UC San Diego

This dissertation consists of two parts: Two recent chamber music compositions and this subsidiary essay, both directly influenced by “Oulipian poetics”. At the center of the discussion is my current creative process as a contemporary music composer, especially my long term fascination with writing methods that harness chance for expressive purposes.

The essay is divided in six chapters: The first introduces the thesis overall framework and briefly describes the group Oulipo. The second examines the pivotal concepts of chance, constraint and clinamen, all under an Oulipian-inspired perspective.

The third chapter provides a cursory historic overview of the interactions between randomness and contingency circumscribed to the contemporary artistic frame.

The fourth and fifth chapter discuss specific musical extrapolations from the previous chapters and briefly accounts how they are applied to each of my two compositions respectively.

The last chapter simultaneously attempts to draw a few provisional conclusions and reflect upon potential extrapolations regarding my future compositional projects.

Overall, this thesis endeavors to explain from an idiosyncratic perspective, and in an integrated, personal, organic manner, the poetic, musical, and technical aspects behind some of my recent work.