Predicting Creativity within a Tradition

Creativity, in the context of traditional arts, is more about finding inventive combinations of well-known elements than about coming up with something entirely new. Within conservatories, the masters used annual contests to reward or weed out students who were good or bad at combining various learned schemas in artistic ways. The chapter examines some harmony assignments completed by Claude Debussy. While he was one of the most original composers in music history, he was also very good at combining traditional schemas in response to a given melody or bass. Two of his assignments for the class of Émile Durand are among his earliest known musical expressions.