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}} while [[Nicolas Ruwet]]'s analysis amounts to a kind of musical [[semiology]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2015}}

Musicologists associated with the [[new musicology]] often use musical analysis (traditional or not) along with or to support their examinations of the [[Historically informed performance|performance practice]] and social situations in which music is produced and that produce music, and vice versa. Insights from the social considerations may then yield insight into analysis methods.

[[Edward T. Cone]]{{sfn|Cone|1960|p=41}} argues that musical analysis lies in between description and prescription. Description consists of simple non-analytical activities such as labeling chords with [[Roman numeral analysis|Roman numerals]]{{sfn|Sessions|1951|loc=7}} or [[tone-row]]s with integers or row-form, while the other extreme, prescription, consists of "the insistence upon the validity of relationships not supported by the text." Analysis must, rather, provide insight into listening without forcing a description of a piece that cannot be heard.