Re: Throughout the contemporary composer's most famous symphony, the tempo
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10 Jun 2025, 04:00
The key phrase here is "unpredictably changing without reason." We need words that convey this sense of irregularity and sudden shifts.
- A. erratic: Means deviating from the usual or proper course in conduct or opinion; eccentric; irregular, unpredictable. This fits "unpredictably changing without reason."
- B. saturnine: Means gloomy, sullen, or moody. This relates to temperament, not musical changes.
- C. irascible: Means easily provoked to anger. This relates to temperament, not musical changes.
- D. spontaneous: Means arising from a sudden impulse and without premeditation or external stimulus. While it implies unpredicatbility, it doesn't necessarily mean "without reason" in a negative or disordered way, and the phrasing leans more towards a chaotic lack of order.
- E. inimitable: Means so good or unusual as to be impossible to copy; unique. This doesn't relate to the unpredictable changes.
- F. mercurial: Means (of a person) subject to sudden or unpredictable changes of mood or mind; (of a thing) liable to sudden unpredictable change. This fits "unpredictably changing without reason" perfectly, especially in the context of something like musical elements.
Both erratic and mercurial strongly align with the idea of unpredictable and seemingly reasonless changes in tempo and chord progressions.
Therefore, the two best answers are:
- A. erratic
- F. mercurial