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Fluctuating Tonality and Monotonality in Schoenberg’s Op. 6, No. 8 “Der Wanderer”

Briefly yet tantalizingly outlined in his Theory of Harmony, interpretation of Schoenberg’s concept of fluctuating tonality has proved fruitful in the discussion of his late tonal repertoire, leading to scholarship such as Christopher Lewis’s 1987 article “Mirrors and Metaphors: Reflections on Schoenberg and Nineteenth-Century Tonality.” In this paper, I review Schoenberg’s descriptions of fluctuating tonality and of monotonality, and examine the interaction between these concepts through a close reading of Schoenberg’s “Der Wanderer” (Op. 6, no. 8). The analysis features adapted Schenkerian methods used in conjunction with traditional Roman numeral and root/quality analysis. Rather than suggesting a background principle of paired tonics as argued by Lewis in his analysis of “Traumleben” and “Lockung” (Op. 6, no.1 and no. 7), I interpret fluctuating tonality as a surface- to middleground-level phenomenon that can obscure the tonality of a composition that ultimately remains monotonal.