Adele T. Katz is a name recognized by all who know early Schenkerian literature, due to two landmark publications. However, despite her frequent citation in bibliographies and historical outlines, almost nothing has been known about Katz herself or her other professional activities. Through original archive research and interviews with surviving colleagues and family members, I document her remarkable labors at various New York educational institutions. Learning of her activities allows us to paint a much fuller and richer picture of the early dissemination of Schenkerian ideas in the U.S. and simultaneously allows those familiar with Katz’s writings to probe the personality and philosophies behind the words and graphs. The paper consists of two main sections: the first documents the biography and work schedule of this important theorist (and thus comes to document important aspects of Schenker reception in the U.S.); the second focuses on Katz’s pedagogical approach to Schenkerian theory itself and considers her own contributions to an analytic approach that has become preponderant in recent decades.
American Schenkerism was nurtured in and spread from New York City, in the 1930s, and the New York Schenker School remains historically and culturally of enormous significance. Yet, without an understanding of Katz’s role in its development, one has a very incomplete picture of the true nature and extent of that School. Through this survey, I aim to contribute to that picture, addressing historical as well as theoretic/analytic issues relevant to the topic at hand.