Frederick Stocken

Writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

Books

 

Scale Shapes using the Stocken Method. (Chester Music, grades 1 and 2 in 2001; grades 3 and 4 in 2002; grade 5 in 2003; grades 2 to 5 all appearing in revised editions; 3rd revised edition of grades 1 to 5 in 2009 for the new ABRSM piano syllabus).

Also go to the separate page about Scale Shapes from the toolbar above.

 

Simon Sechter’s Fundamental-Bass Theory and Its Influence on the Music of Anton Bruckner (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009).

For reviews go to the Edwin Mellen website. To buy a heavily discounted copy, download the form from www.abruckner.com .

Summary:

Anton Bruckner was already in his thirties when he gave up composition for six years to study with Simon Sechter. Fundamental-bass theory, Sechter’s idiosyncratic method, was the basis for Bruckner’s instruction, and it not only became the bedrock for Bruckner’s own teaching but also, according to first-hand accounts, underpinned all his subsequent harmonic thought. Scant attention has ever been given to the influence that Sechter’s ideas had on Bruckner, mainly because fundamental-bass theory was itself superseded and all but forgotten.

Stocken discusses the context of fundamental-bass theory not only in relation to the history of music theory but also in the light of Sechter’s compositional practice, including his re-working of Beethoven’s Sonata, Op. 110.  The theory is explained with examples from Bruckner’s student exercises. Previous applications of the theory are examined, from Mayrberger’s use of the theory to analyse Wagner’s harmony onwards.

Contrary to the many commentators who presumed there to be a tension, or split, between Sechter’s theory and Bruckner’s mature musical language, Stocken explores afresh how the compatibility between theory and practice might be understood. Finally, using the Adagio of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, the case is made for fundamental-bass theory as a revealing tool for analysing the composer’s music.

For further information about Bruckner, go to The Bruckner Journal.

 

Selected Articles

 

‘Musical Post-modernism without Nostalgia’, The Musical Times (Sept. 1989), 536-7. Click here to read online.

 

‘Ruin or Renewal: The Future of Music’, The Salisbury Review (March 1991), 34-7.

 

‘Bully Boy Boulez’, The New Statesman, 20 March 2000. Click here to read online.

 

‘Music as a Christian Art’, Second Spring, 5 (2004), 55-9. Click here to read online.

 

‘The Autobiography of Joseph Lanz’, The Schubertian, 49 (Oct. 2005), 13-28 (co-author, Rita Steblin). This can be requested from SIUK.

 

‘Studying with Sechter: Newly Recovered Reminiscences about Schubert by his Forgotten Friend, the Composer Joseph Lanz’, Music & Letters, 88 (May 2007), 226-65 (co-author, Rita Steblin). Click here to read online.

 

Selected Reviews

 

Noel Malcolm, George Enescu, His Life and Music (London, 1990), in The Salisbury Review, (December 1991), 49.

 

William Thomson, Schoenberg’s Error (Pennsylvannia, 1991), in The Musical Times (April 1992), 187-8. Click to read online.

 

Frederick Hammond, Music and Spectacle in Baroque Rome: Barberini Patronage under Urban VIII  (Yale, 1995), in The Literary Review (March 1995), 41-2.

 

CD Sleeve Notes

 

Elgar, Enigma Variations, Pomp and Circumstance Marches nos. 1-5, Crown of India Suite, London Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Daniel Barenboim (Sony Classical, 1992: SBK 48 265).

Buy here.

 

Dedication in Time, Chamber Music by Margaret Hubicki (Chandos, 2005: CHAN 10322).

Buy here.

 

Selected Recent Presentations

 

Pre-concert talk on Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony for the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, Feb. 2009.

 

A seminar for the ABRSM for teachers in Athens, December, 2009.

 

A seminar on preparing for the ABRSM’s diploma exams for teachers and students in Jakarta, April, 2009.

 

‘Anton Bruckner and Simon Sechter’s Fundamental-Bass Theory’, Cardiff University Music Analysis conference (Carmac), Sept. 2008. Click here for further details.

 

Pre-concert talk on Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, forthcoming, May 2010. Click here for further details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ten CDs reviewed for Classic CD (1992)

 

CD sleeve notes for Chandos  (2005: music by Margaret Hubicki) and Sony (1992: Elgar played by the LPO, conducted by Daniel Barenboim).