Atonal
adjective
Relating to music that doesn't follow a key or tonal center.
The composer's latest symphony is a complex piece of atonal music.
Often appears as...
- atonal music
- atonal composition
Usage tips
Technical
adjective
Relating to music that doesn't follow a key or tonal center.
The composer's latest symphony is a complex piece of atonal music.
Often appears as...
- atonal music
- atonal composition
Usage tips
Technical
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Modernist Style
Atonal music often features in modernist movements, breaking classical harmony rules.
The atonal piece felt both jarring and avant-garde.
Pro Tip 2/3Emotional Impact
Atonal music can evoke unsettled feelings, as it defies usual melodic expectations.
The atonal soundtrack heightened the film's sense of disorientation.
Pro Tip 3/3No Singable Tune
Atonal compositions lack singable tunes, making them less hummable than tonal music.
Even after the concert, I couldn't hum a single atonal theme.
Pro Tip 1/3Modernist Style
Atonal music often features in modernist movements, breaking classical harmony rules.
The atonal piece felt both jarring and avant-garde.
Pro Tip 2/3Emotional Impact
Atonal music can evoke unsettled feelings, as it defies usual melodic expectations.
The atonal soundtrack heightened the film's sense of disorientation.
Pro Tip 3/3No Singable Tune
Atonal compositions lack singable tunes, making them less hummable than tonal music.
Even after the concert, I couldn't hum a single atonal theme.
Pro Tip 1/3Modernist Style
Atonal music often features in modernist movements, breaking classical harmony rules.
The atonal piece felt both jarring and avant-garde.
Pro Tip 2/3Emotional Impact
Atonal music can evoke unsettled feelings, as it defies usual melodic expectations.
The atonal soundtrack heightened the film's sense of disorientation.
Pro Tip 3/3No Singable Tune
Atonal compositions lack singable tunes, making them less hummable than tonal music.
Even after the concert, I couldn't hum a single atonal theme.
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Video examples
The Ahn Trio: A modern...
And we talk about different ideas -- he had this idea that he thought music should be from the heart. This was in the middle of the 20th century when music from the heart, beautiful music, wasn't the most popular thing in the classical music world. It was more atonal and twelve-tone.
Video examples
The Ahn Trio: A modern...
And we talk about different ideas -- he had this idea that he thought music should be from the heart. This was in the middle of the 20th century when music from the heart, beautiful music, wasn't the most popular thing in the classical music world. It was more atonal and twelve-tone.
Example 1 of 1
Quote examples
Stephen Hough
British Composer
In Britten or Berg, there's a tension between the sweet and the sour, between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the tonal and the atonal, the happy and the sad. That, to me, is what all western art is about - that tension. It's why we want to say anything at all.
Quote examples
Stephen Hough
British Composer
I want music to move me, and I don't think it can do that without at least a link to tonality. It's the tug between atonal and tonal which makes music poignant.
Quote examples
Isom Innis
Musician
On 'Sid & Nancy,' it was originally this atonal kind of beat that you hear in the verses, like an atonal dance track.
Quote examples
Michael Giacchino
American Composer
I grew up with so many different sounds, and 'Lost' allows me to express all of it, the melodic and the atonal.
Quote examples
Andris Nelsons
Latvian Composer
As a trumpet player, I was playing Xenakis, Lindberg: very challenging, technical, atonal, and I enjoyed it.
Quote examples
Andre Previn
German Musician
I don't write things that are wildly abstractly atonal.
Quote examples
Stephen Hough
British Composer
In Britten or Berg, there's a tension between the sweet and the sour, between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the tonal and the atonal, the happy and the sad. That, to me, is what all western art is about - that tension. It's why we want to say anything at all.
Quote examples
Stephen Hough
British Composer
I want music to move me, and I don't think it can do that without at least a link to tonality. It's the tug between atonal and tonal which makes music poignant.
Quote examples
Isom Innis
Musician
On 'Sid & Nancy,' it was originally this atonal kind of beat that you hear in the verses, like an atonal dance track.
Quote examples
Michael Giacchino
American Composer
I grew up with so many different sounds, and 'Lost' allows me to express all of it, the melodic and the atonal.
Quote examples
Andris Nelsons
Latvian Composer
As a trumpet player, I was playing Xenakis, Lindberg: very challenging, technical, atonal, and I enjoyed it.
Quote examples
Andre Previn
German Musician
I don't write things that are wildly abstractly atonal.
Example 1 of 6
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