Schillinger on the web

No single place on the web has enough information on Joseph Schillinger’s theories to give readers an accurate sense of their incredible usefulness.  Stuart Black, who runs SchillingerSystem.com, plans to improve matters, but for now people with any interest in the System have little choice but to sift through several smaller articles and websites, many of which make ignorant or illogical assumptions and arguments.

 In this article I review the most common internet resources on Joseph Schillinger and his theories.  Although this isn’t an all-inclusive list, I have tried to incorporate the most typical (and often most popular) websites or online content.  This article began with my frustration over Harry Lyden’s web page and Jeremy Arden’s PhD thesis, but I include some others here that do not pose as many problems (whether for lack of content, endearing oddness, or excellent quality).

1. Harry Lyden’s site is probably the most well-known web resource on Joseph Schillinger.  When I started studying the System some years ago, this was the first relevant page that came up in the search engines (at a different host), and I've since heard that Mr. Lyden stayed in contact with Mrs. Schillinger before she died.  Unfortunately, the site the site thoroughly confused me back then.  Years later, after studying, critiquing, and applying Schillinger’s theories I visited the site again, and it hasn’t changed a bit.  No, really – its last update was over five years ago.  The problems with this page add up beyond count.  He includes “sevenths” among the fundamental components of music, and then explains, “[these components] have been transformed into their coherent natural geometric form, in color and in 3rd dimension.”  What?  He continues to make odd connections between actual technical qualities of Schillinger’s theories and qualities that don’t exist or are completely unrelated, and even throws in a confusing metaphor or two; some of it would make sense in any kind of explanatory context, but average readers just can’t sift out the important ideas.

2. Benjamin Robert Tubb’s website includes some the best stand-alone Schillinger resources on the internet (here, and here).  Besides providing a comprehensive bibliography, he also includes lists of serially derived scales and rhythmic patterns, which are based on some of the techniques described at the beginning of System of Musical Composition.   In general, he broadcasts a positive and intelligent attitude. 

 Tubb doesn’t discuss the theories themselves, or any of their technical results beyond the initial tools (which satisfy composers who want no more than a small kick in novel directions), and he doesn’t claim to do otherwise.  But if you need help finding information on any of Schillinger’s books, or would like some nice lists of rhythmic resultants or pitch scales, I suggest you check it out.

3. The Smithsonian Archives of American Art (at Peabody in Maryland) and Wikipedia don’t offer much, but the information is all accurate.  You might enjoy the pictures or Lou Pine’s excellent short article at the Peabody site, or find that someone has updated Wikipedia's page some time in the future.

4.-6. Three particular resources take a similar approach to Schillinger, by ignoring the theories themselves and sticking to some of the upshot techniques.   These include Berklee College’s article, Richard Wesley Todd’s article, and Jeremy Arden’s PhD thesis.

4. Berklee College’s article details the college founder’s connection to Schillinger theory.  Its historical approach has undeniable consistency, though its concision creates a bit of an indistinct impression of Schillinger’s musical politics and the purpose and outcome of some of his techniques.  It's a good read nonetheless.  “By combining the knowledge he had gained as a professional musician with Schillinger’s progressive theories, Berk established a successful archetype for twentieth century music education.”

5. Next, we have Richard Wesley Todd’s website, which includes a page on Schillinger.  He looks at the methods from the perspective of an automatic/computer-assisted composition enthusiast.   Like Tubb, the page deals entirely with the early pages of the System, but he keeps his focus on a specific kind of software development, rather than musical techniques, theories or esthetics.  He makes no hypocritical claims about doing otherwise (in fact, he prefers not to), so for anyone interested in a possible music software project, or who would like more information on applications of some of Schillinger’s ideas to computer-assisted composition, I suggest you check it out.  His site has no listing or index, so the best way to sift through everything is to just go directly here.  He hasn’t updated his page in about six years, so I wouldn’t expect new content any time soon. 

6. The third of these Schillinger resources is Jeremy Arden’s Thesis (no single web link – look around and you’ll find it).  Like Lyden’s site, I read it when I first began studying Schillinger’s theories.  Arden obviously spent a lot of time on it (a concentrated resource from the PhD School of Footnotes and Bibliography[1]), and has applied many of Schillinger’s techniques to his own compositions; I am also glad that he has devoted so much effort to improving Schillinger’s image in the musical community and to advertising Schillinger’s theories.

 After looking through Arden’s thesis again, I’m afraid I must argue that it makes too many egregious mistakes for me to recommend it to Schillinger novices.  The subtlety of Arden's most far-reaching mistake means I should take some care in my approach.  You can read my partial review of his paper here.

7. Orrin Howard’s Program Notes for the LA Philharmonic’s production of Gershwin’s “Cuban Overture” includes its own stunted overture to Schillinger.  Howard makes the common assumption that Schillinger = automatic composition.  Too many, just too many people do this, and it will take years to clean up the mess! 

8. Fusion Anomaly has a rather strange article that calls Schillinger’s System “the most rigorous mathematical study of music in more recent years.”  Maybe it's just the look of the site, but something about it smells fishy.  Schillinger actually uses fairly simple group theoretic principles alongside such tortuously complicated mathematical feats as arithmetic and a little algebra.  [Schillinger's ideas develop in a complicated way and seem to fit various modern theories of intelligence and hierarchical systems very nicely, but he spells them out more for musicians than mathematicians.  All of you scientists and mathematicians may get a little impatient after a while with Schillinger’s peculiar nomenclature and unfamiliar process].

9. Message Boards.  Oh, you message boards.  What can possibly get more frustrating (for folks like me, that is) than a few people who haven’t read Schillinger talking to someone who’s heard about Schillinger from someone else who knows someone who studied with a guy who once read the preface to Kaleidophone?  Not a single Schillinger website (save this one, as far as I know) has an entire community message board devoted to Schillinger’s theories, so people get very few chances to rigorously discuss the topic.  You may find some gems here or there, but you’ll need a very thick set of glasses to spot them.

That’s it for now, guys.  Plenty more resources out there – like Lou Pine’s list of links to scholarly resources, a Jazz musician’s lecture on the subject, and a silly little blurb at About.com – but I’ve dealt with the major ones here.

Eric Taxier

Update

The Schillinger Community Forums has been growing into a great place to share questions, comments, and resources regarding Joseph Schillinger and his theories.  One user – Phillip DiTullio – has pointed out a few places to look for anyone interested in Schillinger research.

 One is an article written by Ned Quist for the Music Library Association's quarterly journal Notes, “Toward a reconstruction of the legacy of Joseph Schillinger,” June 2002.  This article contains virtually every possible Schillinger resource compiled before 2002, as well as some interesting biographical information about Mrs. Schillinger.  You can find the article for a reasonable price on Amazon.com, but you can also get it for free (legally) at HighBeam.com by taking advantage of their free trial.

 The magazine American Music -- Volume 21, No. 1 (Spring 2003) – published an article by Warren Brodsky titled “Joseph Schillinger (1895-1943): Music Science Promethean,” which Phil strongly suggests.  You can probably request a copy of the article from a good local library.

 Both Phillip and Mr. Quist have indicated that many of the original students of the system received lesson notes on a regular basis from Schillinger, and that you can find many of these notes at several institutions around America.  Besides the assumed sources, like the New York Public Library (particularly the Rodger's and Hammerstein archives) and Columbia University's library, the Peabody institute has a ton of resources not published on the Internet, including correspondence, some notes, programs, and several scores.