Fundamental structure

A basic elaboration of the tonic triad, it consists of the fundamental line accompanied by the bass arpeggiation.

[3] The fundamental line fills in the spaces created by the descending arpeggiation of the tonic triad.

There appears to exist a tendency, in modern Schenkerian analyses, to prefer lines from .

The upper [...] fifth of a chord, presenting itself by leap in the service of a passing motion or neighbor note, I call an upper-fifth divider[6]In the case of the Ursatz, the upper-fifth divider is in the service of in the Urlinie.

Adele T. Katz, one of the first commentators of Schenker in the United States, may be responsible for the choice of "structure" as a translation for Satz.

As Stephen Peles puts it, We lost something when we adopted "fundamental line" as the standard translation of Urlinie; "primal line" captures more of the resonance the word would have had for Schenker's readers, who would immediately have made the association with Ursprache, and other Ur-thises and Ur-thats that were the ultimate philological goals of their respective historical disciplines.