Among the immutable qualities that characterize human beings are a yearning for perfect truth and perfect beauty. Recent trends in the history of music seem to suggest that the two are irreconcilable. Some composers who embrace this antinomy retreat from euphony in music, at least insofar as they feel an obligation to truth. But given that the choice itself is misleading, we explored with Professor George Barth ways in which some musical “outliers” transcended its corrosive effects.