When people listen to music, they naturally expect and want to hear the next note which is normally the resolution. This might be because we were exposed too much to music from 16th-18th century music, but most people would not object to the idea that tonal music sounds satisfying. On the other hand, if you heard a atonal music from 20th century for the first time, you wouldn’t say it sounds beautiful. This is because as the word indicates, there is no tonic for people’s expectation to is fulfilled. It only has the sound effect, concept, character, and a group of phrases. Then, why 20th composers begins to compose the atonal music? In an article in New York Times, “ARNOLD SCHOENBERG: Late Composer Remained Until the End, A Strong and Propulsive Factor,” Olin Downes wrote about Schoenberg and his argument about atonal music in 1951.
As you might already know, Schoenberg has been considered the first composer who applied “atonality” to composing music. (Although he reject to call it atonality) Downes questioned if Schoenberg’s idea of atonality came from the past or it was a complete root of it. I personally think the history is all related each other. So yes, I think, somehow, atonality came from the past such as the chromaticism and impressionism. Schoenberg is the person who define the concept and developed it.
Schoenberg thinks we should use “tone-row” or “twelve tone” instead of using “atonal” as it is written in Downes’s article. According to Schoenberg, atonal and twelve-tone are different. If atonal means that there is no tonal center, twelve-tone means each 12 notes are related and all of them can be tonic. So it seems like Schoenberg had a specific theory himself, and his music was composed with thorough plan, not out of nowhere. I am still wondering about his theory on atonality. Why did he create the new idea? Did he expect that people would understand what he meant? How and why many music scholar rated his contribution high? I still need more research about him.
(The article of New York Times is from ProQuest. You would need a school ID to access to it. Here is the link: http://ezproxy.library.arizona.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy3.library.arizona.edu/historical-newspapers/arnold-schoenberg/docview/112173407/se-2?accountid=8360. )
