#schoenberg

• Atonal — Not belonging to a specific key, characterized by the absence of a tonal center of reference (the tonic) and traditional harmonic rules based on major and minor modes. In modern music, the term describes compositions where all twelve notes of the octave are treated as structurally equal, generating intentional dissonance.
• Atonalism — A system of composition or musical movement arising at the beginning of the 20th century, theorized notably by Arnold Schoenberg, characterized by the abandonment of the functional tonal system and the promotion of absolute equality among notes of the chromatic scale. It paved the way for dodecaphonic and serial music.
• Atonality — The property or character of a musical system or composition of being atonal; the conscious and structural absence of a traditional key, of functional hierarchy among scale degrees, and of a stable polar center (the tonic). In 20th-century avant-garde musical aesthetics, atonality represents the state of total emancipation of dissonance, granting each chromatic note perfectly equal architectural weight.