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== Biografia ==
Forte was born in [[Portland, Oregon]]. At the age of ten he appeared "on a [local] radio show as a solo pianist among a bevy of similarly youthful performers," where he played the music of Cole Porter and others.<ref>Allen Forte, "Secrets of Melody: Line and Design in the Songs of Cole Porter," Musical Quarterly 77/4 (1993), unnumbered note on 644-645.</ref> He was in the US Navy and served in the [[PacificGuerra Wardel Pacifico (1941-1945)|PacificGuerra del TheatrePacifico]] toward the end of World War II.
Afterwards, he relocated to the [[New York City]] to study music at [[Columbia University]] where he received his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. There, he studied composition with [[Otto Luening]] and [[Vladimir Ussachevsky]], although his main interests were forming around music theory and analysis.<ref>David Carson Berry, "Journal of Music Theory under Allen Forte’s Editorship," ''Journal of Music Theory'' 50/1 (2006), 8.</ref>
== Carriera accademica ==
In the late 1950s, Forte taught music at various New York institutions: [[Teachers College, Columbia University|Columbia University Teachers College]], [[Manhattan School of Music]], and [[Mannes College The New School for Music|Mannes College of Music]]. In fall 1959 he began his long-term appointment at [[Yale University|Yale]], where he eventually became the Battell Professor of Music (retiring in 2003).<ref>David Carson Berry, "Journal of Music Theory under Allen Forte’s Editorship," ''Journal of Music Theory'' 50/1 (2006), 9-10; and Berry, "Our Festschrift for Allen: An Introduction and Conclusion," in ''A Music-Theoretical Matrix: Essays in Honor of Allen Forte'' (Part V), ed. David Carson Berry, ''Gamut'' 6/2 (2013), 3.</ref> He was influential there as both scholar and teacher, and in the latter capacity served as advisor to seventy-two Ph.D. dissertations completed between 1968 and 2002. (Yale did not offer a Ph.D. in theory for the first several years Forte was there.) A list of all his advisees and their dissertation titles appears in [http://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut/vol2/iss1/ David Carson Berry, "The Twin Legacies of a Scholar-Teacher: The Publications and Dissertation Advisees of Allen Forte," Gamut 2/1 (2009), 197-222]. The list is ordered chronologically by submission, and each advisee is given an "FA" number to denote his or her ordering among the advisees. ("FA" stands for “Forte Advisee,” and is also a retrograde of Allen Forte's initials.)
== Pubblicazioni ==
Forte is well known for his book ''[https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300021202/structure-atonal-music The Structure of Atonal Music]'' (1973), which traces many of its roots to an article of a decade earlier: "A Theory of Set-Complexes for Music" (1964).<ref>Allen Forte, "A Theory of Set-Complexes for Music," Journal of Music Theory 8/2 (1964): 136-183.</ref> In these works, he "applied [[Set theory (music)|set-theoretic]] principles to the analysis of unordered collections of pitch classes, called pitch-class sets (pc sets). [...] The basic goal of Forte's theory was to define the various relationships that existed among the relevant sets of a work, so that contextual coherence could be demonstrated." Although the methodology derived from Forte’s work "has had its detractors ... textbooks on post-tonal analysis now routinely teach it (to varying degrees)."<ref>David Carson Berry, "Theory," sect. 5.iv (“Pitch-class set theory”), in ''The Grove Dictionary of American Music'', 2nd edition, ed. Charles Hiroshi Garrett (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 8:175-176.</ref>
Forte published analyses of the works of [[Anton Webern|Webern]] and [[Alban Berg|Berg]] and wrote about [[Schenkeriananalisi analysisschenkeriana]] and music of the [[Great American Songbook]]. A complete, annotated bibliography of his publications appears in the previously cited article, [http://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut/vol2/iss1/ Berry, "The Twin Legacies of a Scholar-Teacher."] Excluding items only edited by Forte, it lists ten books, sixty-three articles, and thirty-six other types publications, from 1955 through early 2009
Forte was also the editor of the ''[[Journal of Music Theory]]'' during an important period in its development, from volume 4/2 (1960) through 11/1 (1967). His involvement with the journal, including many biographical details, is addressed in David Carson Berry, "Journal of Music Theory under Allen Forte's Editorship," ''Journal of Music Theory'' 50/1 (2006): 7-23.
== Onorificenze e premi ==
He has been honored by two [[Festschriften]] (homage volumes). The first, in commemoration of his seventieth birthday, was published in 1997 and edited by his former students James M. Baker, David W. Beach, and Jonathan W. Bernard (FA12, FA6, and FA11, according to Berry's list). It was titled ''[http://www.urpress.com/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=10504 Music Theory in Concept and Practice]'' (a title derived from Forte's 1962 undergraduate textbook, ''Tonal Harmony in Concept and Practice''). The second was serialized in five installments of ''[[Gamut: The Journal of the Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic]]'', between 2009 and 2013. It was edited by Forte's former student [[David Carson Berry]] (FA72) and was titled ''[http://trace.tennessee.edu/gamut/vol2/iss1/ A Music-Theoretical Matrix: Essays in Honor of Allen Forte]'' (a title derived from Forte's 1961 monograph, ''A Compositional Matrix''). It included twenty-two articles by Forte's former doctoral advisees, and three special features: a previously unpublished article by Forte, on Gershwin songs; a collection of tributes and reminiscences from forty-two of his former advisees; and an annotated register of his publications and advisees.
== Vita privata ==
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