Patrick McCreless Probing the Limits: Musical Structure and Musical Rhetoric in Schubert’s String Quartet in G Major, D. 887 Abstract This essay approaches Schubert’s G Major Quartet from two points of view—one harmonic- structural, the other rhetorical. First, it claims that the Quartet constitutes the most radical harmonic experiment within the fourteen major instrumental works composed in the years 1824 to 1828—a set of works recently designated by John Gingerich as “Schubert’s Beethoven Project.” Particularly distinctive is the quartet’s thoroughgoing usage of equal- interval cycles, to the point of setting in motion mechanical cycles, and cycles within cycles, that threaten to spin out of control, far beyond the tonal norms of its time. Secondly, it suggests that the work’s rhetoric—the character and disposition of its themes and formal sections, its use of musical topics, and its rhythm and pacing—interacts with its harmonic and tonal structure to unfold a musical narrative of compelling originality and power. Keywords Analysis, Schubert, string quartet, D. 887, harmony, equal-interval cycles music theory & analysis International Journal of the Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory volume 2, # i, april 2015, 1–36 keynote article © Patrick McCreless and Leuven University Press http://dx.doi.org/10.11116/MTA.2.1.1