In an unusually brief publishing career of roughly fifteen years – about half that of Heinrich Schenker and one-third that of Hugo Riemann – the Berne professor Ernst Kurth (1886–1946) wrote four lengthy, strikingly original and probing music-theoretical studies. Blending harmonic and melodic analysis with psychological interpretation, he explored contrapuntal techniques in Bach's keyboard and solo string works, harmonic practices in Wagner's operas (chiefly Tristan und Isolde), and formal processes in Bruckner's symphonies. In a final, summary work Kurth studied the cognitive-psychological implications of the musical techniques examined in his earlier books.

Kurth published five books, Die Voraussetzungen der theoretischen Harmonik und der tonalen Darstellungssysteme (Berne: Drechsel, 1913), Grundlagen des linearen Kontrapunkts (Berne: Drechsel, 1917), Romantische Harmonik und ihre Krise in Wagners “Tristan” (Berne: Haupt, 1920), Bruckner (2 vols., Berlin: Hesse, 1925), and Musikpsychologie (Berlin: Hesse, 1931). Additionally, he wrote two large essays, “Die Jugendopern Glucks bis zum ‘Orfeo’” (1913), a revision of his doctoral dissertation (1908); and “Zur Motivbildung Bachs: ein Beitrag zur Stilpsychologie” (1917), which expands certain ideas presented in Grundlagen. The magnitude of the books is staggering: nearly 3,000 pages! In the grand tradition of late nineteenth-century humanistic and scientific researchers such as Wilhelm Dilthey and Wilhelm Wundt, Kurth was, alas, not concise.

The present volume offers translations from three of the five books, from Grundlagen, Romantische Harmonik, and from the first volume of Bruckner.