Surmising the Compulsions of Creativity

Abstract

Undergraduate theory texts and coursework have traditionally been focused on concepts that create form, harmonic and melodic language, unusual features and temporal organization in tonal, and more recently, atonal music. Understandably, and perhaps due to space restrictions, emphasis has been placed almost entirely on empirical topics of structural significance within those criteria. By way of an example taken from the third movement of Anton Webern's Op. 5 string quartet, the author illustrates the need and value of straying from the empirical and chancing conjecture while analyzing compositions influenced by composers' enigmatic game-like constructs.