Explore: Atonality

Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. Atonality, in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about

followed. His music is noted for its sensory content and frequent usage of atonality. Erik Satie was a key member of the early-20th-century Parisian avant-garde

abstract art, literary stream-of-consciousness, cinematic montage, musical atonality and twelve-tonality, modern dance, modernist architecture, and urban planning

although some date postmodernism from as early as about 1930. Aleatory, atonality, serialism, musique concrète, and electronic music were all developed

key centers, a move often described (though not by Schoenberg) as "free atonality". The third, from 1923 onward, commences with Schoenberg's invention of

divided into three (somewhat arbitrary) periods, based on increasing atonality: early, 1883–1902 (Opp. 1–29); middle, 1903–1909 (Opp. 30–58); and late

out of Schoenberg's frustrations with free atonality,[page needed] providing a "positive premise" for atonality. In Hauer's breakthrough piece Nomos, Op

serialist style, and atonality in general, was the subject of much of his theoretical writings. His 1962 book, Serial Composition and Atonality: An Introduction

composer Arnold Schoenberg in 1909. They represent an early example of atonality in the composer's work. The tempo markings of the three pieces are: Mässige

was retrospectively described by The Guardian as showcasing "an edge of atonality and barely controlled chaos." Similarly, the Up, formed in Michigan in