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Schenkerian analysis is inter-subjective (rather than objective). There is no mechanical procedure involved and the analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst.[3] The analysis represents a way of hearing (and reading) a piece of music.

Schenkerian analysis is a subjective, not an objective, method. This means that there is no mechanical procedure for arriving at an analysis for a given piece of music; rather, the analysis reflects the musical intuitions of the analyst. The analysis represents a way of hearing a piece of music. Schenker himself was certain that a tonal masterpiece contains an inner truth-content, although few are sufficiently gifted to appreciate it. Although it is a subject of debate among music theorists whether there is ever/always/sometimes a single correct hearing and analysis of a piece of tonal music, even those who hold that there is a unique correct analysis agree that the analysis can only be arrived at and evaluated subjectively by an expert listener. Therefore learning how to do Schenkerian analysis is above all else learning a way of hearing and understanding tonal music, and it requires study and practice just as learning to play an instrument does.

Whether Schenkerian analysis can be considered an objective method has been and remains a topic much discussed among Schenkerians. The idea that it is objective manifests itself in attempts at formalizing it, especially in the description of automated Schenkerian procedures.

April 30, 2015. A draft of a revised version of the Consonance and dissonance article has been moved to User:Hucbald.SaintAmand/Consonance and dissonance.

Greece
See also Musical system of ancient Greece; List_of_music_theorists

Early preserved Greek writings on music theory include two types of works: Several names of theorists are known before these works, including Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BCE), Philolaus (c. 470 – c. 385 BCE), Archytas (428–347 BCE), and others.
 * technical manuals describing the Greek musical system including notation, scales, consonance and dissonance, rhythm, and types of musical compositions
 * treatises on the way in which music reveals universal patterns of order leading to the highest levels of knowledge and understanding.

Works of the first type (technical manuals) include
 * Anonymous (erroneously attributed to Euclid) Division of the Canon, Κατατομή κανόνος, 4th-3d century BCE.
 * Theon of Smyrna, On Mathematics Useful for the Understanding of Plato, Τωv κατά τό μαθηματικόν χρησίμων είς τήν Πλάτωνος άνάγνωσις, 115-140 CE.
 * Nicomachus of Gerasa, Manual of Harmonics, Άρμονικόν έγχειρίδιον, 100-150 CE
 * Cleonides, Introduction to Harmonics, Είσαγωγή άρμονική, 2nd century CE.
 * Gaudentius, Harmonic Introduction, Άρμονική είσαγωγή, 3d or 4th century CE.
 * Bacchius Geron, Introduction to the Art of Music, Είσαγωγή τέχνης μουσικής, 4th century CE or later.
 * Alypius, Introduction to Music, Είσαγωγή μουσική, 4th-5th century CE.

More philosophical treatises of the second type include
 * Aristoxenus, Harmonic Elements, Άρμονικά στοιχεία, 375/360-after 320 BCE.
 * Aristoxenus, Rhythmic Elements, Ρυθμικά στοιχεία.
 * Claudius Ptolemy, Harmonics, Άρμονικά, 127-148 CE.
 * Porphyrius, On Ptolemy's Harmonics, Είς τά άρμονικά Πτολεμαίον ύπόμνημα, 232/3-c. 305 CE.

Middle Ages
See also List_of_music_theorists

China
"As musical and cultural transformation unfolded, China embraced instruments imported from various cultures located in the west of China proper (fig.2). Four of these later became important components of the entertainment music of the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) courts and are prominently featured in visual representations of the genre: the bent-neck pipa (quxiang pipa), a pear-shaped lute with four strings and four frets, which originated in Persia; the bili, a short, double-reed pipe with eight finger-holes brought to China proper by musicians from what is now Kuqa in Xinjiang province; the konghou, a vertical harp, perhaps also from Persia; and the jiegu, an hourglass drum. The acceptance of these imported instruments generated not only new repertories and performing practices but also new music theories. The pipa, for example, carried with it a theory of musical modes that subsequently led to the Sui and Tang theory of 84 musical modes."

Renaissance
See also List_of_music_theorists

Baroque
See also List_of_music_theorists; List_of_music_theorists

1750-1900
See also List_of_music_theorists

Contemporary
See also List_of_music_theorists; List_of_music_theorists

Topics
Music theory considers melody, rhythm, counterpoint, harmony, form, tonal systems, scales, tuning, intervals, consonance, dissonance, durational proportions, the acoustics of pitch systems, composition, performance, orchestration, ornamentation, improvisation, electronic sound production, etc.

Melody, scales
The concept of melody (from Greek μελῳδία) is one of the most fundamental ones of Western thoughts and discourses about music, originally denoting music as organized and meaningful sound. It is only in the 16th century that the word takes on the technical meaning of a succession of pitches or intervals forming the linear or horizontal dimention of music; Burmeister, in the first years of the 17th century, was the first to oppose melody and harmony. Schenker stressed the importance for the musical art of a melody that could be perceived as one thougth: "Music became an art only when a series of tones arose that demanded to be understood and felt as a whole, as a self contained idea. This first whole composed of musical tones was given the honorific title of Melody.

Curt Sachs described the earliest "melodic styles", from one-note to four-note melodies, based on the (often varied) repetition of short motives built from a variety of intervals. He further described general principles of early melodic organization: "Most melodies exceeding the range of a third tend to cristallize in certain intervals[...]: the octave, the fifth, the fourth. [...] The continual return to either boundary note [...] leads as a natural consequence to the organization of melody in main and accessory notes. And here the way opens into the complex structures of more highly civilized peoples."