ABSTRACT
In every living germ is a creative idea which develops and exhibits itself through organisation. Of the various theorists who have employed a vital principle along with organicist interpretations of music, one writer has attracted particular attention in the musicological community. Schenker claims that the Ursatze manifest the chord of nature both as horizontal bass arpeggiation of the lower notes and as derived horizontal succession of the upper notes. Although creativity is impelled by the vital, natural power of love, once impelled, creative activity is prolonged by the will. The secret of balance in music ultimately lies in the constant awareness of the transformation levels and the motion from foreground to background or the reverse. Schenker’s concept of the Ursatz does not determine the chronology of creation or of creative listening, since, according to Schenker, creation ‘may have its origin anywhere, in any suitable voice-leading level or tone-succession; the seed, by the grace of God, remains inaccessible even to metaphysics’.
