Kraehenbuehl's general theory of musical communication

Abstract:
In the late 1950s the composer David Kraehenbuehl began to develop a general theory of music based on a model of music as communication. His early editorials in the Journal of Music Theory proposed a definition of musical theory in which the development of compositional systems with which a composer might communicate with his audience was paramount. As music theory as a discipline in America developed in the direction of increasing separation between composers and those working in musical academia, the idea of a compositional theory was sidelined in favour of analytical theories such as pitch-class set theory and variations on Schenkerian theory.

This paper explores the development of an American music theory in terms of Kraehenbuehl’s vision in which not only is a musical composition modelled as a communication system, but the system of music study itself was also modelled thus. Kraehenbuehl’s general theory can be constructed of threads from the proto-cognitive system developed by Coons and Kraehenbuehl at the end of the 1950s; Kraehenbuehl’s editorials; his unpublished writings; and his wide influence in piano pedagogy. Taken together, these four facets of Kraehenbuehl’s career can be assembled to form a comprehensive, coherent theory of musical communication, for use by the composer, music theorist, and listener. Although, like Schillinger’s theory before, Kraehenbuehl’s influence now exists almost solely in the realm of musical pedagogy, his conception of music and the study of music as communication provides a model with which to explore the roots and reasons of the nature of American music theory and how it developed.