Atonality, in its broadest meaning, refers to music that does not have a central key or tonal center. This type of music is often found in compositions created from the early 20th century to the present day. These works typically do not use a clear arrangement of sounds centered around one main three-note chord, and the notes in the chromatic scale (which includes all the notes in an octave) do not depend on each other in a structured way. More specifically, atonality describes music that does not follow the system of tonal organization that was common in European classical music between the 17th and 19th centuries. Atonal music is known for using pitches (notes) in new combinations and placing familiar combinations in unusual settings.
The term is sometimes used to describe music that is neither tonal nor based on serial techniques, such as the pre-twelve-tone works of the Second Viennese School, including composers like Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, and Anton Webern. However, the label "atonal" usually means a piece belongs to the Western musical tradition and is not tonal. This definition does not apply to certain periods, such as medieval, Renaissance, or modern modal music. Serialism, a method of organizing music, developed partly to make the relationships in earlier "free atonal" music more structured. Many important ideas about strictly serial music rely on basic atonal theory.
Composers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Alexander Scriabin, Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Edgard Varèse, have written music that has been described, in whole or in part, as atonal.
History
Music without a clear tonal center had been written before the 20th century, such as Franz Liszt's Bagatelle sans tonalité from 1885. However, the term "atonality" began to be used in the 20th century, especially for works by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. The word "atonality" was first used in 1907 by Joseph Marx in a scholarly study about tonality, which later became his doctoral thesis.
This musical style developed during a period called the "crisis of tonality" between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This crisis happened because classical music increasingly used methods that moved away from traditional tonal structures.
The first phase of atonality, called "free atonality" or "free chromaticism," involved intentionally avoiding traditional harmony. Examples from this time include Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck (1917–1922) and Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire (1912).
The second phase, which began after World War I, focused on creating a structured way to compose without tonality. The most famous method was the twelve-tone technique, developed by Schoenberg. Works from this period include Berg's Lulu and Lyric Suite, Schoenberg's Piano Concerto and Die Jakobsleiter, and his final two string quartets. Schoenberg was the main creator of this system. His student, Anton Webern, is said to have connected dynamics and tone color to the twelve-tone row, but analysis of his works has not confirmed this.
The twelve-tone technique, combined with Olivier Messiaen's approach to organizing four musical elements—pitch, attack character, intensity, and duration—inspired the development of serialism.
Atonality was initially used as a negative term to describe music that seemed to lack coherence in its chord progressions. In Nazi Germany, atonal music was criticized as "Bolshevik" and labeled as "degenerate" (Entartete Musik), along with other music from composers the regime opposed. Many composers had their works banned during this time, and these pieces were not performed until after World War II ended.
After Schoenberg's death, Igor Stravinsky used the twelve-tone technique. Iannis Xenakis created pitch sets using mathematical formulas and explored new tonal possibilities by combining hierarchical principles with number theory.
The twelve-tone technique followed Schoenberg's earlier freely atonal works from 1908 to 1923. These pieces often used a small group of intervals as a unifying element, which could be expanded or transformed like a tone row. The breakdown of tonality led to three key ideas: 1) musical elements that were once secondary became independent, 2) the search for unity replaced tonal coherence, and 3) new forms emerged due to the rejection of diatonic principles.
The twelve-tone technique was also influenced by earlier serial compositions by composers like Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Carl Ruggles, and Elisabeth Lutyens. Schoenberg and Hauer formalized a common feature of modern music—the ostinato—for their own twelve-tone systems.
Composing atonal music
Composing atonal music can seem difficult because the term "atonal" is unclear and broad. George Perle explains that the "free" atonality before dodecaphony (a method of composition) does not allow for clear, consistent rules for writing music. However, he mentions an example by Anton Webern, a piece that avoids any hints of traditional tonality. To do this, composers reverse the rules of the common practice period, making what was once forbidden required and what was once required forbidden. This method was also used by Charles Seeger in his explanation of dissonant counterpoint, a way to write atonal counterpoint.
Kostka and Payne describe four rules used in the atonal music of Schoenberg. These are all negative rules, meaning they focus on what should be avoided: avoiding melodic or harmonic octaves, avoiding traditional pitch groups like major or minor triads, avoiding more than three notes in a row from the same diatonic scale, and using disjunct melodies (avoiding smooth, stepwise melodies).
Perle agrees with Oster and Katz that removing the idea of a root (the foundation of a chord) makes it impossible to create a systematic way to describe chord structure and progression in atonal music using traditional harmonic theory. Atonal music cannot be explained by a single system or set of basic rules. Equal-interval chords often lack a clear root, while mixed-interval chords are best described by their intervals. Both types fit well in atonal music.
Perle notes that structural coherence in atonal music is often achieved by working with intervallic cells. A cell is a small group of notes with fixed intervals, which can be used as a chord, a melody, or a combination of both. These cells can be arranged in specific ways, similar to the twelve-tone method. Notes within a cell can act as connecting points to link different parts of a composition.
Regarding Perle's post-tonal music, a theorist observed that while atonal music uses separate elements that form different rhythmic patterns than traditional tonal music, both share similarities in how they organize spatial and temporal relationships through shared background elements.
Allen Forte developed a theory for atonal music that includes two main operations: transposition and inversion. Transposition involves shifting all notes in a chord by the same interval, such as moving a chord [0 3 6] up by two steps to [2 5 8]. Inversion flips the intervals of a chord around a central point, such as changing [0 3 6] to [0 9 6].
An important feature is the concept of invariants, which are notes that remain unchanged after a transformation. Notes are considered the same regardless of the octave they are played in, which is why the 12-note scale is represented as a circle. This leads to a way of comparing two chords by looking at their shared intervals and subsets.
Reception and legacy
The term "atonality" has caused disagreement among musicians and scholars. Arnold Schoenberg, whose music is often used to describe the term, strongly disagreed with it. He argued that the word "atonal" does not make sense because it suggests a lack of musical tone, which is impossible. He compared it to calling a mix of colors "aspectral" or "acomplementary," which also does not make sense. Schoenberg believed there is no real opposite to tonality.
Composer and theorist Milton Babbitt also criticized the term. He said that works like Five Pieces for Orchestra, Erwartung, and Pierrot Lunaire were labeled "atonal" by unknown people, but the term does not fit. He explained that these works use the same musical tones that composers have used for centuries. Babbitt suggested that the term might have been meant to describe "atonic" or "a-triadic tonality," but even then, it still did not accurately describe the music.
The term "atonality" became unclear because it was used to describe many different types of music that did not follow traditional chord structures. Other terms, such as "pan-tonal," "non-tonal," "multi-tonal," "free-tonal," and "without tonal center," were proposed as alternatives, but they have not been widely accepted.
Composer Anton Webern believed that new musical rules made it impossible to assign a piece to a specific key. Composer Walter Piston, however, argued that musicians and listeners often still hear tonal relationships in atonal music. He said that even if a piece is not in a clear key, people tend to perceive tonality in the music they hear.
Donald Jay Grout questioned whether atonality is truly possible. He explained that any group of sounds can be linked to a musical root. He described atonality as a subjective idea, meaning it depends on the listener's perception. He said atonal music is music where the listener cannot identify clear tonal centers.
One challenge is that even music described as "atonal" often has tonal elements. These elements may appear through repeated pitches, emphasis from instruments, or rhythmic patterns.
Swiss conductor and philosopher Ernest Ansermet, who criticized atonal music, wrote about this in his book The Foundations of Music in Human Consciousness. He argued that traditional musical structures, like those in classical music, are necessary for clear musical expression. Ansermet believed that a consistent system of tones could only be understood if it was based on a single interval, which he identified as the fifth.
In France, on December 20, 2012, pianist Jérôme Ducros gave a lecture at the Collège de France titled Atonalism. And after? as part of Karol Beffa’s chair of artistic creation. Ducros compared the clarity of tonal language with non-tonal language, favoring the former. He suggested that the return of tonality in music is inevitable. This lecture caused strong debate among French musicians.
Examples
An example of atonal music is Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire," a song cycle written in 1912. This piece uses a technique called "Sprechstimme," which is a type of spoken singing. The music is atonal, meaning it does not have a clear main note or key. Instead, all the notes from the chromatic scale are used, and they do not follow the usual rules of harmony found in classical music. The result is a sound that feels unusual and clashing compared to the smoother harmonies in traditional music.