This paper examines the compositional genealogies presented by several composers of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, notably Wagner, Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez, and of writings by other composers related dialectically to the
genealogical mode of composerly self-perception. It also examines resonances between composers’ genealogical polemics and
contemporary notions borrowed from literature and evolutionary theory (e.g., the organicism of Goethe and other Enlightenment
thinkers, the “ladder of progress” misreading of Darwinian evolution), and explores issues of centralization,
marginalization, and legitimation as they are framed by the genealogical/ladder-of-progress model and as they apply to
a wide range of Western composers.